The 100th Tour De France

[goosano]

Yesterdays stage was utterly brilliant. Looking at the GC before and after you would be forgiven for thinking WTF, nothing happened. From the moment the Garmin boys attacked on the first hill it was war. Great performance from the Dawg to hold on to the lead though I can't help but think that Movistar got their tactics a bit wrong on the last hill but one. As i mentioned in post 10 really surprised that at least one of Uran/Henao was not in the team this year-bet Froome wishes he had their support now. Did you see what happened to Peter Kennaugh-the start of Sky's nightmare. Ryder Hejsedal, hang your head in shame

As ever the best writng on the stages has been from Robert Millar in Cycling News-perceptive and funny. Forgive me for a couple of postings from his blog

Le Tour is a tough environment. It's not only the riders who are desperate to do something notable in the first week, there's also the infamous Jury of Commissaires to consider. Often accused of being heartless, they obviously thought they would get in there early with the low punches as soon as the race arrived back on the mainland. Cue the the Ted King elimination and the Tony Martin rainbow bands fine. One of the first things you learn to do when you arrive at the Tour is to synchronise your watch to Tour Time. It might be different to real world time by seconds or even minutes, but it's no good arguing about it because from that moment forth, it's the only time that matters. Once ASO hands out the accreditation, you are in their world.

The fateful 7-second decision that condemned Ted King back to civvy street was rather harsh, particularly when the Cannondale rider disputed the timing but maybe that just sealed his fate even more.

Then there's the 2000 Swiss Franc smacking for world time trial champion Tony Martin. You would have thought being champion meant he could wear the rainbow bands for all time trials but apparently not. I can just about see the reasoning that it's a team event and he's the individual champion – but no bands allowed on his bike? How does that work? Omega Pharma are world champions at that discipline as well. The commissaires sometimes wonder why they get a reputation for being UCI tax collectors but you can see why.

Two stages define what the week's stages have been all about. The team time trial – 58 kph, 25 km and barely over 25 minutes – was just amazing, and then there was the Albi stage where Cannondale set about the other sprinters. The Friday stage was one of those sticky days anyway – hot, breathless and never-ending – but the contest unleashed for the green jersey competition soon indicated what's to come over the weekend in the Pyrenees. Roughly half the riders getting dropped on only a 2nd cat climb doesn't bode well for those poor souls. The tactics paid off for Sagan as he has now a sizeable lead for the points competition and he got his stage win. That would have been eating him as the other three big sprinters of Kittel, Cavendish and Greipel all had their trip to the podium.

Definitely been Orica-GreenEdge's week though, a stage in Corsica, the team time trial win and the yellow jersey for Simon Gerrans and then Daryl Impey. They would have signed up for just one of those happenings never mind all of them and after their previous Tour disappointment, it's Christmas come early for the Australian squad.

Heading into the first mountain battles for the GC the main favourites are remarkably close, so we ought to see some fireworks to sort out the standings. Guys like Froome, Evans and Contador have all been paying attention, same with van Garderen, Quintana and Valverde. The lesser lights, Rodriguez, Martin and Rolland might show too, though the latter looks like he wants to continue with his push for the Climbers jersey. And matching shorts, and helmet and gloves.

Twitter campaign to buy him some black shorts, please.

And hinting at his own darker side from the past.....

The 100th Tour de France promises to be a spectacular celebration of cycling, from Corsica to Paris via some of greatest sights and mountains, as the organisers ASO haven't lacked ambition in putting together a route which showcases some of France's greatest sights.

And yet despite all the careful planning and tweaking of the route to take in the chosen shiny bits, the 18th of July, the day of THE stage of this year's contest, risks not being remembered for making the riders toil up the 21 bends to Alpe d'Huez twice but for something even more spiteful – the French Senate inquiry into past doping in cycling is set to publish the list of riders who returned positive drug tests fifteen years ago.

As if the 18th day of racing won't be hard enough physically, the decision is a cruel mental punishment that doesn't really need to be saved up for the day most likely to confirm who will win this Tour de France. It smacks of political show-boating so don’t be surprised if they wait for the 18th kilometre or minute of racing to reveal the accused. This is going to hurt pro cycling as a business, a sport and a culture, and they can't blame anyone but themselves.

I don't have any problem with that list being published, although the timing is crap. The doctors, team management, cyclists and chemists involved know the Festina Affair could have been any of the squads – Virenque and Co. were just the ones unfortunate enough to be caught red-handed at the time and now the judges are going to tell us the whole ugly truth of that era.

