THIS YEAR'S TOUR DE FRANCE IS THE TOUR DE POGACAR

Your boy is really looking good. If there was still any chance for anyone to do a last ditch to catch up to him, I think it;s safe to say that that ship has sailed.

Would be fun if it snowed a bit as they were racing in the Alps. I keep forgetting to watch any highlights of the stages.

Remco's victory was exciting to watch. I was surprised that he took it over Tadej.
Tadej was not happy with a 5AM doping test before stage 15. They woke him for the test. Jonas was tested at 2AM the morning of his crash. I always thought the winner was tested immediately after the stage. Based on Tadej's other comments he was also not happy with an immediate test. He said it interfered with his cooldown, which is a good point.

My internet provider gave me a free subscription to Peacock, which is the TDF carrier here in the US. So I tried to watch a couple of stages this week, but it's kind of frustrating. They only carry a full length replay (five hours) including showing the ENTIRE rollout to the start (never realized it was so long). When I try to fast forward it makes me watch ads before I can continue.

Stage 15 looks worth checking out, though.

I am glad your enjoying your Tour De France my friend, and I hope the one you want to win does win it all.

I hope your Monday continues to be a momentous start to your new week. ?

OH NO!! World Cup is done. TDF getting there. What WILL you watch next?

I thought he was out. Nasty fall today

COOL!

Here are 21 bits of Tour de France trivia.

1. Breakaways are a constant in the Tour de France. A breakaway is called an echappée, a French word for escape. Normally, a breakaway will only be allowed to happen if the peloton decides. The peloton won't allow a breakaway to happen if it includes a leading GC rider. However, sometimes the peloton can't stop a breakaway if it's disorganised or has no energy. At the start of stage races, there'll be constant attempts by riders, not leading riders, to break away from the peloton. The start of stage races is often very animated. The 'elastic band' metaphor is often used to describe such initial breakaway attempts - a breakaway only succeeds when the 'elastic band' snaps and the breakaway group of riders is too far ahead of the peloton to be reined back in. Eventually a small group of riders will successfully mount a breakaway from the peloton. It isn't common, though occasionally happens, for one of the breakaway riders to win the race as they have to use a lot of energy to stay ahead of the peloton as there are only a few of them. The size of the breakaway is key - too small and there's not enough riders to manage the workload of riding at the front; too many and there's problems of organisation. A breakaway group of riders will want to shake off the weaker riders. Between five to ten riders is widely regarded as the optimal size of a breakaway. Usually, even though the breakaway may be minutes ahead, the peloton will chase them down as the race unfolds and they will be swallowed up by the peloton. (It's reckoned that a committed peloton or at least a chase group of riders can chase down, ten seconds per kilometre, a breakaway racing to the line with ten kilometres to go.) To stand a chance of winning the race, the breakaway riders, despite riding for different teams, must work together and share the workload of riding at the front. Breakaway riders that don’t ride at the front and stay close behind other riders are called wheelsuckers. Wheelsuckers aren't popular cyclists. Low budget teams, like Team TotalEnergies, often go for early breakaways in stage races just to get television coverage for their corporate sponsors. (On occasion, a team's sporting director will order his riders to launch a breakaway as punishment for a previous bad day's racing!)

2. Riders aren't allowed to draft behind cars to conserve energy while racing. But Tour de France commissaires often take a lenient view of drafting behind cars if riders have crashed or have suffered a mechanical (eg a tyre puncture, a gear malfunction) drafting to ride back to the peloton.

3. Gendarmes, French police officers, line the route especially where the crowds are. Their role is to curb the worst excesses of exuberant fans. There are fans who wave flags in the riders' faces and who even run with the riders. Admittedly, they look closer on television than they really are, but they seem to be getting in the way of riders in the race. But fans lining the race, and not having to pay for the privilege, is one of the Tour de France's unique selling points. Long may it continue!

