One of the great things about the Tour de France is the amount of coverage and content available. This includes podcasts. I’m a fan of podcasts as you can listen whilst doing something else and the way they are recorded means analysis and debate of the day’s racing as opposed to live coverage.
With this in mind here’s a selection of podcasts covering the Tour de France if you want to try them.
Another day for the sprinters. Is a Marcel Kittel win inevitable?
As the Tour de France convoy returns to French soil via the port of Calais it passes right by the village of Ardres, a nondescript place except it was once the site of an extravagant display of wealth and power between the Kings of France and England in 1520.
The Tour’s visit to Yorkshire and London has its similarities with pomp, sport, business and exchange.
A short stage to London where a sprint finish looks certain given the flat terrain and wide roads in the British capital. After yesterday’s slog across the climbs of Yorkshire today’s stage is almost a rest day but it’s never easy when the race speeds through at city at 60km/h. If you plan to watch note the earlier than usual finish.
There’s hardly a flat bit of road in today’s stage and when the roads climb or descend they’re irregular with varied gradients and tight descents. Today’s stage offers a tricky course and it’s hard to pick a winner but Marcel Kittel seems bound to surrender the yellow jersey.
The Tour de France always used to start with a prologue, a short time trial. Last year’s grand départ in Corsica was seen a rare opportunity for a sprinter to wear the yellow jersey only it’s the same story today. The opening prologue’s not the certainty it once was.
“What will I wear today?” You might ask yourself this every morning but 198 riders wake up today knowing there’s a chance of wearing something yellow, green, polka-dot or white later on.
Everything is up for grabs in the opening stage of the 2014 Tour de France. A sprint finish is likely but there’s plenty to come before including a landscape that’s been decorated yellow. The whole stage is live on TV from start to finish.
Having looked the other jerseys, finally the climbers’ competition. It’s a very visible jersey but the competition itself seems to be struggling, it’s either something decided by luck and speciality or an accidental win collected by someone high on the GC.
Here’s a look at the competition and a few contenders and pretenders for the polka dotted prize.
The closer the race gets the more uncertain the outcome. The year began with Chris Froome as the nailed on certainty but gradually Alberto Contador’s results made people take notice and his ride in the Dauphiné means we could have a three week duel. But now Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde are on the up too and the more names we throw into the mix, the closer the contest.
One year ago Daryl Impey was basking in the yellow jersey, now he’s announced a positive A and B test for banned substance probenicid. It’s normally a treatment for gout because, to keep it simple, it slows the kidneys from filtering stuff from your blood out to the urine. So it’s handy as a “masking agent”, a rider abusing steroids might use it to retain the anabolic substance in their body for longer and stop it getting into a urine sample. However the mask is obviously very detectable that either Impey’s prodigiously stupid or there’s a genuine explanation somewhere.