Christian Prudhomme is an optimist, a romantic and a dreamer. When the Tour de France route was unveiled last October the message from the race organiser was a race where the long time trials and a shortage of climbing would incite the climbers into daring raids, offering Alpine theatre and Pyrenean panache. Only this year’s vintage has not met those expectations, the climbers were neutralised and the most daring raid was came on the rest day when the gendarmes swooped on Rémy di Gregorio.
If yesterday was the greatest hits of the Pyrenees, today is the experimental album. At just 143km, the stage has some tough climbing ahead of a summit finish.
The mountains have long remained a mysterious place where the truth can be as murky as the fog. Before the railways made France accessible, many believed those who lived in the mountains were freakish figures and imagined strange beasts roamed wild. It’s not all false, today you will find bears in the Pyrenees and wolves in the Alps.
Cycling loves its myths and each July sees the race return to the Pyrenees. Like a child visiting a grandfather, the same stories are told every year. There are the broken forks of Eugène Chistophe, the cry of “assassin” from a Octvave Lapize as he passed the organiser on a steep climb and more. Only many of these tales are exaggerations and even fabrications.
If the Pyrenees were an album, today would be the Greatest Hits. The Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde are all classics and if the Col du Soulor is missing, it’s because it’s a cover version of the Aubisque since it climbs the same mountain.
Earlier today, the UCI advised the Luxembourger rider Frank Schleck of an Adverse Analytical Finding (presence of the diuretic Xipamide based on the report from the WADA accredited laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry) in the urine sample collected from him at an in competition test at the Tour de France on 14 July 2012.
Mr. Schleck has the right to request and attend the analysis of his B sample.
The UCI Anti-Doping Rules do not provide for a provisional suspension given the nature of the substance, which is a specified substance.
However, the UCI is confident that his team will take the necessary steps to enable the Tour de France to continue in serenity and to ensure that their rider has the opportunity to properly prepare his defense in particular within the legal timeline, which allows four days for him to have his B sample analyzed.
That’s the UCI press release from this evening. Schleck is being withdraw from the race by his team. Only the UCI’s own press release calls for its own rules and due process to be suspended.
Today’s rest day brings to mind Antonin Magne, winner of the Tour in 1931 and 1934 who said “the Tour is won by sleeping”. He didn’t mean he snoozed on his bike, instead that recovery was so important. Many riders today will have been working hard on their rest day, going for the right ride, eating correctly, stretching hard and getting a strong massage.
They’ll need it given the two giant stages in the Pyrenees. Playwright Antoine Blondin said the great cols of the Pyrenees “separate once and for all the racers from those who use a bicycle to go to the market” and more than the Alps these climbs can be traps with irregular gradients and twisty descents.
The Tour de France by Christopher S Thomson
This is a history of the Tour de France with a difference. It is written by a professor who places the race and the development of France into a social, economic and cultural setting. There are several books to tell you who first won the yellow jersey or the identity of the youngest post-war winner of the Tour de France *, the kind you might receive as a gift. This is sort of book you’d buy for yourself.
One week to Paris, a rest day tomorrow and only 158km for today, things look easy, no? Except time is running out for several teams to shine in this race. Liquigas, Lotto-Belisol and Sky have monopolised the race so far with three stage races each and the arithmetic means many teams will leave the race empty-handed.
Consequently many will want to make the breakaway in the hope the move stays away, all whilst Orica-Greenedge want to bring any escape back so they can set-up Matthew Goss for an elusive stage win.
Today’s stage of the Tour de France saw a clever win by Luis Leon Sanchez who attacked Peter Sagan just as the Slovak was riding one handed to eat some energy food. Behind the bunch took it steady on the Mur de Péguère, the steep slopes didn’t incite attacks. Instead the drama came from a section of road that was littered with nails, provoking a wave of punctures. This enlivened the racing but it was not good television. Instead of attacks, we got tacks.
The event has made the TV news bulletins in France. This isn’t the first time it has happened in the race. A century ago nails were almost part of a rider’s tactical arsenal and their appearance on the route of the Tour led to fundamental changes in the race.