4. The Tour de France is often a target for protest, and the French commendably like a good protest. Traditionally French farmers have protested by holding up the peloton. More recently, climate change protesters have disrupted the race; though cycling is green, the Tour de France emits a lot of greenhouses gases with its use of cars, drones, motorcycles, helicopters and planes. And even more recently the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, despite having no Israeli riders in its team and no direct links with the Israeli government, was subject to pro-Palestine protesters. The team's name was a bit of red rag to a bull. The team has now been re-branded and races as the NSN Cycling Team. (Because of adverse publicity, Premier Tech has moved its sponsorship to the Alpecin team.)

5. Time gaps in the Tour de France, as with other road cycling races, occur when there's more than a bike length between riders. Sometimes it's seconds if it's a sprint stage, and sometimes it's minutes if a mountain stage and even hours if a gruelling mountain stage. This is why cyclists riding as a group crossing the finishing line are given the same time, though the first rider over the line even if it's by a tyre's width is declared the winner of the race. Often at the end of the race, riders will sprint to ensure there's no more than a bike's length between the rider ahead of him.

6. It’s very difficult for a team to go for more than one jersey. Teams go for the yellow or green jersey, very rarely the polka dot jersey though riders winning the yellow jersey often win the polka dot jersey. Teams not going for a jersey usually plot a stage victory or two and the lowest budget teams will often go for early breakaways in stage races to get television coverage for their sponsors. A team trying to win both the yellow and green jersey, the most coveted jerseys on tour, just can't have enough domestiques to help both a GC rider and a sprinter given that teams are only allowed eight riders on their roster. The needs of a serious GC rider with his need for climbing domestiques doesn't square with the needs of a serious sprint rider with his need for a lead-out sprint team. It's yellow or green in the Tour de France.

7. There are lots of unwritten laws on the Tour de France. One such convention is that the peloton will allow a rider who was born or who have close family living in a village or town that the race is passing through to go first so he can enjoy the applause of the crowd provided the he doesn't steal a march on the peloton by launching a breakaway. Another convention, sometimes broken, is that the peloton will slow down if there's a crash in the peloton taking out a leading rider to allow the crashed riders to catch up. There's also a convention that when the king of the peloton, that's the rider wearing the yellow jersey, wants a pee everyone should also have a pee on the road or at least not attack while he's having a pee - see HAVING A PEE ON TOUR. I'm not sure what the poo conventions are on tour, I suspect riders just poo in their lycra pants!

8. In the Tour de France, mountains are categorised from 1 (least difficult) to 4 (most difficult). However, there's also an hors catégorie (HC), meaning beyond categorisation. HC mountains are the hardest to climb because of their very steep gradients. For example, the Col de la Loze in the French Alps has a one-in-five gradient in places. That is hell to climb even for a dedicated climber! Climbing points are awarded to a number of riders who first reach the top of the categorised mountains on each stage; the higher the category, the more points allocated. Legendary mountains regularly raced on the Tour de France include two mountains in the Pyrenees, the Cirque de Gavarnie-Gèdre and the Col du Tourmalet, over 17 km to the summit with an average gradient of 7.3 per cent. (The Col du Tourmalet was the first mountain to be raced in the Tour de France way back in 1910 and is the mountain that has been featured most in the Tour de France.) There's also the Alpe d'Huez with its 21 harpin bends and the Col du Galibier in the French Alps, plus Mont Ventoux in nearby Provence. Mountain stages in the Alps often determine the Tour de France winner because a lot of time can be gained and lost on mountains.

9. Ascending a mountain certainly isn't easy, but descending a mountain also isn't easy especially if the road is wet - there's many a spectacular crash on mountain descents. Bike handling skills are key in descending a mountain at a fast speed. Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team's Tom Pidcock is a brilliant mountain descenter not least because he started his cycling career as a mountain biker- he's won two Olympic gold medals for mountain bike riding. As a former cyclo-cross biker, Team Visma-Lease a Bike's Wout van Aert, though not racing in this year's Tour de France, is another good mountain descenter.

