Here’s today’s report from Jeremy Whittle.
Well, we got there in the end. And after six hours, two minutes and 44 seconds, so did Dylan Groenewegen. It’s his fourth Tou de France stage win, but his first at this year’s Tour. It’s his team’s third stage win at this Tour.
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Dylan Groenewegen wins. That was impressive from the Dutch 26-year-old. He found himself stuck in traffic in the closing stages, but muscled his way into position and launched his sprint from a long way back. It was Caleb Ewan he beat by centimetres, to secure another stage for Team Jumbo-Visma.
Dylan Groenewegen wins stage seven!
The Jumbo-Visma sprinter fights his way through, launches his sprint and wins despite coming from furthest back. Viviani was second, mere centimetres behind.
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1.5km to go: Wout van Aert peels off the front and Amund Grondahl Jansen takes over at the front for Jumbo-Visma.
4km to go: Jumbo Visma lead the charge as we head towards the 3km-to-go mark where the GC teams can sit up and leave the sprint teams to it. Should anything happen any of the GC contenders inside the three-kilometre to go mark, everybody finishes on the same time.
5km to go: It’s getting a little bit messy at the front, where there’s now a lot of jockeying for position going on.
6km to go: The carriages of various sprint trains have been coupled together and assorted riders are waiting for the final 1.5 kilometres when they’ll have to start shovelling coal in earnest. Team Ineos, who will be unconcerned with the sprint, are currently at the front, where it’s safe, while the sprint teams sit back and bide their time.
8km to go: The road is wide at the moment, but the final three kilometres are quite technical before a gun-barrel straight run-in to the finish.
10km to go: Yoann Offredo is spat out the back of the peloton and smiles for the cameras as a Moto pulls alongside him.
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12km to go: Offredo is caught and our breakaway is no more. Will anyone launch an audacious attack or is a sprint finish guaranteed?
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14km to go: A sharp left for the peloton, which has the breakaway in sight. The gap is 11 seconds. Chapeau Stephane Rosetto! Chapeau Yoann Offredo! It’s been nice getting to know you over the past 218 kilometres. Rosetto gets caught, but Offredo stays out on his own, almost certainly earning himself today’s combativity award.
16km to go: The gap is 17 seconds after five hours 48 minutes of racing.
19km to go: The road is wide and riders from Astana, Bora Hansgrohe, UAE Team Emirates, Lotto Soudal, Jumbo Visma and Quick Step are all towards the front, ready to do a job for their sprinters. The gap is 21 seconds, but again, the bunch is not chasing the breakaway with anything resembling urgency.
21km to go: The gap between our breakaway duo and the chasing posse is 28 seconds. In the peloton, assorted teams are jockeying for position, but they’re not riding with any particular urgency.
27km to go: The word on the street is that Nairo Quintana might have stopped for a comfort break at an inopportune moment, which is why the peloton did not pile on the hurt when he found himself way behind them.
He doesn’t seem the brightest, that boy Nairo. His ongoing reluctance to attack during Tours when he looks like he could punish fellow GC contenders never ceases to baffle me. Still, I suppose if you gotta go, you gotta go. He’s gotta way with it on this occasion.
28km to go: I’m not sure how that happened, but Dan Martin and Quintana somehow found themselves in a group 30 seconds down on the peloton. I don’t think it was anything to do with the weather, but it may have been down to a couple of them dropping back to team cars at the same time the front of the bunch were gearing up for the intermediate sprint. Whatever happened, the peloton have not capitalised and all concerned are now back in touch.
The peloton has split: Things are hotting up, finally. And how! The peloton has split and a bunch of 20 or 30 riders including Simon Yates, Dan Martin, Nairo Quintana and Jack Haig are now 38 seconds behind the rest of the bunch.
33km to go: A warmly - certainly not hotly - contested sprint at the head of the peloton and Sonny Colbrelli is next over the line at the intermediate sprint, ahead of Peter Sagan, Elia Viviani and Michael Matthews.
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36km to go: Rossetto “wins” the uncontested intermediate sprint from Offredo. Next man over will take 17 points - lots to fight over for the green jersey contenders.
