Photo courtesy of Steephill.tv

Today will see the start of stage 3 of the 2012 Tour de France and the first time the riders will have hit French soil in the race.  This years edition of the race was always going to have a different feel to it due to high-profile riders missing out on the race and the forthcoming Olympics playing on some of the riders minds, dictating their training more than the Tour, something that very rarely happens.  Just a few days in to what is a race of epic length and proportions have we learnt anything we didn’t already know when back in Liège?

Time Trialists

The prologue through Liège was a mere 6.4km and I’m sure some of you commute to your place of work or walk to the local shops that are further away than that but it takes a special kind of rider to excel at these sorts of distances. For professional bike riders who are used to being on their bikes for between 4 and 8 hours, a 7-8 minute blast through the streets is something akin to Haile Gebrselassie taking on the 100m sprint at the Olympics. Cadel Evans was reported to have been warming up on his TT bike for around 2hrs prior to rolling down the start ramp and if you saw the amount of sweat dripping off him moments before climbing off his warm up bike you would not dispute that.

Cancellara, Wiggins, Boassen Hagen were all names that were mentioned as hot picks for the prologue win and along with Tejay Van Garderen and a surprising Sylvain Chavanel they made up the top 5. Tony Martin took a new wheel after a puncture which instantly pushed him down the leader board. On a longer TT course he is the type of rider who has the talent and power to claw that time back, but not on a course which took them just over 7 minutes to complete. Cadel Evans also ‘struggled’ with the distance and although only losing 17 seconds to Fabian Cancellara who will not be competing for the GC in Paris, he is already 10 seconds off the pace of Bradley Wiggins. For a race with so much TT’ing and the big mountains in the distance, 10 seconds can make all the difference. The biggest surprise of the day was Philippe Gilbert coming in just 13 seconds down. Not a recognised TT specialist, his super cool TT helmet and the Belgian crowds spurred him to a great ride which I’m sure he hoped to better the following day as the race stayed in Belgium.

With a lot more time trialling to come Tony Martin will have a chance to show the rest who is boss and the longer distances will suit more of the riders overall. The total length of time trialling in this years Tour has been a topic for discussion running up to the event and it is likely it will be one of the biggest factors that determines the winner.

Sprinters

Simply speaking… we still know that Super Sagan and The Manx Missile are fast to a redonkulous level. Sagan showed he’s not just about fast-twitch muscles and realised Fab was the wheel to take as the race ran into Seraing. Due to not being the younger man he once was, Cancellara is unable to merely ride away from the rest as he has done so many times before and although Sagan apologised after the race for refusing to take his turn on the run in and give Cancellara the better position, that’s racing and Cancellara shouldn’t have put himself in that position. Boassen Hagen put in a huge effort to bridge the gap and I’m sure he wont be backward about coming forward in situations like that as Cavendish won’t be around long and he needs to make sure he has good legs to take the stage wins he deserves. Realistically the steep ramp up to the finish was always going to be too much for the out-and-out sprinters and other than the aforementioned Sagan and Eddy-B, the rest of the top 12 places were taken up by what would be considered Puncheurs.

The profile and run in of Stage 2 was more of a stereotypical sprint stage and defined what is brilliant about Mark Cavendish. He doesn’t have the sprint train he might like there due to a split in team support for Bradley Wiggins but he won’t let that hold him back. He has always been a sprinter happy to be 15-20 riders back into the last bend. Watch the way he moves in any sprint. He jumps from wheel to wheel, constantly accessing who will give him the best tow further along before ditching them for the next one. It takes immense skill and vision to ride like that.  It’s similar to how Robbie McEwen plied his trade but I can’t think of anyone else who rides like that in the current Pro peloton. The tactics Mark uses mean you can never count him out and just because you don’t see him at the front of the race, doesn’t mean he wont beat you to the line. The drag race between him and Greipel was a beautiful thing to watch and had me screaming at the TV.

Although he takes immense pride in wearing the World Champion’s jersey, I can’t see Cavendish wanting to go all the way to Paris; the London 2012 Olympics are just too important. It should open up the Points competition (as long as Sagan lets the others get a look in) and we should see him fast exciting sprinting… let’s just get the nervous first few days out-of-the-way first and keep everyone upright!

Oh… and please somebody tell Sagan how to celebrate a win properly rather than looking like he is throwing some drunken shapes at 3.30am in a bar!

