With the Pyrenees in the rear view mirror there’s less to look forward to this week in terms of terrain and scenery. But we’ve still got the biggest race on and it’s rare to see the top sprinters go head to head in the season, the Tour is one of the few times it happens and today should be the day.
The race cuts across Brittany but there’s coastal section for the finish where crosswinds or simply the fear of a crosswind could be enough to panic the peloton.
You’re never short of a story during the Tour de France. The racing gets covered in full but there’s plenty more going on too. It’s the level of coverage that makes July such a rich month for cycling.
With no racing on today here’s a collection of notes and thoughts, from presidential leaks to team mergers, sunglasses to sausage.
Dan Martin wins Stage 9 of the Tour de France. If you were to scan the results you’d see a chasing group with Froome, Contador, Valverde and Quintana and other names. Only you’d never know what happened.
Instead this was one of the most explosive mountain stages for years, a day when everything was thrown upside down by a relentless start where attack followed attack and Chris Froome found himself without a team mate. In the end things calmed down but it was still a wild stage.
Yesterday was supposed to give some insight into climbing form but the stage brought such conclusive results that it’s tempting to see the next two weeks as a victory lap of France for Chris Froome. He’s in the ideal position after one mounain stage but there’s a long way to go and others have been calculating their race on the final week. So be careful not to extrapolate too much from one day, a point that’s valid for results, tactics and performance.
Today’s stage is another in the Pyrenees but quite different to yesterday’s summit suspense. A series of climbs make for a tough day that could be hard to control and finally time for a breakaway to stick.
With no prologue we’ve had a week with a tightly-packed general classification and only the cruel elimination of riders by crashes. Now it’s time to impose some order on the race with the first visit to the Pyrenees and a summit finish to separate the contenders from the pretenders.
The final climb is short, enough to tell us about form but not big enough to allow sweeping conclusions that stretch all the way to the Alps. If you plan to watch on TV, note the early finish.
After six stages by the sea the race heads inland. There’s a different feel to this stage with more climbing but the real mountains are on the horizon with the Pyrenees tomorrow. For now a sprint finish is likely.
Every evening the Tour publishes an official bulletin with the results and other technical information including a note of who was fined during the day with the crimes and punishments listed.
For example yesterday Sylvain Chavanel was fined 100 Swiss Francs for ravitaillement portant atteinte à l’image du cyclisme or “feeding that damages the image of cycling.”
A transition for the sprinters as the race heads to Montpellier. The race crosses the Rhone delta, land of a thousand camp sites and a million mosquitoes.
The profile might suggest an easy day – it’s the flattest day so far in the Tour – but strong crosswinds are forecast, a force of nature to split the bunch. But don’t get your hopes up for an action-packed day where the overall contenders get tested in a stage that resembles a Belgian semi-classic. There’s a good chance the wind dies down for the stage finish.
A long day with a sneaky surprise in store at the end as the hardest climb of the day isn’t a categorised climb. The Col de Gineste comes fifteen minutes from the finish. It’s nothing savage but provides some spice and scenery.
With crashes and climbs we’ve yet to have a full bunch sprint with the superstars and today could be the day.
Meet Magalie Thierry, Tour de France “podium girl”, cycling fan and doctorate student. It’s a visible job and not without controversy this year thanks to Peter Sagan.
If you think the job is just about smiling once every day on the podium at 5.30pm, think twice. There are early starts and a lot of logistics to manage, all whilst appearing calm and welcoming.
Here’s a short “day in the life” explanation of the daily routine and tasks to complete as well as a quick Q&A about the role.