Intermediate sprint: The breakaway riders are getting near the intermediate sprint. There’s €1,500 up for grabs for the team of the first man over the line, while that of the second will get €1,000 (third gets €500). It will be intriguing to see if our two breakaway riders contest it, as the points that are up for grabs are no use to either of them. The gap is 1min 46sec.
Name that breakaway: That’s a good pic of the scrawny youth atop the wood pile,” writes Ian Miles. “TV gave him great coverge as well. His name is, of course, Offredo Rossetto.”
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An informative email: “The finish of today’s stage, Chalon-sur-Soane, is the scene of the farcical treatment of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in the latter’s A Moveable Feast,” writes Patrick Galey. “After driving all day in Scott’s Renault from Lyon (which his wife Zelda inexplicably decided to remove the roof from) and getting soaked in several rain showers, the pair check into a hotel in Chalon, upon which Scott decides that he is dying.
“He takes to bed and begs Hemingway to go to a pharmacy to fetch a thermometer. Hemingway instead orders two double whiskeys and citron presses, finds a bath thermometer from a waiter and fools Scott into thinking he’s read his temperature. While waiting for him to calm down, Hem polishes off an entire bottle of Macon, orders another round of whiskey lemonades and dresses for dinner, whereupon the pair polish off a carafe of Fleurie and a bottle of Montagny with snails. I wonder if the riders shall sup likewise in Chalon this evening.”
A view from the front of the race. Closely followed by a view from the back.
An email: “Do they still give a prize for the Lanterne Rouge at the end of the Tour?” asks Matthew Lysaght.
“If so then Yoann Offredo may well have gotten into the break safe in the knowledge that he’d be spat out the back of the Peloton once caught thereby cementing his position as last man on GC. Genius if so.”
I’m not sure if they still give out an actual prize, but there is a certain cachet to being Laterne Rouge that can be monetised by charging more to participate in various criteriums after the Tour. Put it this way, nobody wants to finish last, but there’s literally no shame in it and doing so is a heck of a lot more commercially beneficial than finishing second last or third last.
On today’s finish: “Last time I arrived in Chalon-sur-Saone train station with a bike, it was a Brompton folder which I was road testing for a bike magazine,” writes Gareth Thomas. “There is a ‘voie verte’ going south from Chalon on an old railway route and I took the bike along for the opening celebrations in 1997. There is a world class bicycle museum halfway along that cycleway, before the town of Cluny. It has Chris Boardman’s revolutionary Barcelona Olympics track bike in it. Look it up.”
56km to go: “Is Brian Smith sponsored by the Scottish Tourist Board?” asks Adam Hirst. “Next up, how drinking whisky is the best way to warm down. And listen out for how these Alpine lakes don’t compare to the beauty of Loch Ness, as they have no monster. He’ll need to work porridge in there somewhere as well.”
57km to go: The gap is 2min 11sec and something interesting might begin to happen in the next 20 kilometres or so.
Julian Alaphilippe, GC contender? “In answer to Luke Harrison’s question about Alaphilippe, he’s still pretty young,” writes Dave Langlois. “I reckon that with his bodily make-up and innate strength he could end up as a big Tour winner when he gain’s more resistance, race craft and experience. In the Spanish tour commentary yesterday Pedro Delgado and Joaquín Rodriguez were arguing along those lines.”
61km to go: “Shortbread is probably more beneficial to kids than some of these cereal bars you get,” adds Brian. The gap is in to 1min 47sec.
66km to go: “You’d need quite a few bidons on a day like this?” asks Eurosport’s Carlton Kirby of his co-commentator Brian Smith, with more than a hint of desperation.
“A bidon takes up a lot of room in a support vehicle,” replies Brian gamely, having pointed out you’d get through one every half hour and that drinking warm water isn’t very pleasant. That sound you can hear is the bottom of a barrel being scraped with commendable professionalism.
Where’s Sean Kelly when you need him to wheel out that that story about the time he would have won the Vuelta if it hadn’t been for the boil on his buttock?
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And we’re back in the room: There are 71km to go and the gap is 2min 04sec. The riders have been in the saddle for four hours and 28 minutes.