Photo courtesy of Steephill.tv

GC riders

It’s still very early to be sticking your neck out about the GC as there is still so much that could happen. None of the favourites have done anything stupidly silly yet to harm their chances but I’m sure Evans will be disappointed with the loss of 10 seconds on the opening day. He knows better than anyone that can make the difference. For Wiggins, coming second and NOT wearing the Yellow leaders jersey for the first few days is a good thing and knowing how calculated Team Sky can be, I wouldn’t be surprised if they planned that. The Yellow jersey comes with its own pressures and realistically, as long as you can keep tabs on your rivals, there is no need for you to be wearing it now if you want to wear it in Paris. With so much TTing to come it’s going to be difficult for someone other than Wiggins or Evans to win this race in my opinion, but who knows!? It’s a long way to Paris.

miscellaneous

Since Liège we have all learned that Team Sky look freakin’ awful in yellow helmets. What is not yet known is just how stupid others will look. Sadly I doubt Euskatel-Euskadi will ever reach the dizzy heights of the leading team to see just how horrible a yellow skid lid looks with an orange and green kit but I think we can all imagine! I’ve no idea why the teams decided to agree to this. It’s not necessary to know where every member of the team leading the teams classification is at every moment of the race, and if it was… that’s what they are wearing team kit for… to make them recognisable.  I suspect it has something to do with ASO trying to raise the profile of the team classification as it is generally seen as the lowest classification (if you don’t include the Lantern Rouge!) in terms of importance, behind the Younger Rider competition.

Still on the subject of helmets… WTF is going on with the Giro Air Attack! Granted the other teams have some ugly looking versions of their helmets with the aero inserts but this is just plain ridiculous… no… it’s redonkulous again! Here’s Bram Tankink who’s had all the great work of having a cool name undone by wearing this Giro monstrosity! He looks like Bart Simpson! It has had such an effect on his Euro-coolness that he has committed a cardinal sin of wearing the arms of his glasses on the inside of the straps!?! What is Giro up to!

Photo courtesy of cyclingweekly.co.uk

We also know, for the nth year running that Phil and Paul are utter morons. Don’t disagree with me just because you are American and have grown up on them spouting nonsensical drivel about Mr Armstrong for years. Two men who should know more about cycling and the Tour than any others consistently make huge factual errors and commentating clangers the size of an artistic tractor in a field made out of giant matchboxes (*nudge* “Paul, I think they are hay bales…”). They make me mad enough not to watch sometimes so if you want to defend them you best come ready with a damn good argument because I will be documenting their shenanigans this month and it wont be pretty!  If you want proper English language commentary, find a feed for Eurosport and listen to David Harman and Carlton Kirby.

Finally, spare a thought for Didi the Devil who is not at this years Tour de France but will be watching from a hospital bed. No he’s not having his ankle springs re-coiled, it’s actually some nasty sounding brain surgery… So get better soon Didi… the slopes of the Alps won’t be the same without you!

Photo courtesy of http://www.pbkblog.com

Stevie

As part of our continuing series of inspirational guest writing we have a timely piece about the personal battles people face with parts of the Tour de France.  Having suffered a stroke, Kim battled with courage and strength to take on her personal challenge at the 2009 Tour de France.

“…the nastiest hill I ever climbed”

I cried today while riding the bike. Why? Cuz I made it to the top of Cole de Romme—a Cat 1 climb. It wasn’t pretty, I took a hike with my bike many times, don’t think I rode an entire km without stopping at least 2 times, but the point is, there are no mountains in Austin, so I rode like I had trained…up a hill, rest on the downhill repeat. Only this time it was ‘pedal up the mountain, stop and walk a bit, take a picture, repeat’. Back in Nov 15, 2007 I couldn’t walk and today I made it to the top of Cole de Romme! You do the math… 8.8 km from elevation of 502m  to an elevation of 1297 m! There’s about 3 feet to 1 meter!

I took my pic (below) at 5 km to the finish, then again at 1 km, by then I figured I would make it. I didn’t ride the entire last km, I stopped at least 3 times! The top was so crowded, I probably inched the bike across the line. I found someone to take my pic, then went over the line, then started crying. It was at this point that I realized I was going to be ok, I can survive a stroke & continue to live life.

I rode down about 3 km to a spot above a hairpin turn. I could see the riders coming up (a lot faster than moi) then, I would turn around and take pics. Haven’t looked at the pics yet, but I did get to see the Devil and the Norway chicken.

The race was incredible and in the words of Lance Butler, “…these guys are professional”

I think my overall time to reach the summit was about 2 hours.(I’ll let you do the math on the mph…remember I hiked with a bike quite a bit.) It didn’t take me that long to go downhill, rode the brakes the entire time down…the thought of road rash to match my 5” x 3” bruise on my butt will slow ya down! (the previous day I slipped on some stairs and landed on my right butt cheek..the blood thinners must have still been in my system, because the bruise is huge.

Mt. Ventoux is out of the question, it was amazing how long it took to go 5k and to do that 5 times on a steeper grade, not worth it.

I’m a very fortunate brain injury survivor. Thank you Alison and Mom! love ya!

Col de Romme, 8.8 kilometers, average grade nine percent. I think Lance Armstrong said, “Col de Romme, the nastiest hill I ever climbed.”