10. The Tour de France, plus other road cycling races, is characterised by attacks and counter-attacks. Attacks always take place at the start of a race for a breakaway of riders to try to get free of the peloton. A breakaway often makes for a more interesting race. However, the peloton is often in control of these attacks. Further attacks often occur on a climb, especially at the start of a climb. Serious time gaps can be gained and lost on a mountain. Attacks will happen if the peloton splits up because of crosswinds. Attacks generally don't happen when there's a crash involving leading riders - there's a code of honour - often the peloton will slow down to allow crashed riders to re-join the peloton. A common tactic to deter attacks is for a team of cyclists to ride fast together. It's the role of the domestiques, especially the road captain, to counter such attacks. A road captain needs to be aware of what other teams are doing. The road captain is the eyes and ears of his team leader, plus the sporting director in the team car.

11. La flamme rouge is a triangular red flag hung above the road to denote that there's one kilometre left to go to the finish line. For sprint stages particularly, the flag symbolises the business end of the race.

12. For sprint stages in the Tour de France, there are sprint zones between three and five kilometres from the official stage finish line. Riders finishing within the sprint zone will be given the same time as the riders sprinting over the finish line. Sprint zones reduce the risk of crashes towards the finish line. Normally GC riders and their teams like to dominate the front of the peloton. But with a sprint stage sprinters and their teams will also try to get to the front of the peloton. Without sprint zones, the outcome would be too many riders going for the same space and therefore crashes would be more likely to happen. In Tour de France sprint stages, there are effectively two finish lines, one for the sprinters and another a few kilometres back for the other riders.

13. There are two dedicated medical cars in the Tour de France. Doctors in the cars will treat injured riders even on the wheel. There are also eight dedicated ambulances on tour needed to take riders with broken bones or concussion to a nearby hospital. I'm getting my head around the ratio of medical cars to ambulances!

14. Though several white African cyclists, such as South Africa's Robbie Hunter, Daryl Impey and Louis Meintjes have ridden the Tour de France and even won a stage, Eritrea's Daniel Tekleheimanot and Merhawi Kudus were the first black African cyclists to ride the Tour in 2015. In 2024, nearly ten years later, Eritrea's Biniam Girmay, riding for Intermarché-Wanty, became the first black African cyclist to win a Tour de France stage and he went onto to win the green jersey for being the best sprinter. Quite an achievement.

15. All teams, even sprint teams, have climbers on their roster. Climbers have to be lean; they don't want to be carrying a lot of body weight, like muscle, up a mountain. The polka dot jersey is given to the best climber - see HOW TO WIN THE POLKA DOT JERSEY. It's very rare nowadays for a specialist climber, like Team Visma-Lease a Biker's Sepp Kuss or UAE Emirates-XRG's Isaac del Toro, to win the polka dot jersey. Their main job now is to nurse their team's GC leader and/or their team's sprint leader over the mountains. It's the GC riders, like UAE Emirates-XRG's Tadej Poga?ar and Team Visma-Lease-a-Bike's Jonas Vingegaard, who tend to win the polka dot jersey while winning the yellow jersey. To win the yellow jersey, a rider has to be very good at climbing mountains. Arguably climbers are the riders that must suffer in the Tour de France though climbers seem to enjoy suffering. When climbing, riders often get what's called 'cooked'; they just cease to pedal or at least pedal like others are pedalling on the mountain. Television cameras love to get close to those riders who are 'cooked'; 'cooked' riders often just smile at the camera accepting their fate. Climbers are the stoics of the tour! Basically for a rider to win the polka dot jersey, he has to be mad or at least a masochist! He has to endure a lot of pain for a long time! It's as simple as that. The drag advantages of riding behind other riders is vastly reduced climbing a mountain. Climbers have to be used to both very hot and very cold weather; though there's a heatwave now in France, sometimes there'll be snow on some of the mountains! They also have to be used to windy and rainy weather. And they have to be good at riding at high altitude. Because of the Andes, Colombian riders are often some of the best at riding in high mountains. Polka dot jerseys aren't so hotly contested nowadays as in the past because often the leading GC rider wins it by virtue of climbing all the mountains to get to Paris quickly to secure the yellow jersey. The best climbers nowadays are employed to act as domestiques to support their leaders up a mountain rather than given a free rein by the teams to chase the polka dot jersey. The Tour de France organisers arguably need to think about how the polka dot jersey can be a hotly contested jersey again.