80km to go: Our two breakaway riders are bored, those behind them in the peloton are bored, those following them in the support cars are, presumably, bored. The TV commentary team is bored, their audience is bored, I’m bored, you’re bored and there’s still 79 kilometres – all of it on the flat - to go. I need a coffee to help me stay awake, so here are some mildly intrigued cows to look at while I go and get one. Back in five.
83km to go: The gap is 2min 34sec as our two breakaway riders continue to plough their lonely furrow of futility.
On cycling books: “I absolutely loved Slaying The Badger by this parish’s Richard Moore,” writes Guy Hornsby. “A brilliant tale of the rivalry between Hinault and Lemond, it captures the old v new battle, especially poignant as these were the first Tours I watched.
“Similarly, In Search Of Robert Millar is a great read, by Richard. One of cycling’s great enigmas, whose life as Philippa York is as intriguing as her former one as a sinewy climber. Obviously David Millar’s Racing Through The Dark is a must-read. Whatever your views on him, it’s a rare cycling memoir that ditches the rose-tinted specs and genuinely sounds like the author’s voice is at the centre.”
87km to go: Giulio Ciccone has been quick to capitalise on being zipped into the yellow jersey yesterday. The 24-year-old Italian inked a new deal last night and has extended his contract with Trek-Segafredo until 2021.
Offredo Rossetto - the top gong at the annual anthropomorphic chocolate frog awards @bglendenning
— D-Lo (@mrwriterman79) July 12, 2019
@bglendenning Re shoe changes - if ever there was a day for trying out / breaking in some new shoes before chaning back to old relaibles for the business end of the stage, this is it
— Gareth Davies (@gareth_in_blyth) July 12, 2019
An email: “As the ‘racing’ is boring us all a bit today, I thought I would email in my second question of the day,” writes Luke Harrison. “Why is Julian Alaphilippe not considered as a GC contender? Yes his wiki page calls him a Puncheur and we know he can win the Classics, but I have always thought of him as an excellent climber. He showed that again yesterday and he has had a few top ten finishes on some of the shorter tours. Is it just that a rider like him that has the kind of muscle mass that allows him to punch and sprint as well, just can’t do it day after day over a three week tour?”
91km to go: Dylan Groenewegen is the warm 6-4 favourite to win today’s stage, followed by Elia Viviani, Caleb Ewan, Peter Sagan and Alexander Kristoff in the betting.
While there’s no doubting his ability, on the evidence of Groenewegen’s performances in the sprints to date, I wouldn’t be too interested in getting heavily involved at that short a price. My 50p is going on Kristoff.
They’ll be coming down the mountain when they come dept: “At the top of the Madonna a few years back, the hotels are down the bottom, so it makes sense that the vehicles don’t go up after the riders,” writes Adam Hirst, playing fast and loose with his tenses.
“The earlier finishers all rolled down happily enough, on the brakes all the time. On that type, you just have to stick to the outside of the corners I suppose. The grupetto is all spread out and moving slowly, easy to avoid. There were also plenty of people holding out breadboards of crackers, pepperoni and cheese, which the cyclists stopped and tucked into very greedily, swapping for bidons.”
Name that breakaway: “Offredo Rossetto sounds like if The Handmaid’s Tale was based in a Spanish holiday resort,” writes Stefan Glosby.
Meanwhile, the word from Team EF Education First is that despite soldiering on after his heavy fall earlier today, Tejay van Garderen is in a lot of pain and will be taken for x-rays once today’s stage concludes.
Offredo and Rossetto continue to lead the field by a margin of 4min 08sec.
Name that breakaway: “You’re bored,” writes Paul Tindle. “We’re bored. It’ll be over soon. Meanwhile, myself and friends play name that breakaway daily. Here are a couple from our musings today. Rossetto and Offredo is a high end couture brand notable for making clothes that look terrible on anyone over six stone and for adverts that are the most nonsensical of any fashion house.”
This much we know: Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) and Stephane Rosetto (Cofidis) are in a somewhat unenthusiastic two-man breakaway that is 3min 35sec clear of a peloton that is being towed along by Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) and Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-Quick Step). The riders have been pedalling for three hours 30 minutes and still have another 109 kilometres of largely flat road to go. I’ll be back in 10 minutes.