Thank you to Kim for sharing her story. I’m sure many people reading this will know someone who has been affected by a stroke and it’s a heartening story. Congratulations Kim, hopefully with some LovingTheBike and #bikeschool help we can get you scaling Mt Ventoux!

Stevie

Wow! What a month it has been in the world of professional bike racing. In an attempt to keep those post-Tour blues at bay for one more day I thought I’d share the last set of photos and videos from my time at this years Tour…. all the way back in the first week of July, and also some thoughts and feelings about how this years Tour has been played out.

If Carlsberg made Tours…

The 2011 edition of the Tour de France has already been called the greatest of all time by commentators, journalists and fans alike due to the awesome sporting spectacle that was displayed. I’m not sure I agree it was the greatest ever… as much as I do not particularly like the man, Lance Armstrong gave us some stunning sporting moments during his reign, most of which are hard to succumb. That aside, it was a beautifully hard way to spend a July and even before a pedal was turned I knew this years Tour was going to be special for me. As well as my impending Tour holiday (which I will stop going on about at some point this year… probably), as June drew to a close I found myself in the privileged position of dishing out help and advice to Tour virgins who were determined to get involved and enjoy what can for some, be a long and uninteresting sporting occasion. I’d need a third hand if I was to try and count the amount of times this month I’ve had to try to explain to people why Mark Cavendish can’t, won’t and doesn’t want to win the Yellow Jersey but they were almost all to people who had very little interest in the Tour. What I was really interested to do (and think I at least partially achieved) was to give those lovers of cycling who do not normally watch professional road racing a head start to enable them to enjoy the Tour. I’ve had personal messages from many people who found my previous posts (here, here and here) helpful and I really appreciated them. I have to remember sometimes that not everyone who loves bikes, loves bike racing but I know I’ve helped a handful of people access and understand, what I believe is one of the most beautiful sporting spectacles in the universe.

There were some fantastic moments in this years Tour which were created by a few key moments:

The new points system for the intermediate sprints and the end of the stages really mixed it up and made the Green Jersey more of a fight which needed to be defended at all times. Commonly known as the ‘sprinters’ jersey due to the amount of points available at the finish lines, this year it was great to see the teams backing the biggest sprinters actually having to do some work during the day to chase back breaks and lead-out for the intermediates. It is a great new system which Christian Prudhomme stated was designed, in part, to ensure a superb sprinter such as Mark Cavendish didn’t finish his career without winning the points classification.

A resurgence of French riders dominating at the Tour always invigorates the fans and in turn the race. Although we had to wait until stage 19 at the top of Alpe d’Huez for Pierre Rolland of Europcar to take a French stage win, the 9 days Thomas Voeckler spent in Yellow was truly inspiring. Every fiber of my being wanted Tommy V to hang on until Paris. He personifies everything that I love about the sport of bike racing and the fact so many said that the man wearing Yellow coming out of the Pyrenees should win in Paris gave Voeckler a superb chance to hang on. It wasn’t to be but alas, the French were well represented in the race and as a result the country and fans went made for the Tour.

Thor Hushovd is a particular favourite of mine and he wears the stripes of the World Champion with pride, guts and sheer brilliance. His two stage wins, in particular his first into Lourdes on stage 13, were superb and I had chills watching him ride to those finishes. Like Cadel before him, Thor really ‘races’ the Rainbow Jersey which is what we all want to see.

By having Thor Hushovd and Thomas Voeckler in Yellow for so long it meant that the ‘real’ GC contenders were left to battle each other on the road without the pressures of the Yellow Jersey. The lack of Yellow in the locker of one of the GC contenders might seem moot but the responsibility of leading the GC and wearing the Golden Fleece brings with it certain responsibilities of the rider and his team. This can mean sometimes that the racing is quite predictable as the leaders’ team is sent to the front of the peloton to chase down breaks and they are generally the ones tasked with taking the race to the others. By keeping the Yellow Jersey away from the biggest GC hopefuls meant they were able to battle each other with a little more freedom, which was shown by the fact the media focused a lot on the mistakes the riders were making due to the added pressure.

Although nobody who rides a bike likes to see crashes, the rough and tumble nature of this years race displayed in a harsh way the physical strains that the riders go through. Many won’t have heard of Johnny Hoogerland before his unceremonious ‘de-biking’ when he and Flecha were taken out by the ‘France 2/3′ car, but I can assure you he has always been a complete lunatic on a bike and always excites races with his kamikaze breakaways and sheer panache. There were some horrible crashes but most of the riders battled on, making us all realise, we probably couldn’t do what they do however much we want to! Other notable crashes came from Bradley Wiggins, Tom Boonen, Alexander Vinokourov, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Janez Brajkovic, David Zabriskie, David Millar and Chris Horner.

Cuddles… If there is one man who is capable of displaying what this sport means to so many millions of people across the globe it must be Cadel Evans. The man is built of true Aussie grit and shows his face and rides his bike all year round rather than concentrating on Grand Tours.