16. Winds play an important part in Tour de France racing. Headwinds make riders race slower and tailwinds quicker; leading riders prefer headwinds because such winds suppress attacks launched by other riders. Riders can quite easily deal with headwinds and tailwinds, but cross-winds are something else. With pelotons, the peloton often splits up and becomes disorganised. Echelons form and attacks often occur when there are crosswinds. Domestiques are expected to protect their GC leader from the crosswinds by taking the brunt of such winds.

17. Grupettos are small groups of riders that have been spat out of the peloton. These riders usually ride as a small group because less energy is spent riding in a group than riding solo. In mountain stages, sprinters will often form a grupetto in which they'll work together. A sprint team will often send a rider back to help a struggling sprinter. It's safety in numbers. For sprinters, it's about survival in the mountains because there'll be another sprint stage to contest after the mountains.

18. Behind the riders racing, there is the so-called broom wagon, a minibus sweeping up the riders who cannot finish the stage race within the time permitted; it's usually the sprinters struggling up the mountains!

19. A GC rider will need a team of domestiques to help them win the yellow jersey. The role of domestiques is to totally sacrifice themselves for the leader of their team. They'll ride at the front so their leader saves energy; they'll ride at the pace their leader dictates; they'll protect their leader from any cross-winds on the road; they'll fetch and carry food and water to their leader; they'll continually watch what the other teams are doing; they'll cover any breakaways of rival teams; they'll give up their bike if their leader’s bike has a problem; and they'll help their leader have a pee on the wheel! Domestiques in a sprint team will undertake similar domestique duties like fetching and carrying water and food for their sprint leader, nursing their leader up the mountains and guiding their leader back to the peloton if and when dropped, but they also have more specialist domestique duties in riding as a sprint train to launch their leader towards the finishing line. (A top GC team may even have a super-domestique who can do everything, like Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's Florian Lipowitz, Team Visma-Lease a Bike's Matteo Jorgenson and UAE Emirates-XRG's Adam Yates. As well as being their leader’s wingmen, they are a team’s Plan B in case their leader is seriously off form or crashes out of the tour.)

20. There have been many books written about the Tour de France and its riders, both autobiographies and biographies. My favourite book is an autobiography written by a domestique, Charly Wegelius. His book, titled Domestique, is brilliant in capturing the unsung role of a domestique - there's little glory but lots of toil being a domestique. Charly Wegelius is now the sporting director of EF Education-EasyPost, an American team regularly competing in the Tour de France.

21. Below is an iconic photo taken by Carlo Martini on the 1952 Tour de France on the stage from Lausanne to the legendary mountain of L'Alpe de Huez. The photograph, as featured in the Italian yearbook, Un Anno di Sport, is shrouded in mystery. It shows Fausto Coppi wearing the yellow jersey at the front and his arch-rival Gino Bartali riding behind during the climb of the Galibier with a bottle of water is being passed between the two riders. The photo is often used to illustrate the camaraderie between rival riders in adversity on the Tour. But no one knows who passed the bottle to whom. Fausto Coppi's son claims it was his father passing the bottle to Gino Bartali; he would say that, wouldn't he?! The Italian photographer Vito Liverani, who was close to Carlo Martini, claims that the photograph was stage-managed and it it doesn't matter who passed the bottle to whom. But the mystery only thickens. There's a third rider between the two riders - see a foot on a pedal and the shadow on the road behind the two riders. No one has been able to identify this rider, who would if alive be able to solve the Tour de France mystery!