Name that breakaway: “Offredo Rossetto – a sweet, tangy liqueur from the Tuscan hills, usually served with a dash of soda,” writes Declan Clark. “Often brought back as a memory of the wonderful holiday, always ends up languishing in the dark of the understairs cupboard after Christmas.”
Andre Greipel speaks: Talking to Eurosport this morning, the likeable German explains that he went in the breakaway yesterday because he fancied a change and thought it would give him an advantage to be further up the road than the grupetto when he was inevitably dropped.
“I would have finished those climbs in the same speed whether I was at the front or the back,” he says. “So I thought I might as well be at the front.” I’d like to see Andre win one last Tour stage, but at 36 years old he’s not getting any younger and I’m not sure his team are good enough to give him the lead-out he needs.
115km to go: We have reached halfway. And it’s taken three hours and 15 minutes.
121km to go: In the breakaway, Cofidis rider Stephane Rossetto is about to enjoy the highlight of his day. His team car has pulled along side him and somebody in the passenger seat is handing him a selection of treats – sweet and savour rice cakes, proper cake, chocolate, etc – wrapped in tinfoil, which are going into his pocket along with the usual selection of energy gels and bars. We’re still not halfway in what must be one of the most boring stages in Tour history ...
An email: “In my personal experience of La Vuelta the descent of riders on no-exit finishes is pure common sense,” writes Dave Langlois, who has something to say about everything we’ve been discussing today. “Cycling back down from watching the finish at Los Lagos de Covadonga we’ve even passed some of the last stragglers still struggling up.
“Indexing: I agree with emailers who’ve said that gears can go out of synch even without the bike being used, perhaps even more so.
|Boring stages: the best big tour recently was Froome’s Vuelta. Hardly one boring flat stage. Lots of punchy climbs day after day. Surely real sprinters should be able to climb moderate hills and then dispute the sprint like Sagan or Matthews? Stages like today’s should be no more than one or two per Tour.”
131km to go: Stephane Rossetto was the first of our breakaway duo over the second climb of the day, the Cote de Chassagne-St Denis. It’s a category three climb, so he gets two King of the Mountains points. Yoann Offredo takes the other one available.
133km to go: The gap goes back out to 4min 10sec, while in the peloton, Astana rider Jakob Fuglsang drops back to his team car for a change of shoes. On Eurosport, the commentary team are deep in conversation, trying to figure out why he’s the second rider to have changed his shoes on this stage. Yes, it’s that kind of day.
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138km to go: Nothing much continues to happen out on the road, where the two-man breakaway is being kept on a tight rein. The gap is down to 2min 58sec.
Meanwhile in my email inbox, the subject of my jumpy bicycle gears is proving much more of a crowd-pleaser.
“The indexing on the gears of a new bike are actually quite prone to be a tad temperamental,” writes Euan McKinnon. “Any new bike will have been indexed without any significant power being put through the pedals, save for a cursory rotation of the cranks. Once you put a human on a bike and they start pedalling the components are likely to behave slightly differently.
“Some futzing around with the barrel adjuster on the rear derailleur should solve the problem, although it does take a bit of trial and error. Your local bike shop should be able to help with this for a very low price. I had this done by Pop Up Bikes in Manchester which is a fantastic cycle repair shop and café underneath a railway arch near Victoria Stations.”
Some clarification: “Yep, that’s oilseed rape,” writes barley expert Bob O’Hara. |They were on the floor above us. It’s the seed pods, so it’s already flowered. Oilseed rape is basically the cabbage’s first cousin.” Everyday’s a school day.
An email: “Myself and 1,076 other cyclists will be telling you your gears need re-indexing if they’re jumping about,” writes Paul Graham and 1,076 other cyclists. “A decent local bike shop should be able to do this in an hour or so. You could try to follow a gear indexing tutorial on Youtube, but I’ve always found that once you start fiddling it’s a hiding to nothing.”
You may well be right, Paul, but I think it’s just me not knowing how to use all those gears properly. I haven’t done enough kilometres on this bike for anything to need re-anything-ing. Like, less than 50.
147km to go: Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal) are taking turns at the front of the bunch, maintaining the necessary speed to control the breakaway for the benefit of their respective team’s sprinters come stage’s end. The gap is 3min 46sec.