I’m not going to attempt to recap the whole of the race, but you can check out a lot of great writing and fantastic photographs of the Tour at Steephill.tv and also over at CyclingTipsBlog.com (I know The Boss won’t mind me linking you away to Wade’s site… just finish reading this first please!) I’m off to watch re-runs of the Tour and cry into my Team Sky merchandise. While I’m doing that, check out the final installment of photos and videos from my time at the Tour. I hope you all have enjoyed July as much as I have. Let’s do it again next year!

(Ignore the first 8… you’ve seen them… WordPress gallery had a coronary whilst I was uploading and I can’t figure out the cure)

Eventual winner Cadel Evans in the Green Jersey for the TTT

Astana TTT

The chasing peloton coming past us in St Lumine & a little message from me & @AndyMWild

2 idiots, 1 bike… says it all really! Good times!

Stevie

As promised, this week I have the sights, the sounds… and the slightly drunk provincial early evening bike races that occured over stage 2 & 3 of this years Tour whilst @SteamyWynndows, @AndyMWild & I were there. After a lot of walking on day 1 to catch the action in two of the best places on the course we took Sunday at a slightly slower pace… even if the riders couldn’t. We took our chairs, set up next to the barriers and relaxed between teams coming through in the Team Time Trial. The boys really enjoyed the TTT as it was a different experience completely to the, ‘elbows out’ hustle and bustle of a Tour stage start & finish (they are both clearly well versed in the ‘elbows out’ technique as no Frenchy or Bacon Stealer was able to steal our prime spot all trip). After the stage we went back to the team bus area and I got my Canadian flag signed by Rider Hesjedal, had photos with David Millar (at which point I went a little funny in the head & started mumbling something about his book with a ginourmous smile on my face), got a copy of the days L’Équipe signed by quite a few riders AND met Geraint Thomas whilst he was doing his warm down who signed some hats for us and gave me a water bottle. Winning!

The last day of ‘live’ Tour viewing was spent in a little town called St Lumine. We were looking for a different experience for this day too so I picked a random, small village the route was going through and headed for it. I had no idea what the town/village was, I was just hoping it had a bar… as it was @AndyMWild‘s day to drive and it was SCORCHIO! St Lumine was perfect. Residents were out in the main centre, they shouting, cheering, generally being ‘Tour French’ and we were made to feel right at home by a local man directing traffic and a Gendarme (who didn’t shoot us… which is always a bonus!) After the race came through St Lumine, we quaffed some more beer, ate some pizza cooked by a man in a converted ice cream van and then dashed up the road to St Philbert where we had the jolly good fortune to stumble in to a beer tent with a large projection screen showing the race! There we met ‘James’, a fellow Brit on a touring holiday and there we stayed. 4 Brits, cheering on the Team Sky boys whilst hoping for a Cav win (which never happened).

That last day of the Tour for us was one spent drinking, waving flags like mad men and doing dances in the streets. It was finished by some drunken bike racing along quiet provencial streets towards the beach where we took dinner, drank some more stubbies on the beach (which in turn caused us all to swim in the sea for a very VERY short period of time) and then wiggle our little sit-up-and-beg’s home once it was too dark and we had run out of beer!

All in all, a fantastic holiday. I know MrsD doesn’t read this so I am safe to say it was the best holiday I’ve been on and I can only hope that feeling I got on Le Gois on day 1 can be repeated on my wedding day… otherwise I’m toast! Enjoy the photos and videos. There will be more to add to this over the coming week (@AndyMWild has such a plethora of international sports events to attend he still hasn’t got round to sending me his snaps) which I will announce on Twitter.

The lead group making there way into the final km on stage 1

Saxo-Bank Sungard coming through our position on the TTT course on stage 2

Philippe Gilbert’s Omega-Pharma Lotto on the TTT course

Alessandro Vanotti rolling through a long way down on his Liquigas team mates

After hanging in the team bus area I got to meet Geraint Thomas, who signed some hats for us and gave me a water bottle! (And gave me a funny look for being a bit weird before I was unceremoniously shifted by the press officer)

Geraint doing a post stage interview for BBC Wales

The break comes through St Lumine with the church bells ringing in the background

A drunken ride to the beach on our borrowed sit-up-and-begs. @SteamyWynndows may need to perfect his commentating skills as firstly, not sure the horse racing commentator voice fits and secondly, in what world would Cav and Clenty be racing to the finish together!? Bless him… he knows better know!

As I mentioned above there will be more pics and video uploaded here over the next week (I hope) but I’ll let the #bikeschool tribe know via Twitter when there are updates.