The high-profile withdrawal of Laurent Jalabert is just one step of a necessary process which is going to hang heavily over this year's event and it doesn't matter if guys like Bernard Hinault stand up and say things have changed or not. That's exactly the kind of attitude that allowed the deceptions to continue for as long as they have. At this point, all excuses are futile. Judgement day is coming for the class of 98 and it's going to be very uncomfortable for some people.

Before ONCE and the Spanish teams ran away from that fateful Tour Jaja put himself in the spotlight by taking on the role of spokesman when a rider strike was organised in protest at the police searches of buses, cars and hotel rooms, but the culprits still involved with bike racing can't scuttle off now and the former world number one has missed his chance to tell the truth before he's forced to do so.

You might think Lance Armstrong should be keeping quiet about EPO, cortisone and blood doping, but he's right when he says that he didn't invent those medical products and I doubt very much that at the beginning of his pro career he had the idea of using them for performance enhancement. If you want to understand why shame hangs over cycling and why politicians and campaigners continue to use the sport in a detrimental way to promote their own causes, then riders like Jalabert need to start talking. They need to be explaining what they were expected, persuaded or taught to do by their peers and helpers. Silence on the other hand won't stop these same old stories being dragged up and it won't make them go away.

I started writing my explanation back in February and to my shame it has sat in a folder unfinished. I think I wanted it to be a story of sorts but I now know it doesn't need to be entertaining – facts, names and places will do, and then a basic conclusion. It's not my place to suggest how to use the information, just to provide it. This latest affair has reminded me I really need to get on with it and send it to someone who I think will use it wisely. I'm not seeking to be a hero or a martyr for doing so. I have no agenda or a position to defend and I certainly don't think it'll win me any brownie points but if it helps understand why the culture got as bad as it did or why the Omertà dominated then so be it.

Why didn't I say anything before, I hear you ask. Well who would have really listened? Who was interested other than those wishing to punish or humiliate? Would you have brought that crap to your doorstep when you knew it would have changed nothing?

Think back not too far, when everyone who dared to say anything was called an idiot, twisted or bitter by people who ought to have known better too. I might do stupid things occasionally, but I'm not bitter, twisted or needing revenge on cycling and I like it too much to want to damage it but therein lay the dilemma. I couldn’t spit in the soup even though it was bad. That's pretty shameful too.

I do have sympathy for the majority of the riders who will be named but none for the people who put them in that situation. Jalabert had his chance to say something, he could have chosen to give his evidence in private to the inquiry and maybe be useful, as that's what Didier Deschamps did when asked about doping in football. Jalabert didn't take that chance. Instead he fudged the questions and now he just looks like a fool.

The obvious questions are, if this info has been available since 2004 why hasn't the issue been raised before? Did the UCI of Verbruggen know? Did Pat McQuaid know? If they didn't, then why not?

The present day riders can rightly say this has nothing to do with them and I'd agree: their mentality has moved on. So many other things in life have improved but cycling seems stuck with a mentality of cover-ups and deceptions and they always get dragged out at Tour de France time when they'll get the most coverage. Isn't it time that stopped and stuff like this is sorted out quickly ?

I'd go as far as saying don't bother asking the riders at the 100th Tour for a sound-bite on the subject ask someone who was there instead. Someone like Virenque because we may well be needing an ironic laugh before St. Frederick's big day. I still think this year's race can be one of the great Tours but it doesn't need rubbish like this to liven up the suspense.

[Peevemor]

The tour is passing throught the town where I work (Dinan) this very minute!

[Sergey]

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The tour is passing throught the town where I work (Dinan) this very minute!

Nice looking place (although the stage itself is as dull as ditch water).

[Peevemor]

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Nice looking place (although the stage itself is as dull as ditch water).

I can't hear myself think for the helicopters.

[Purple & Green]

interesting stuff from Millar as usual, but, my recollection is that he failed a drugs test at the tour of spain and pleaded innocence along the lines of I'm a vegetarian so that can't possibly be in my sample.

I think I've spectacularly got everything wrong about this tour so far - apart from Froome - although when push came to shove Sky did Saxo-Tinkoff yesterday after looking particularly weak and vulnerable for a few days.

[Sergey]

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interesting stuff from Millar as usual, but, my recollection is that he failed a drugs test at the tour of spain and pleaded innocence along the lines of I'm a vegetarian so that can't possibly be in my sample.