150km to go: “I realise that for someone following the Tour from abroad or far away, a day like today is a bit like watching paint dry,” writes Michael Godden. “However, having grown up in a tiny village outside of Belfort, the fact the Tour goes through the hills and city is a big deal. No other event (other than Zidane dragging France to the world cup final in 98) brings complete strangers in the street in such a positive and uplifting environment! Think of the tour as a 3500km picnic.
“Shout out to my mates René, Dabbi and Siddi in Reykjavik, where I currently live! Just in Belfort for the Tour, and the temperature difference is brutal!”
151km to go: Once our breakaway duo have cycled another 36 kilometres, they’ll be halfway through this stage. It’s a milestone I’m looking forward to.
An email: “I’m always amazed when mention of cycling books is made, that more people haven’t experienced the absolute joy of reading Need For The Bike, by Paul Fournel (who also wrote Anquetil Alone),” writes Howard Rich. “It’s personal, poetic and utterly beguiling. Every page makes you long to be on your bike. Given the nature of today’s stage, here’s Fournel on gear changing: ‘On the flats, I had to learn the merits of going from tooth to tooth. There can be a chasm between 53x16 and 53x17, and as a general rule it’s the wind that carves it out’.”
I’ve just started reading that book and it is delightful. On the subject of gear changes, in a bid to shift excess timber, I am planning on getting back on my bike after a long absence. It’s a fancy racer that’s far too good for me, but I recall that the last few times I rode it, the gears kept jumping around without being asked by me. The bike is too new for there to be anything wrong with them - so I presume I’m just not used to them and am using them wrong. Anyone got any pointers as to what I might be doing wrong?
160km to go: The gap from Messrs Offredo and Rossetto to the bunch is 4min 22sec.
An email: “Do we no longer name the breakaway on these TDF live blogs or did I miss it?” asks Robert Moore. “In case I haven’t, I’d like to suggest Offredo & Rossetto - an Italian inspired deli/cafe - possibly in Fulham, definitely overpriced. Do a lovely range of Cannoli though.”
Corrections and clarifications: “It is oilseed rape in the photo below, not barley,” writes Tom Overbury. This happened last year too. Perhaps the Guardian needs an agriculture consultant for the live blogs?”
Are you sure about that, Tom? I thought oilseed rape was a lot more yellow?” Bob O’Hara might be able to help.
“For my PhD (a few years ago now) I would spend a lot of time cutting up leaves of barley, so that I could blow mildew spores all over them.”
167km to go: “In response to Luke Harrison,” writes Banaby Nicholls. “The latecomers have to watch out for more than the early finishers descending the mountain - when attending stages last summer it was common to see spectators riding and walking down once their favourites had passed. There didn’t appear to be any protocol, but people would take the corners wide and slow. I felt a twang of pity for the slower racers but they didn’t appear to be in any danger.”
169km to go: The peloton is ridiculously strung out and is being towed along by Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Kasper Asgreen. The gap to the breakaway is 4min 06sec.
🚴♂️🚴♂️ Stéphane Rossetto and Yoann Offredo are at the front for the third time during the #TDF2019. They are real baroudeurs, attacking even if the profile of the stage is not suitable for them.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2019
🤔 But what exactly is a baroudeur ?
🎬 The answer lies here. pic.twitter.com/yCUAmKKsSe
174km to go: Further to Luke Harrison’s email regarding Tour riders having to cycle back down a mountain they’ve just asccended once the stage is over.
In that Mitchelton Scott video diary of yesterday’s stage, Matteo Trentin points out that spectators accompanying them back down can be a problem, as they tend to take risks, presumably in a bid to show off. He carries a whistle around his neck in lieu of a bell to ring, to get them out of his way. This suggest to me they take a different route down to the one the riders go up, presumably on any spare bit of road that is left over once they erect the barriers.
178km to go: The gap from our two-man escape party to the bunch is 4min 20sec. At the back of the peloton, Movistar rider Carlos Verona has just raised his arm to call for assistance from his team car.
An email: “I know that on some mountain top finishes, such as yesterday, there is not enough room for the team buses at the top so the riders have to freewheel back down again after finishing,” writes Luke Harrison. “I noticed from the helicopter shot soon after the soon after the leaders finished yesterday that some of them were already starting to head down while the slower riders (most of the race) must still have been making their way up the climb.
