Key events
115km to go: The peloton travels through what look like soggy roads in bright conditions. Ben Turner of Ineos has had a bike change, some kind of gearing problem for him. But not much doing, the breakaway soloist having been eaten up by the pack.
120km to go: Just one man in front now, and Goosens stays a minute ahead of the peloton. It will not be for long.
Some TV suggestions, from an NKJ Bad: “The reader asking about ITV coverage could stick a VPN on and get RTVE player for full coverage. Also get to listen to background Spanish and broaden horizons. And free.
Suzy: “Loving the coverage so far. I’m enjoying TG4’s coverage to even though I don’t actually speak Irish. But the guys are very enthusiastic ‘Chapeau Ben’ (Healy) and the ‘geansaí buí’ gets plenty of mention too. It’s all to play for still. Allez Ben agus Sam!!”
Bill Preston (perhaps not that one): “Regarding viewing preferences: on the TV it’s the Discovery+ option, because I subscribed to it to watch the thrilling heroics of Paris Roubaix and then forgot to unsubscribe. Otherwise, it’s ITV on the laptop because the book with the password for Discovery+ is rarely in the same room.
“Anyway: Are there more flat, windy, stages than there used to be, or am I/we more aware of the effect the weather has? Having simulated the effects on the rigours testbed that is the board game Flame Rouge, the weather does have a big effect, losing me a world championship to a nefarious Doctor after they got a stomp on.l at a key juncture. Meteo!!!
“Looking forward, as surely the main contenders are, to amble through the countryside, and hoping the low key snide comments will pick up bit between the top riders. We need a bit of spice, like how some previous champions really didn’t like many of his rivals on a personal level. Have a lovely day.”
My memory of Tours in the olden days was of lot of very flat stages for the likes of Mario Cippolini and Djamolidine Abdoujaparov to take home. Then such riders – particularly Cippolini – abandoning before the hills crucified the legs.
130 km: The peloton catches the second breakaway group, and there’s very nearly a prang in pack as Girmay almost comes to grief on the barriers. Jasper Philipsen held him off, and maybe moved across Girmay to take the available points. That could have been nasty. Thankfully, it wasn’t. Girmay looked strong until he was caught out by the barriers. Van Moer, Geniets and Madoua drop back into the pack.
Goosens beat Vanhoucke in that sprint at the front, and the latter seems to want to drop back.
133km to go: The chasers are 38 seconds back on those leaders, and there’s a minute gap to the peloton. Who’s up there? Madouas and Geniets of Groupama FDJ give chase too, and catch up Van Moer. With the sprint imminent, the lead-out teams set to work, even if the break has reduced the points on offer by taking the first five scores on offer.
140km to go: Breakaway shocker – two Lotto riders and an Intermarché go off the front. They gain 19 seconds, and are soon reduced to two. Then there’s some chasers. Maybe it is a breakaway after all. Kobe Goossens (Intermarche-Wanty) and the Lotto pair of Van Hoeke and Maxim van Gils are those who kick it off.
Stat from the official website here: “By reaching the finish line today, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) will have equaled a record that dates back to 1984 by leading the Mountain classification for the first 10 stages of the Tour de France. Previously to him, only the Belgian Ludo Peeters managed it in 1984.”
King of the Mountains at the end of the race was Robert Millar, now known as Pippa Yorke.
145km to go: There’s an intermediate sprint to come. All eyes on Biniam Girmay, in green, his Intermarché team will be working for him. It’s coming in the next 15km or so.
Among the sprint teams, the major news is the retirement at the end of the season of lead-out king Michael Morkov.
150km to go: All very jokey-jokey out there. Perhaps ITV had the right idea with Terry McCann.
160km to go: “Am I just being thick or has the ITV coverage not actually started for the day? It seems like it only comes onto ITVx at 2? Is my only option for actual full coverage throwing money at Discovery (which I’m loathe to do!) Was hoping for some pleasant background noise and viewing whilst working from home today!”
Yes, seems ITV has to get its episodes of Minder and The Sweeney out of the way before it starts on Le Tour. The Discovery option is good, and free with a couple of TV packages.