Stevie

The 2011 edition of the Tour is already shaping up to be a spectacular affair in more ways than one. A huge number of crashes and abandonment’s from some high profile GC contenders (though not the most in Tour history… yet), some superb breakaway riding from… yes you’ve guessed it… Tommy V and Johnny H and then a couple of combustion-engine induced ‘chutes’ just for good measure. Before we get on to the nitty gritty of this week’s #bikeschool post I’d just like to share with you all the mountain points and combative rider competition podium ceremony for Johnny Hoogerland after his horrific crash (courtesy of @Cycloboredom)

Earning your Yellow wings

All that mushy stuff out of the way, firstly I’d like to apologise for the lack of previously promised ‘live’ Tour blogging and tweeting from France. It appears France has not yet heard of free WiFi (or ‘WifFee’) and there 3G coverage is so poor, postcards would have been a more appropriate method of keeping you updated. That said, whilst I was in France I barely had time to send a few tweets out, never mind compose the kind of witty banter this blog has come to represent. For those that aren’t aware, my trip comapanions were my brother Andrew (@SteamyWynndows), and my most favourite of northern flavoured people Andy (@AndyMWild). Neither version of Andrew would say that they are ‘in to’ cycling the way I am but both are huge sports fans and understood before we went why the Tour causes such a hoopla and wanted to experience it for them selves as a sporting spectacle (my brother actually un-followed me on Twitter and Facebook a long time ago due to my incessant cycling talk but has now had some sort of epiphany which you can read about here).

I cannot begin to describe how amazing it all was. The holiday, the company, the cycling, the vantage points we found, the buzz, the hush of the crowd, the weakness of my knees (from not only getting a high five from Laurens Ten Dam on the Le Gois during the ribbon cutting ceremony of stage 1 but also a cheeky smile and wave in our English screaming direction from Geraint Thomas, Cav, Dave Zabriskie, Cadel Evans, Thor Hushovd and Jens! himself) I literally cannot write how great it was, so I’m not going to do my noggin-box’s memory zone too much of a disservice by attempting to talk you through every part… it is an experience you must do for yourself, and I hope one day you will all get that chance. What I have got for you is lots of pictures! Below is a fraction of the hundreds of shots we took over the holiday but they are the cream of the crop from my Canon on day 1. We started with an early rise to get off of Noirmoutier where we were staying as both routes off the island would be shut down at around 9.30am. Then, after a 6km walk in scorching weather and flip flops, we reached the Le Gois, which is a causeway accessible at low tides linking Noirmoutier with Mainland France. My brother and I holidayed on Noiroutier when we were younger so had the advantage of knowing the area a little (even if he is an awful map reader) and we headed straight for the ribbon on concrete running through the mud to look for a vantage point. Then we waited. And we waited for quite a few hours. but at no point did any of us think, “Oh why am I doing this? I could be by the pool drinking a beer!” The atmosphere, anticipation and eventually the publicity ‘caravan’ was intoxicating. After the caravan passed through, we waited a little more and an eerie hush fell all around with the anticipation of the riders. What happened next was truly amazing and I’m not ashamed to say I literally went weak at the knees. The peloton was halted for around 5 minutes by Monsieur Prudhomme for a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the Tour’s entrance into the Vendee region. And we happened to be standing right where they stopped. Cue a barrage of shots and lots of shouting rider’s names which caused them to look right down my lens. It was awesome. And then they left, as quick as they arrived. We then flip-flopped our way back to the car and drove across country, racing the Tour and made it to the finish in time to see the caravan again, get lots of free hats (most rather silly) and be in a prime location to see the finish within the final km. Those that watched that day will know how much the late crashes splintered the race in the final few km’s but this only added to the excitement of seeing riders coming through in dribs and drabs fighting to stay on and not loose too much time.

Anyway… I’m doing what I swore not to do… the pictures speak for themselves. Next week I’m hoping to have the photos and videos from stages 2 and 3 on here for you once we have collated our media resources.

Check back next week for stages 2 & 3 pics and videos!

Stevie

ED – Just as this post was about to go live I received word from the lovely people at ITV who host the Tour here in the UK that the predictions I made on behalf of LovingTheBike.com have just been published. I may be last in the list but it’s a damn fine list to be bottom of! Here’s the link to ‘What the Experts are Saying’!

Oh yes folks…. it’s just 5 days until the 2011 edition of the Tour de France and I for one can’t wait! As some of you may know I’m heading to France at the end of the week to take in the the sights, the smells and the atmosphere of the Tour as well as to get hit with quite a few bottles of Evian and mini PMU lions thrown by the caravan  procession. This is a particularly exciting time for those interested in Pro Cycling, but as we identified a few weeks ago there are people out there who are going to be watching the Tour for the first time. This means their virgin-like goggle balls and confusion filled noggin-box may need some assistance in understanding what is going on in the race which will only increase their enjoyment of it. So I’ve put together an idiot’s guide below to assist in building up those noggin-boxes. (The astute readers out there will have noticed the apostrophe signifies the guide belongs to me, therefor I’m the idiot… ergo… you can’t be angry me with for calling it an idiots guide. WHAMMO! Another English language linguistic masterclass!)

