What’s the difference between a mountain and a hill? Geologists and cartographers might have their definitions and some say it’s just a question of semantics.
Visit the Morvan, France’s smallest mountain range, and it does have that mountainous feel, there’s a sense of scale, severity and menace. When the Tour de France route was unveiled last year the Signal d’Uchon was one of the novelties presented and it will feature late on Stage 7. Is it a mountain? Let’s take a closer look…
A big day for the GC contenders, today’s time trial will reshuffle the pack of cards with the kings and aces coming to the fore.
Another sprint stage, it’s the last day in Brittany but on larger roads for much of the stage.
There are 23 teams in the Tour de France with a variety of sponsors: a mix of brands, wealthy individuals and governments. Let’s follow the money and then imagine if we could use every brand going.
A stage for the sprinters but a day’s racing in Brittany which means up and down roads. The defining characteristic of today’s route is the narrow rural roads along much of the route before the tricky finish in Pontivy.
Raymond Poulidor died in November 2019. With his grandson Mathieu van der Poel in the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, this is a repost of an obituary that appeared here in tribute, in case readers want some background on Poulidor, his time in the sport and what he meant, and perhaps still means, to part of the public in France.
Poulidor was a champion cyclist and made a name for himself as a loveable loser, a moral winner and a dependable emblem of rural France during a period of societal change. His reputation reaches far beyond cycling and there are Poulidors in sport, politics and life.
More Brittany and the finish at Mûr-de-Bretagne. It’s a small climb but in recent years it has bothered several GC contenders like Tom Dumoulin and Vincenzo Nibali.
Brittany is a region that ranks alongside the Basque Country, Flanders and Tuscany as one of the hotbeds of cycle racing. Many riders in today’s peloton are from the region, several champions from the past hail from here, two teams in the Tour have a Breton identity, another has a Breton sponsor while one of the Tour’s jerseys is sponsored by a Breton firm.
The Tour de France starts with a hilly stage in Brittany, the region of France where cycling is really embraced by the public. That public should be out in force today as the weather looks clement and the sanitary situation in France means people have the OK to enjoy the Tour from the roadside.