165km to go: It’s still slow-going, the pack together, and it’s all very cheery at the moment. The race awaits the winds predicted to come. Astana and Team UAE are at the front. Charly Wegelius, woken in his Education–EasyPost team car, says that once these woodland conditions become more exposed, then there’s the wind and storms to come.
180km to go: This is a crawl so far. And with 70 points on offer in the two sprints, powder is being dried.
Astana are up the front, and Mark Cavendish will be protected for the next 179km to go. Good to have Jonathan Harris-Bass – chef, teacher and broadcaster extraordinaire – on the Discovery/Eurosport coverage, guiding us through the Loire scenery. He’s on with Rob Hatch, the loquacious Lancastrian and the legendary Sean Kelly. Both they and the ITV team of Gary Imlach, David Millar and Ned Boulting really spoil the UK viewers.
How about when Seán Kelly spoke to the great, much-missed Paul Doyle? Whatever happened to drugs in cycling?
Kilometre Zero is go go go
187km to go: Monsieur Prudhome waves them away but there will be no breakaway just yet. Jonas Abrahamsen, the breakaway king thus far, has no mountain points to gain.
We are just a kilometre from the départ réel in Orleans, made famous by Joan of Arc, herself made famous by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, who did two songs about her.
There’s beef in the peloton, with Remco Evenpoel and Tadej Pogacar suggesting Jonas Vingegaard rode defensively in Sunday’s gravel stage.
Vingo, 1’ 15” back on Pogacar, has hit back: “I feel very good. I feel that I am growing. I am getting better and better. I am at a high level, much higher than I ever expected with only one and a half months of preparation. I can’t put a figure on that. Last year I took seven minutes in two days. Now we don’t know how I will react in the third week. We’ll see day by day. Of course, the closer I am, the better. But I trusted our plan last year. That worked. I trust the plan this year too.”
Big blow to Primoz Roglic, robbed of his mountain lieutenant.
Some interesting insight here on Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos-Grenadiers team.
The Welshman is ostensibly racing in a support role to the designated Ineos Grenadiers team leader, Carlos Rodríguez. The team have yet to win a Grand Tour since their former team principal, Dave Brailsford, was appointed as director of sport to Ineos in December 2021.
Asked if he was comfortable with a series of further changes to the team’s management structure, Thomas paused and said: “It’s challenging.”
Great piece from Jeremy Whittle here.
The Cadillac doesn’t have fins, but it does have an iPad, a TV, several phones, a hand towel, multiple short-wave radio channels in multiple languages, packets of mints, spare wheels, a cool box, a bumper load of Bounty bars that the mechanics picked up on special offer and, handily for Southam’s stress levels, an in-built back massager.
It can also accelerate from 30km/h to 100km/h in the blink of an eye, which is much needed as the race splits apart and Southam is forced to cover events at both the rear and front of the peloton. The team has every member of staff out on the course. Chefs, press officers and bus drivers are standing at the roadside, lugging spare wheels and bidons back and forth. The biggest issue, Southam says, is likely to be wheel changes. “Basically, if you have a problem today, then you’re out of it,” he says as we roll out of Troyes ahead of the peloton.
Here’s one of Cav’s best rides on Le Tour from 2013. After reading the break so well, there was no doubt who was going to win the small bunch sprint, even with Peter Sagan in there.
Preamble
The rest day is complete and Le Tour’s return to the roads sees a stage that bridges the race towards the mountains, the Massif-Central in this case. With not even a categorised climb on the day, it’s mostly flat as a pancake, and that suggests a sprint finish, though as we are in the second week, there will be teams and riders planning and plotting a breakaway. Oh, and there’s wind, too. Prepare for crosswinds and echelons making it a day of anxiety for the road captains and GC contenders.
Per William Fotheringham:
Flat and innocuous on paper, but when the wind blew here in 2013 the race split to bits, with Alberto Contador putting Alejandro Valverde on the rack. With three changes of direction on the exposed roads in the final 30km, this could happen again. A chance for the hulking Norwegians of Uno-X to engineer a stage win for the seasoned Alexander Kristoff, but the winner here on that windswept day in 2013 was none other than Cavendish.