The gloves come off in July

The Tour can be very casually described as a mind-meltingly painful 3,550 km (or 2,200 mile) bike ride around France and some neighbouring countries. Approximately 190 riders will set off from Fromentine as the the race heads in a northerly direction towards Brittany before spearing south towards the Pyrennes, that straddle the French-Spainish border and then just when you thought they couldn’t throw any more at the riders, they pop over to the Alps in the east and make them suffer before heading to Paris and the Champs Elysee on the 24th of July. Oh… and they will average a staggering 40km/h (25 mph) over the course, often riding much, much faster than that. Like I said… mind-melting!

As they travel across the beautifully varying terrain of France there are 4 distinct types of stages that you’ll see, each with certain riders specialising in that type of ride, which is why the construction of an well rounded is often essential to winning the Tour.

Prologue – Not classified as a full stage, this is a short (usually 10km or less) individual time trial (see below) used to decide who has the honour of being the race leader the next day. There may sometimes be short individual time trials in the middle of a stage race but these are usually mountain top finishes and it is only the first stage of a Grand Tour* that is classed as a Prologue. (*The 3 Grand Tours are Giro d’Italia, Tour de France & Vuelta a España)

Flat - Most of the race takes place on “flat” roads. This doesn’t mean they are without undulation (in fact, they often include climbs that would terrify a club cyclist). But they invariably feature most of the competitors riding together in a big “peloton” (or pack) for 200km (or 125 miles) and can end in one of two ways: with a “breakaway” victory by an individual or small group; or, typically with a hair-raising bunch sprint. When the entire peloton crosses the finish line in a bunch, every rider in that bunch gets awarded the same time. This is why the GC contenders do not care so much if they finishes 143rd, because as long as there’s no gap between person who finishes first and the group of people they are in, they’ll still get the leader’s time.

Neither of these scenarios have much of an impact on the overall standings of the race because breakaways are always chased down by the peloton if they contain serious contenders and bunch sprints result in all or most of the field being given the same time for a stage. But victory or a high place does generate small time bonuses, contribute towards other Tour awards and allow riders to pay back their sponsors with much-desired TV time.

Mountain- Most Tours are won in the mountains. Fact! And mountains come in all shapes and sizes (all mind-melting), with climbs rated four, three, two, one or “hors” catégorie, the latter being the most steep and literally translating as ‘out of category’. Climbing from sea level to 2,000m (often more than once in a day), separates the men from the boys and one bad day can cost huge chunks of lost time. Real Tour contenders have to be able to hang with specialist climbers going up and everyone must hang on for dear life on the way down. Hill-top finishes often break apart the field most because they leave no time for anyone to catch up lost time on a descent.

Time Trial – Every man against the clock. These are shorter stages of around 50 km (as opposed to 150-250 km). But lots of time is won and lost as Tour challenges flourish or falter. The last-placed rider on the day of the time-trial rider first, followed two minutes later by the next highest, and this carries on until the race leader starts. Many Tours, including this years, also feature a team time trial, where the clock stops on the fifth of nine riders to cross the finish line. Both these types of stages can have a huge impact on a riders hopes of victory. It’s all well and good being the best climber in the mountains and putting 5 minutes between you and your rivals but if you teammates have a poor time-trial pedigree then the team event may end up losing you lots of your tour-winning minutes!

Les Maillots

The biggest prize in cycling is a yellow jersey in Paris. This signifies overall victory in the Tour de France, an honour won seven times by Lance Armstrong and five by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Possibly the first thing people think of when the Tour de France is mentioned is ‘The Yellow Jersey’. But there are other jerseys available to win. And it may shock you to know that there are some riders who do not want to win the yellow jersey, or at least understand they do not have the all round capabilities to win it, so focus on the more specialised competitions explained below.

Yellow – This is the jersey everyone wants (ish). If you are in it, you are the overall race leader on aggregate time since the start of the Tour. It often changes backs a few times, particularly during the early flat stages of a Tour. But it normally finds its final resting place after a time trial or a gruelling hill-top finish in the Alps or Pyrenees. The use of an aggregate time does mean that it is possible to be in the race lead and wearing the yellow jersey even if you have not won a stage but have been placed consistently high on each stage finish… although I can’t remember a time when that happened!

Green – The sprinter’s (or points) prize goes to the most consistent stage finisher and is normally worn by one of the big powerhouses of the field. With a sliding scale of points available to the first finishers on any day, contenders for this jersey bunch at the front of the peloton for dangerous sprints on flat stages. The rules for this competition have changed slightly this year but they are explained further down the page.