“What is the protocol here to prevent the descending riders going round a bend straight in to a group of ascending riders or an official car? Do the slow guys know that they have to keep to the right side of the road for this reason?”
A good question. I’ve seen this happen, but I don’t know what - if any - the protocol is. There may well be some fenced off corridor for the riders who are finished to descend down, but I can’t remember. Perhaps they just rely on good sense and trust that these guys know what they’re doing. Anyone?
186km to go: “Like James Davison I’ve always thought bike racing makes for better written accounts than TV,” writes Martin Gilbert. “The classic writing comes from the early Tours when the heroism and mystery was preserved by the riders being out of view for long periods.
“Tim Krabbe captures it well. I’d also recommend Tomorrow We Ride by Jean Bobet- inside knowledge but he’s a proper writer too. The modern Tour is often a bit like watching a travel show with some sport going on. Look at the transcontinental race for a bit of the original Tour spirit.”
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188km to go: Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) and Stephane Rosetto (Cofidis) are 5min 38sec clear of the peloton. Offredo, who has spent an inordinate amount of time in assorted breakaways this week, has got the point on offer at the top of Col de Ferriere, a category four speed-bump.
An email: “Long time reader, first time emailer here,” writes Riocard. “Just on the subject of great cycling books, Paul Kimmage’s Rough Ride has to be up there? Perhaps a somewhat controversial choice, but nonetheless a great and revealing read. Also, on the matter of pointless and futile tasks - I work in finance, so I reckon my jobs up there with the most pointless and futile?”
192.5km to go: BIG NEWS!!! Mikael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale) has just dropped back to his car to change his shoes. Rather impressively, he did so without getting off his bike.
197km to go: Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) and Stephane Rosetto (Cofidis) are 4min 52sec clear of the bunch. I’m about to abandon my post for five minutes and 52 seconds, which is just enough time for you to enjoy yesterday’s thrilling instalment of the always entertaining Mitchelton Scott Tour diary in my absence.
An email: “I also enjoyed Max Leonard’s Higher Calling, his examination of why cyclists feel the need to taste the exquisite pain of riding up higher and higher mountains,” writes Philip Laing.
“The Rider by Tim Krabbé is, I think, a semi-autobiographical work of fiction, in turns a rider’s description of an amateur bike race in France and a history of the anonymous rider’s life in cycling. Thoroughly examines the mindset of a racing cyclist, and all the whims and doubts therein.
Lastly, I read the Escape Artist, by the Guardian’s Matt Seaton, years ago, a real autobiographical work, taking us through his life on and off the bike, his racing career and his family life, encompassing both triumph and tragedy. It’s stayed with me over the years, which I put down to it’s authentic humanity.”
Spending the day together helps creating links. 😉
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2019
Passer la journée à deux à l'avant, ça rapproche. 😉#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/TwvpWNrELb
205km to go: We’re 2,470 or so kilometres from Paris, but just 205 from Chalon-sur-Saone. The gap from the two lads to the other 172 lads is out to 4min 28sec.
An email: “I am recording the diameter of craters on a bit of Mars’s surface,” writes Adam Hepburn, who is a PhD candidate in Glaciology. “I take great comfort in knowing that someone else is spending their day watching a screen on which nothing happens for six hours. At least yours vaguely promises some action at the end.”
Yours might too, Adam, if a little green man pops up out of one of the craters. OK, we have our challenge for the day - can anyone top the tasks being undertaken by Adam and I this Friday for futility and pointlessness? As mine is guaranteed to liven up at some point, our clubhouse leader is currently recording the diameter of craters on the surface of Mars. That’s going to take some beating.
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211km to go: Stephane Rosetto, for anyone who’s interested, began the day in 128th place, over 49 minutes off the pace set by maillot jaune Giulio Ciccone.
214km to go: Arguably the most reluctant two-man breakaway in Tour de France history, Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) and Stephane Rosetto (Cofidis) are now 3min 50sec clear of the peloton. In 174th place out of the 174 remaining riders, Ofredo is currently the Lanterne Rouge ... which seems as good a time as any to recommend the excellent book of the same name, by Max Leonard.
