The final week of the Tour de France is a time where absolutely anything could happen. Or absolutely nothing. We could see a continuation of the Alps – Sky squashing Movistar, Dumoulin digging in – or something completely different. Will our race leader hang on? Will the Giro take its toll? Just how bad will
Tag: Tour de France preview
It hasn’t been easy but on the eve of Stage 18 of the 2017 Tour de France we can conclude the organisers have got what they wanted. They didn’t want Chris Froome to stomp his familiar brand of victory all over this year’s edition and they wanted each mountain stage to be ridden in earnest.
Dull Tour de France route seeks exciting rider to help deliver spectacular three-week showcase. With a surprisingly open GC race and nothing too taxing on the legs, riders should be up for the opportunity to attack, attack, attack. This year just might be the year for a genuine underdog to try something special; Chris Froome’s
There has been plenty of suggestion that Chris Froome’s not quite his usual self. There have even been whispers that Froome might not actually win the Tour de France for a fourth time. Doubts about the bookie’s favourite have emerged as a result of a number of factors: the ASO’s flat and fast route, the
All sprinters have bad days. Whether they get dropped, get blocked, puncture or crash, every sprinter will be able to recall days where they just weren’t able to contest a sprint. But when you’re as good as Marcel Kittel – and he really is good – should you be worried about the number of days
Next weekend sees the return of cycling’s most famous race. The Tour de France is the race even your non-cycling friends will have a passing interest in. It’s the one that might make it on to the evening news or the back page of the paper. Nobody wants to hear that your favourite stage of
Following the rest day in Switzerland, the riders of the Tour de France will tackle a selection of the hardest Alpine climbs not named Alpe d’Huez. The four days stretching from Wednesday to Saturday can be thought of as; hard summit finish, mountain time trial, even harder summit finish, trio of big climbs.
Sheltering from the rainstorm atop Arcalis last Sunday, many GC contenders would have immediately switched their focus to Mont Ventoux. A rest day would follow Tom Dumoulin’s superb victory, before a departure out of the Pyrenees on Tuesday and one for the sprinters the following afternoon.