Polka Dot – Conversely, King of the Mountains contenders live for the climbs. They tend to be slimmer in build and bounce up slopes to pick up the points on offer to the first riders over every hill. As well as the GC (general classification) contenders being very good mountain climbers, they will have certain domestiques who go up hills like a goat and will assist them in the high mountains by pacing them or chasing down dangerous breaks that challenge a riders race lead.

White – This goes to the best placed under-26 rider in the general classification and is often battled for by the younger riders as fiercely as the yellow jersey as it can be seen as a prelude to future Tour victories.

Rainbow – This is not up for grabs in the Tour, but can be seen on the back of the World Road Race champion Thor Hushovd (if he’s not wearing yellow or green, of course). Country champions also have the right to wear national instead of team colours.

In addition to the above competitions, there are three related awards available, one of them of dubious distinction:

Combativity – The cyclist who is deemed to have put in the bravest show on a stage wins the right to wear a white-on-red race number (as opposed to black-on-white).

Lanterne Rouge – This is the mocking moniker for the last-placed man in the overall classification, named after the red light shown on trains to mark the rearmost carriage. This man is often found towards the tail of the field, which is a risky spot. On any day, if a rider falls too far off the pace, he can be swept up by the “Broom wagon” and out of the Tour. As this post went to press I was still trying to confirm this ‘competition’ still exists as ASO, the Tour organisers, were planning on removing it as riders were intentionally trying to win the Lanterne Rouge by going slow. Essentially trying to get round France in the slowest time possible that the time limit would allow.

Team – There are 21 teams of nine cyclists. After every stage, the times of the first three riders across the line from each team are added up and counted. The team with the lowest aggregate time in Paris wins the award and each rider in the leading team will wear a yellow backed number on their jersey during the race . It’s usually the last award presented on the podium… and the one we care least about!

All Change!

For those who have got to grips with the rules and regulations of the Tour in the past… tough luck. The powers that be at ASO have decided to change some of the rules this year for the points and mountains classifications in order to liven it up a bit. At first glance it doesn’t look like it would make much difference but bear in mind that if these rules had applied last year, Mark Cavendish would have been crowned the points victor rather than Alessandro Pettachi!

In the points competition there will now only be one intermediate sprint during each stage, as opposed to two or three in the past. Here 20 points are on offer to the first rider and a sliding scale for those close behind down to 15th place. At the finish line the points will vary, with 45 points available to the winner on a flat stage, 30 points on a hilly stage and 20 for a mountain stage and again, with points down to 15th. Due to these changes an intermediate sprint is worth the same as a stage win in the mountains when it comes to the green jersey.

I’m unsure what to make of this. The increased weight of the intermediate sprint could be a significant tactical change in the race. We might see some breakaway artists rack up points, then again we might see breakaways reeled in just so a challenger close to the green jersey can sprint for more points. Mark Cavendish will appreciate the chance to take big points in a sprint final but first week of uphill finishes could well see a more rounded rider wearing green (think Thor Hushovd who loves an uphill sprint), especially if they can latch on to a breakaway to mop up points from the intermediate sprints on a mountain stage. Certainly no rider can leave it to the finish line to get their points which has consistently been Cavendish’s tactic purposely ignoring the intermediate sprints in previous years which has surely cost him the title.

The King of the Mountains award has also changed with lower rated climbs now getting fewer points, with only the first rider to the top of a fourth category climb getting one measly point. There are still 20 points for a hors catégorie climb but whereas 10 riders over the top used to get points, now only the first six get points and even then the sixth rider gets just two points. Plus points are doubled for the four HC summit category finishes. This is a clear way to reward pure climbers. No longer can a rider poach points on the flat stages and top up with a couple of Alpine breakaways. Not that this strategy was ever easy but last year’s winner Anthony Charteau managed to win the competition yet stay relatively anonymous which doesn’t make for exciting racing. This time points are distributed to those crossing the high climbs with an even greater advantage to those in contention at the finish of a stage compared to the earlier climbs on a stage.

So… if you;ve got all that, this is where you maths (not math) comes in.

The mountain points are distributed like this:

And the green jersey points are distributed like this:

Every stage of the Tour de France is classified with a ‘coefficient’, a category to determine how hard they are and the easier the stage, the greater the number of points available for the green jersey competition. I have no idea why the have used the word ‘coefficient’ as it just seems to confuse matter. It is merely a rating of difficulty like in stroke index in golf. (I will not be providing a 101 in Golf for those that don’t understand the stroke index system but this may assist with any technical golf problems) In 2011, the stages and their green jersey points will be distributed in the following way:

Coefficient 1: Stages 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 21
Coefficient 2: Stages 8, 9, 16
Coefficient 3+4: Stages 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19
Coefficient 5: Stage 20 (time trial)

In reality, you shouldn’t need to worry too much about these changes and where the points can be won as the commentators and media will be hammering it home at every moment possible but I thought it would be good for those who are interested to get the low-down early on.