I think I've spectacularly got everything wrong about this tour so far - apart from Froome - although when push came to shove Sky did Saxo-Tinkoff yesterday after looking particularly weak and vulnerable for a few days.

I think he failed several tests when he rode for TVM and decided to retire when his trade team went bust rather than face a lengthy ban.

As an aside, there was a strong rumour a few years back that he's undergone a sex change. One newspaper (Daily Mail, IIRC) had tracked him down and he was holed-up with a council worker in Swindon.

Edit: Link to RM story: http://www.cyclinglogue.com/about-cy...ger-a-man.html

[BroxburnHibee]

Does everyone think that doping is gone from cycling now? I've just finished reading Tyler Hamilton's book and to be honest after watching Froome do what he did yesterday the similarities to Armstrong was eerily familiar.

Sadly it's not surprising to see folk showing suspicions.

[CropleyWasGod]

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Does everyone think that doping is gone from cycling now? I've just finished reading Tyler Hamilton's book and to be honest after watching Froome do what he did yesterday the similarities to Armstrong was eerily familiar.

Sadly it's not surprising to see folk showing suspicions.

It will be many years before the smell goes away. Look at athletics.... it was reasonable to think that they were getting their house in order, until this week.

There's a xenophobic twist to this. Last year, you can imagine the feeling of "us plucky Brits finally getting our just desserts, after years of cheating by those dirty foreigners." Now, you can imagine the European feeling of "hmmmm..... two Brits winning in successive years, and so easily too? That's a bit strange."

[James.]

Best thing about the Tour this year has been Peter Sagan doing wheelies along the road when the peloton caught him. That Quintana looks like a talent - hadn't seen much of him up to this year's tour but looks the real deal at only 23. What's happened to the Schleck brothers? Andy Schleck was the next big thing when I used to really follow the sport - he's disappeared a bit like Cunego at Lampre.

[goosano]

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Does everyone think that doping is gone from cycling now? I've just finished reading Tyler Hamilton's book and to be honest after watching Froome do what he did yesterday the similarities to Armstrong was eerily familiar.

Sadly it's not surprising to see folk showing suspicions.

I'm sure it has not gone. I just hope Sky are clean and there advances are due to sports science. It is good now that there is retrospective testing (up to 8 years if I recall correctly) with appropriate harsh punishments attached

[derekHFC]

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Does everyone think that doping is gone from cycling now?

Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever disappear completely. You listen to the riders talk and they tell you how often they're tested, etc, etc and you can't see how it would be possible. You then read the LA story and you realise how it is possible and realise how much it takes to do.

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" Now, you can imagine the European feeling of "hmmmm..... two Brits winning in successive years, and so easily too? That's a bit strange."

In my opinion (and others may disagree) Froome could have won the TDF last year with ease had Wiggins not been the team leader. He looked stronger overall and I think he would have put some time into Wiggins, had he been allowed to. This is probably why Wiggins has been left out this year to avoid any conflict of who is in charge.

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Best thing about the Tour this year has been Peter Sagan doing wheelies along the road when the peloton caught him. That Quintana looks like a talent - hadn't seen much of him up to this year's tour but looks the real deal at only 23. What's happened to the Schleck brothers? Andy Schleck was the next big thing when I used to really follow the sport - he's disappeared a bit like Cunego at Lampre.

Frank Schleck is banned till 01/01/14 for doping and his younger brother Andy is just coming back from a bad injury (cracked pelvis IIRC). Andy was doing ok in the tour till the Mont Ventoux stage where he cracked big time and ended up a good bit down in time.

Quintana looks so comfortable on the bike its crazy. If he can sort his time-trialing out, he's maybe a potential future winner.

I like Pierre Roland, but he's been a bit disappointing this year in the TDF.

[lapsedhibee]

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I like Pierre Roland, but he's been a bit disappointing this year in the TDF.

Not as disappointing as the other cheese-eater who declined the decline today.

[jodjam]

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Not as disappointing as the other cheese-eater who declined the decline today.

Aye I heard this mentioned on the highlights show. Must be more to it than that as he would know the Gap finish was part of the Tour.

[derekHFC]

Froome is 1/3 for tomorrow's stage.

If I had a spare few quid I'd be lumping on.

Is there any other outcome bar a mechanical failure?

[lapsedhibee]

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Aye I heard this mentioned on the highlights show. Must be more to it than that as he would know the Gap finish was part of the Tour.

