The first of the trinity of Alpine road stages sees the race climb Alpe d’Huez twice with the feared descent of the Col de Sarenne in between.
Shown live from start to finish this is a crucial day in the race and after weeks of sunshine, storms and fog are forecast for the finish.
Tomorrow’s stage will climb Alpe d’Huez twice but it’s the lone descent of the Col de Sarenne that’s got many talking. Riders are worried and articles are being written about this new descent. The Tour de France could not hope for anything better.
The profile doesn’t do today’s course justice, this is the most technical time trial seen in the Tour de France for years, the kind of route where even a team manager will sweat the car around this course. To make things even harder, there’s a high chance of a thunderstorm and a downpour.
It’s a crucial moment in the race. If Chris Froome seems unshakable in yellow, the other places are still up for grabs.
Rui Costa won the stage today but this wasn’t his only prize. He also collected the Prix de la Combativité.
Each day a rider in the Tour de France wins this prize and gets to stand on the podium, wins some cash and wears a red number on their back the next day. Today it was normal that Costa won, he got in the breakaway and then dropped his rivals à la pédale on the Col de Manse to leave no doubt he was the strongest and most aggressive rider.
But what might be a noble idea often seems to be a consolation prize. Here’s a quick look at this often overlooked award and how it’s awarded every day.
The final week of the Tour de France sees the race head into the Alps. As soon as the route was unveiled last October the talk turned to the tough stages in the Alps, almost to the exclusion of what came before. Now we’ve had two weeks of hard racing with attacks and surprises along the way that have left riders tired and many are anxious about the stages to come.
Today has breakaway branded in bold on it although Peter Sagan and his Cannondale team might have second thoughts.
Team Sky have been fielding doping questions at their press conference. Whistled by some on the way up Ventoux, last night’s TV news in France on TF1 discussed “suspicions” and this morning’s radio bulletins, France Info, relayed a similar topic. The story beat genuine news of positive tests in athletics where some of the biggest names have been caught. It shows how suspicion in cycling appears to trump actual positive samples in athletics.
Just like the profile above, Mont Ventoux dominates the landscape of Provence, as ominous as a volcano. It’s also a special place in cycling history, a climb that is rarely used but often cited.
Today’s stage is the longest in the race and finishes at the top of arguably the hardest climb in this year’s race. To put the distance in context, this as long as a spring classic with a giant mountain climb added to the end and this after two weeks of racing. If that’s not big enough for you, it’s Bastille Day, the French national holiday and huge crowds are expected.
As part of a series exploring the famous roads of cycling, here is Mont Ventoux. The idea with this series is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether its part in cycling’s folklore or to explore what it is like on a normal day without a race.
Having covered Alpe d’Huez and the Ghisallo so far in this series, Mont Ventoux is different. It dominates the landscape and the road leads to nowhere except summit. Apart from the view there is little at the top, a sky-blue vacuum to be filled by the imagination.
A fixture in the Tour de France and other races this is another Mecca for cyclists who ride up “the giant of Provence” every summer.
Sandwiched between yesterday’s surprise “gone with the wind” action and tomorrow’s Bastille Day Mont Ventoux bonanza, today’s stage might struggle. But it’s got all the ingredients of a good stage with a varied route, some late hills and even crosswinds too as it makes its way to Lyon.
As well as the preview of all the action, there’s also a short film below that shows the reality for many an ex-pro once they retire from the sport.
I enjoyed Issue 1 of The Cycling Anthology and now Volume 2 is out with a Tour de France theme. Whether planning or luck there’s a take on Colombian cycling history – ¡ Hola Quintana ! – as well as a look into German cycling – fünf stage wins and counting – via the curious career path of Linus Gerdemann.
The idea behind The Cycling Anthology is simple, a collection of essays about pro cycling. Some of the writers will be familiar if you read the various cycling magazines. But here there are no glossy photos nor adverts. It’s almost retro but portable despite over 300 pages. If it fits into your pocket, the prose stands out.