Popularity: the peloton vs. the public

Hoogerland
A rider fell down, a hero got up

Imagine the scene: it’s hard stage with several climbs and you’ve made the breakaway. There are strong riders with you and the gap to the bunch is steady. Watching each rider take their turn you’ve kept some energy in reserve and suspect the others have too and with some luck you might be able to hold off the chasing bunch. You’re 70km from the finish. Then – BAM! – suddenly one of the riders attacks, going clear in a solo bid. It’s surely futile but his attack disrupts your group, instead of a harmonious group of seven, there’s now one up the road and two trying to get across and four of you left cursing the madman. The breakaway is blown to pieces and in time everyone is caught, including the attacker who cramps up.

Alternatively imagine the move keeps going but with about 30km to go one of the riders starts missing his turn. The gap is coming down and now’s not the time to play poker. Yet this rider is wincing, his face a picture of agony as he takes a pull but oddly his pedalling is as smooth as ever. 20km to go and several are now aware of this Oscar-winning performance as the grimacing rider is taking ever shorter turns. 10km to go and the breakaway has a slender lead but its possible. With 6km to go the final hill of the day and as you crest the top – KAPOW! – the actor/rider takes off and solos to the win as the rest of you are caught with 2km to go.

That’s racing, no? But the first example is a Johnny Hoogerland move and the second is pure Thomas Voeckler. The disruptive riding and the energetic attacking might make for exciting viewing but many in the peloton resent it and the likes of Hoogerland and Voeckler are not universally popular in the bunch to put it mildly.

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The Spin: Stage 13

Stage 13

Stage 13 almost feels like a missed opportunity given the Pyrenees but clearly the race organisers don’t want to fix the overall classification with three consecutive summit finishes. Thinking about it, I agree as yesterday gave a glimpse of how the favourites are riding relative to each other but a tentative one. Anything can happen. Back to today and the stage should be about a breakaway whilst the favourites watch each other.

Pau and Lourdes are classic stops in the Pyrenees. Pau is a town rich in history but with a young student population and has several cols in riding distance. Lourdes is a strange place, a town reputedly with more hotel beds than inhabitants, it literally trades on its reputation as a place of religious pilgrimage, a frontier town between the sacred and the profane.

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As seen on cyclingnews.com

Flecha mechanic

My latest piece for cyclingnews.com is online to read. This time it’s the subject of fines. Every evening the Tour de France puts out an official communiqué with the full results and classification for the day but this also includes a medical bulletin of the riders who visited the race doctor during the stage as well as a list of any riders, team staff and others on the race who were fined for the day.

The list of fines varies, it’s usually small infractions like “urinating in public” and team officials being made to pay for giving their riders a tow. You might not realise it but it’s actually illegal for a team mechanic to lean out of the window and conduct mobile repairs, everything has to be done by the roadside and when stationary.

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The Spin: Stage 12

Stage 12

Some say the Tour de France begins today. We’ll finally discover which of the pretenders for the overall win are really on form, you can’t bluff on a 10km mountain pass. In that sense the Tour de France will end for several riders today.

The route leaves the capital of the European aerospace industry for the Pyrenees, a strange land that’s rural and relaxing but where time seems to have stood still, as if the clock broke in about 1984. By my reckoning that’s a year back in time every 8km.

Look at the profile and it’s broadly flat until the intermediate sprint, you’d expect a breakaway to go early but the roads don’t give an obvious launchpad and many will want to try their luck. So a fast first hour is on the cards. The sprint point itself should be interesting as it’s the finish line for many sprinters who have no chance for winning anything else on the day. Here the approach into the village of Sarrancolin is wide and ever so slightly uphill.

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Crashes, falls and… fallacies

L'Equipe chutes

With the Tour de France on the eve of the mountain stages one thing that has characterised the racing so far has been the crashes. This is often the case, the first week is a nervous time. But this time it has been different, work by cyclocosm has been refined by an architect student and you can see the results on his tumblr blog. Here’s the summary which measures the withdrawals by Stage 9 over the past 10 years:

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The Spin: Stage 11

Stage 11

Today’s start and finish are not far from each other but the organisers have chosen a big S-shaped route instead of a straight line. Even so it’s 167.5km, one of the shorter stages of the Tour. With two small hills along the way there’s every chance this ends in a bunch sprint, especially as tomorrow sees the high mountains, it’s the last chance for the sprinters for a while.

The terrain isn’t hard, the race will pass farmland and a few vineyards and roll through sleepy towns built of pink bricks where normally the only visible life in the afternoon are a few dogs trotting about. Expect photos of the bunch rolling past sunflowers.

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Variable rules for Contador and Kolobnev?

Kolobnev
At least his saddle is horizontal

Alexsandr Kolobnev has “suspended himself” from competition but I suspect the decision wasn’t taken that freely. After all, here’s the UCI’s press release on the matter:

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

You don’t need to be Nico Machiavelli to realise the first sentence contradicts the second, that Kolobnev is free to continue under the rules yet the UCI is waiting for his team to take the “necessary steps”. Or more poetically, to throw Kolobnev down the staircase.

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Send a message

Greipel postcard

Yesterday was a chance for many riders to catch up with the families, do some reading and maybe update their fan websites. German sprinter André Greipel’s website includes a daily postcard to his fans to describe “My first French holiday“. Like many a postcard the weather gets a mention but he’s yet to write home about his team mates ignoring him, for example “Philippe keeps chasing me down” or “I’m homesick“. The one above is from Saturday, it reads

Fast Phil today had Super-Better legs. Tomorrow we climb further up to the sky. Until next time, André.

If Greipel is writing to his fans, you can also write to him, in fact you can send a postcard to anyone on the race for free. Thanks to the French post office, your letter will be delivered whoever you like on the race, from riders to team staff and others.

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The Spin: Stage 10

Stage 10

A short stage and coming after the rest day it could prove a shock for some as some riders emerge rested whilst others need a day or two to get back into things although given some recent events everyone will welcome a return to the racing.

It’s a scenic route through the Lot area of France, a peaceful area of France where a lot of foie gras and truffles come from the causse although it ends up in a town famous for coal mining instead of rustic traditions. Cycling-wise the curiosity is the lack of roads in the area, there are very few junctions along the way, yet alone villages and towns.

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