With the Dauphiné having arrived in a town called Gap what better time to talk about the science and art of managing a breakaway?
Everything about a breakaway says freedom, liberty and space. But as well as a hard physical effort it’s also a tricky game of poker with bluff and counter-bluff and the bigger the race, the greater the tactics.
The race heads to the Alps with a classic stage finish in Gap with the Col de Manse followed by a steep descent to the finish. It’s a tricky stage with the action packed in the finish. There’s also a new leap in the evolution of TV today.
Read the results and you can see who won yesterday but also who might win tomorrow. Yesterday’s stage of the Dauphiné saw several promising riders in the top-20.
A fast and flat finish, today’s stage says bunch sprint in every language. But the race has a shortage of sprinters and sprint trains. Could Chris Froome go for a third stage win in a row? Just joking.
One day in and a summit finish already. The Col du Béal is a long slog on a rough road and if it’s not Alpine, it’s still a tough climb. It won’t select the winner it will thin down the list of contenders and pretenders all while offering some scenic roads.
The Tour de France visited Lyon last summer and was greeted with huge crowds. Now the racing is back and so is summer with scorching temperatures forecast for the opening time trial.
The Climb by Chris Froome
The latest book from the production line of British cycling autobiographies featuring cyclists that are still mid-career but red hot given the Chris Froome vs. Bradley Wiggins stories and unlike the books by Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, this is Froome’s first book.
The rivalry and gossip over team leadership have grabbed the headlines but there’s more, an alternative title could have been “Out of Africa”. For many readers though the big question is whether it explains how Froome burst from caterpillar to yellow butterfly.
Who Will Win The Dauphiné? Perhaps it’s the wrong question because what we really want to know is who has won the Dauphiné so we can extrapolate into July. But this is a problem because the upcoming week brings one of the best stage races of the year and it ought to be enjoyed in its own right.
Luka Mezgec of Giant-Shimano wins the final stage of the Giro. He was visibly faster and the image above helps show why.
Look at him compared to Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp), Mezgec’s head and shoulders are angled low while the other two have their heads higher than their backs.
It should be the best job in the world to ride the top races and get paid for it. Some of the best bikes in the world are washed and prepped for you, roads get closed for you like a visiting head of state and thousands of fans wait by the road for hours to cheer.
Only too often many teams and riders show the pressure with stern faces and serious press releases. It’s exhausting but still, it’s all meant to be fun right?