"12.05 Thibaut Pinot, the FDJ team leader and France's great hope for the
future, has withdrawn from the race. The Frenchman who had previously
admitted to being scared of speed, has now quit the race. With a sore
throat.

"Some people are afraid of spiders or snakes. I'm afraid of speed. It's a
phobia," the FDJ rider and breakaway winner of last year's stage eight had
previously said.

Earlier in the race Pinot had told L'Equipe that he thought he had no place
in the race after losing 25 minutes in the stage to Ax 3 Domaines following
another poor show of descending.

“When I saw that I was not able to stay on the wheel of a rider like Mark
Cavendish on the descent off a mountain pass, I asked myself: ‘What am I
doing on the Tour?' I received the clear response that I have nothing to do
here."

[goosano]

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"12.05 Thibaut Pinot, the FDJ team leader and France's great hope for the
future, has withdrawn from the race. The Frenchman who had previously
admitted to being scared of speed, has now quit the race. With a sore
throat.

"Some people are afraid of spiders or snakes. I'm afraid of speed. It's a
phobia," the FDJ rider and breakaway winner of last year's stage eight had
previously said.

Earlier in the race Pinot had told L'Equipe that he thought he had no place
in the race after losing 25 minutes in the stage to Ax 3 Domaines following
another poor show of descending.

“When I saw that I was not able to stay on the wheel of a rider like Mark
Cavendish on the descent off a mountain pass, I asked myself: ‘What am I
doing on the Tour?' I received the clear response that I have nothing to do
here."

Very sad to see after his great performance last year. Cycling News covered the story well acouple of weeks ago

[lapsedhibee]

Never mind does he take drugs, what about eating sweeties in the last 10km? Cynical or wot?

[goosano]

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Never mind does he take drugs, what about eating sweeties in the last 10km? Cynical or wot?

I'll take it you've never 'bonked' on a bike then

[lapsedhibee]

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I'll take it you've never 'bonked' on a bike then

Having seen what a wee dug did to Marcus Berghardt's wheel, I dinna think carbon frames are up to it!

[jodjam]

What a great touch by sky team riding together at the end. Closing ceremony was spectacular.

Arise lord froome of Nairobi? ;)

[3pm]

I know nothing about the cycling.

Can Froome had it all wrapped up before they'd even set off?

Apologies for my ignorance.

Outstanding achievement. Well done Chris Froome!

[CropleyWasGod]

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I know nothing about the cycling.

Can Froome had it all wrapped up before they'd even set off?

Apologies for my ignorance.

Outstanding achievement. Well done Chris Froome!

Yeah, it's tradition that no-one attacks the race leader on the final stage. He was so far ahead that no-one would have caught him anyway, barring a major mishap.

I can only remember one Tour being decided on the final stage, and that was a Time Trial.

[3pm]

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Yeah, it's tradition that no-one attacks the race leader on the final stage. He was so far ahead that no-one would have caught him anyway, barring a major mishap.

I can only remember one Tour being decided on the final stage, and that was a Time Trial.

I could ask lots of questions CWG....maybe even more than you get on the threads about the filth!

[lapsedhibee]

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I can only remember one Tour being decided on the final stage, and that was a Time Trial.

Youngster.

"In 1979, Joop Zoetemelk was 3:07 behind Bernard Hinault before the final
stage. Zoetemelk attacked on the last stage, hoping to win enough time to
claim the victory. Hinault chased Zoetemelk, and beat him for the stage
victory."

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Can Froome had it all wrapped up before they'd even set off?

When they're doing the last 50km at 65-70kmh on cobbles and ending in the dark, it's shirley never a total gimme that the mellow johnny will prevail.

Perhaps the organisers should have watered the Chomps Elysee to make things less of a procession.

[CropleyWasGod]

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Youngster.

You have made my weekend. It's been a while since anyone called me that :0)

So is it a modern tradition?

[lapsedhibee]

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So is it a modern tradition?

Dunno. Some TdF "traditions" seem to be fairly optional, though, like waiting for punctured rivals to catch up.

Perhaps we should introduce that principle in the SPFL - let the yams draw every derby for the next few years until they've picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and caught up with the rest of the pack again? No?

[CropleyWasGod]

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Dunno. Some TdF "traditions" seem to be fairly optional, though, like waiting for punctured rivals to catch up.

Perhaps we should introduce that principle in the SPFL - let the yams draw every derby for the next few years until they've picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and caught up with the rest of the pack again? No?

No.