Tour Stage 7

Chris Froome Planche des Belles Filles

As many have remarked, when Team Sky launched they stated the aim of winning the Tour de France. It seemed far-fetched but my take was that when you have a big sponsor and you launch the team then you cannot say much else.

Today this aim is now a possibility and in Sky’s management style, a big box to tick. The British squad is in a very comfortable position with both Wiggins and Froome in control and don’t forget it was the work of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Michael Rogers and Richie Porte that shredded the peloton. It split in the approach to the final climb, it exploded on the slopes of the Planche des Belles Filles.

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The Spin – Stage 7

All change. If you’ve been dipping in and out of the Tour de France during the last week, today’s the day to plunge right in as first proper summit finish of the race appears. But the climb is not Alpine: it will give us clues about the relative form of riders and 10 minutes of tension.

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Is The Tour de France Boring?

Tour de France wind turbine

The last few stages of the Tour de France have not been the most exciting. Cyclesport’s Lionel Birnie has a good piece on the topic. The stage starts, the gears clunk and a few riders are given a day ticket to escape the bunch on the condition they return, like residents of an open prison who must return before nightfall.

Things only come alive in the race in the final minutes. Four hours of racing for four minutes of action. L’Equipe today describes yesterday’s stage with tales of broken alarm clocks, hammocks, snoozing, snoring and says the riders “only fell out of bed with three kilometres to go”. Is the Tour de France boring?

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The Spin – Stage 6

The last of the sprint stages, today’s race will sweep across the champagne region of France before the fizz of the finish. Again this looks like a day for the sprinters but with the first summit finish looming tomorrow the GC contenders will try to ride in economy mode.

If it is a sprint finish the final kilometre has a dangerous narrow point followed by a sharp turn turn.

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Rasmussen Banned… And Lessons To Learn

Regular readers will know I’ve been following the case of Danish rider Alex Rasmussen closely since last September when news emerged that he’d committed three anti-doping “whereabouts” faults. Normally this constitutes an anti-doping violation under the rules, meaning a ban was likely. He got fired by his team, HTC-Columbia but when the case was heard by the Danmarks Cykle Union he was cleared. Only the case went to appeal and yesterday he lost.

The case is bigger than one rider as it covers the systemic issue of out-of-competition testing, the logging of an athlete’s “whereabouts” and also exposes discrepancies in the UCI rules which have to be fixed.

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The Spin: Stage 5

Maybe something random will happen today? Otherwise it’s a dull dash across northern France where many TV viewers in France will be having a siesta on the sofa before the adrenalin rush of the sprint finish. Meanwhile the riders risk being cold and wet whilst dodging crashes, today is the day to spectate rather than participate.

But the last kilometres are trickier than they look with tight turns and a gradient to the finish line.

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Tour Podcast Reviews

André Greipel Tour de France

One of the great things with the Tour de France is that not only do you get almost all the best riders competing in the race but you also get a depth of content that’s not available during the rest of the season.

There is a wealth of audio content out there. 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. So when André Greipel powers across the line you might turn off the TV but the race coverage continues for hours and hours.

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The Spin: Stage 4

The profile above suggests a sterile stage with a flat route and a sprint finish. But today’s stage hugs the exposed coastline for a long time and there’s an uncategorised climb before the finish to derail the sprint trains.

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The Elusive Peter Sagan

Sagan Running Man

It hard to write about Sagan. He’s so good you quickly run out of adjectives. Today’s results don’t even tell the full story, he finished a second clear of the others but in fact had time to look back, sit up, cross himself and then perform a goofy “running man” celebration. It makes you wonder what the other riders think.

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The Spin: Stage 3

The Tour returns to French soil. If the start town sounds familiar it’s because it’s on the route of April’s Paris-Roubaix race, in fact it’s where they make the winner’s cobblestone trophy. But the Tour will stay on smooth tarmac all day – the first day of this year’s race without pavé.

Instead the difficulty comes from the climbs at the end. They might look small on the profile but they are a strength sap and a tactical trap.

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