An email (and please keep them coming): “I hope the scenery and roadside antics are able to make up for the lack of sparks today,” writers James Davison. “The TV commentators will need some content. There was an article the other day about the relaxing nature of watching a stage play out on live television. I’d not thought about it in that way before but makes sense.
“I’ve always thought that a bike racing was best reflected in writing (a stage race and long Monument all have their narrative arcs, heroes, villains and intrigue, even apart from the human endeavour, geography, elements etc), and there are no end of cycling books that to me are not far short of literature. Maybe in the quiet periods today we can suggest our favourites – I’ll kick off with Riding In The Zone Rouge by Tom Isett, recounting the 1919 stage race around the Western Front battlefields.”
Maybe in the quiet periods? Today will be 229 kilometres of period, followed by one kilometre of hot sprint action.
223km to go: With the peloton dawdling along at a snail’s pace, Several EF Education First riders hit the deck and Tejay van Garderen takes a while to get to his feet and back on his bike before getting going again. He’s got a cut under his left eye and has clearly clattered his left knee too. He pedals away looking very sorry for himself after hitting the ground hard.
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223km to go: We have our breakaway and it’s a reluctant two-man kamikaze mission b eing carried out by Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) and Stephane Rosetto (Cofidis). They have opened a gap of 1min 57sec on the bunch.
229km to go: Cofidis rider Stephane Rossetto shoots off into the distance, somewhat reluctantly if the way he’s jabbering into his radio is anything to go by.
Behind him, Wanty-Gobert rider Yoann Offredo bridges the gap with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man walking to the gallows. He’s obviously under orders from his directeur sportif and keeps looking behind him in something approaching desperation to see if anyone else is coming with him. There are no takers.
230km to go: No, really. There are 230km to go.
A point to ponder: Ahead of this stage, the riders will have spent 20 minutes or so warming up on their rollers by the team coaches. They’re now engaged in what is ostensibly another 10-kilometre warm-up before the signal to start racing is given. And once that signal is given, the vast majority of the field will find themselves on what is ostensibly yet another warm-up – one that is 200 kilometres in length - before it’s time for them to start getting their ducks in a row ahead of the inevitable sprint finish.
And what do you know? Once that’s done with and the stage is over ... it’s back to the rollers by the team buses for a warm-down!!!!!!! It all seems rather unecessary to me. I suspect Dave Brailsford, Sky and their small margins have an awful lot to answer for - and I don’t mean the kind of questions they fielded so unconvincingly when called before a government select committee.
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The roll-out has begun: THe ridfers on their way out of Belfort, going at a gentle pace before the signal to start racing is given by race director Christian Prudhomme. Once he waves his flag, a breakaway group will get away and cycle along on their own for several hours, before getting caught by the bunch ahead of a sprint finish in Chalon-sur-Saone.
Schedule: Today’s stage is due to start in 15 minutes or so. At 230 kilometres in length over a largely flat parcours, the Tour organisers have dubbed it “The Longest Day” - metaphorically and existentially, as well as liteally, one presumes. Barring accidents, police intervention or very strong crosswinds, it’s likely to be an utterly forgettable day’s racing. Don’t touch that dial!!!
The Move podcast: Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and JD look back at stage six in the podcast many cycling and Tour de France aficionados can’t quite decide whether or not it’s OK to like.
Stage six review
Jeremy Whittle was at La Planche Les Belles Filles to see defending champion Geraint Thomas throw down a marker, as Belgium’s Dylan Teuns won the stage.
General Classification after stage six
Giulio Ciccone came up agonisingly short on yesterday’s brutal summit finish, but earned himself a day – and possibly more – in yellow by way of consolation.
Stage seven: Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône (230)
William Fotheringham: The longest stage of the Tour follows one of the toughest, but will give the flat-road sprinters another chance. It’s a hilly start, but a very flat run over the final 80km, plus there is a good chance that one of the favourites will have taken yellow the previous day which will lend some structure to the race. The pressure will be felt the most by the older sprinters, led by André Greipel, who moved to the small French team Arkéa-Samsic over the winter but hasn’t produced much, and Cofidis’s Nacer Bouhanni, who has never shone in the Tour.