The Countdown Begins…

This time on Friday I will be touching down in Nantes airport and on my way to Île de Noirmoutier where I spent a very, very happy childhood and adolescence on the beautiful sandy beaches… and bars! The riders will be leaving Fromentine on the mainland, coming across the bridge on to the island and then leaving via Le Gois, which is a tidal causeway usable only at low tide. The race will be neutrlised across Le Gois and then start racing proper when it hits the mainland again. I’m still quite nervous about my trip as although I’ve seen the Tour once in France and once in Britain, it’s the first time I have purposely followed the Tour and so detailed plans have been constructed! Add to that my brother and a good friend are coming along too and I don’t want to be disappointing them! Hopefully it’ll all come together… and if not I’ll just drown them in Kronenbourg and they’ll forget what happened the day before! I am planning on blogging from the Tour, hopefully with pictures but keep you eyes peeled as I’m still not sure what form this will take. I’ll be at stages 1, 2 & 3 with the second stage being a team trial (which I’m really looking forward to) so keep an eye out on your telly boxes for a giant Union Flag (and probably a Manchester City F.C. flag too) on the side of the road. I’ve even got a maple leaf flag for Ryder Hesjedal! Just because I can!

However you experience the Tour this year I hope it is a spine tingling experience for you and it feeds that inner craving for sporting excellence that only the Tour can provide. It is a truly fantastic event I cannot tell you how excited I am.

Wherever you are, keep the wind to your back and the sun on your face, this is going to be a great month.

Stevie

(with outrageously plagiarised cool-dude tag lines. Cheers @PedalmanTO!)

After last week’s Alternative Guide to the runners and riders of this year’s Tour I got lots of requests to continue the advice across a range of other Tour related areas. I will attempt to make the next two editions of the #bikeschool blog a little more factual than the last, however I cannot be held responsible for what comes out from the Noggin Box!

I have spent the last 8 years engrossed in watching professional cycling, on the TV and online. The knowledge of riders, teams, tactics and the equipment that I have picked up has mainly been down to watching large amounts of cycling from my couch, much to the derision of Mrs Dexter and the detriment of my own cycling performance! Due to this I was quite surprised when people reported the they had never watched a professional cycle race and were planning on making Le Tour their first foray into ‘a French July’. That’s when it struck me… cycling means so many different things to so many different people…. and that’s what makes it so special. If someone says ‘cycling’ to me, I think of monocoque frames, Di2 and O’symetric chainrings. If this means nothing to you then I can honestly say I envy you! I’m not being facetious, as much as I love being able to watch bike racing with a modicum of knowledge and experience, some of the most exciting times in July were spent watching, learning and then re-watching stages of the Tour as the lexicon of the professional peloton washed over me year by year and became part of my Id.

I’m not professing to know everything there is to know about cycle racing or to be able to regurgitate any of my gleaned knowledge in a comprehensible way…. but I’ll give it a bloody good go! This week is mainly going to focus on ways to watch, listen and read about Le Tour wherever you are in the world and also a glossary of racing terms that you may see or hear during July. Some of the options discussed in this post may or may not be available in your particular location on the planet so please do check them out first.

ProCyclingLive.com

This fantastic site, run by Marco Kooijman(@marcokooijman), José Been (@TourDeJose) and their dedicated team of race reporters began life as a live Twitter feed update which enabled people to get up to the minute commentary on Pro Cycling races via twitter. I first added @ProCyclingLive as a Twitter friend to enable me to keep on top of races whilst I was at work, surreptitiously checking my phone for 140 character updates on Le Tour and the Giro d’Italia. Fast-forward 2 years and they now provide one of the most valuable services on the internet for Pro Cycling fans. Gone are the dark days of hunting down live feeds of races from across the world only to find they are broken, or maybe even worse, they are working but you can’t understand the commentary as you chose to go the pub rather than those Luxembourgish night classes. Enter the dawn… enter ProCyclingLive.com’s Live Stream directory. Here you will find all of the working feeds for large and small races that they have been able to source, sorted by language. Some of these feeds are geo-restricted so that you can view them only in certain countries but this is down to the host broadcaster not ProCyclingLive and there are often more than one feed option in your chosen broadcast language. They are almost always online to answer/fix technical queries  during races via @ProCyclingLive and this really should be your first stop for live feeds online.

NBC Sports

I’m a massive fan of American sports, culture and media…. and all round ‘Yankophile’ you could say. One thing I’ve never got the hang of is the wacky TV networks that seem to change every 5 minutes. They may in fact never have cha nged or sold their own souls to each other but that is of no concern to me really, all I need to know is where is my sport coming from!? Versus has covered Le Tour for a few years now and American audiences have been ‘blessed’ with the gravely tones of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin for years now. I say ‘blessed’ as although they are known as God’s of cycling commentary I can’t flippin’ stand them! But we won’t go into that now… I digress. If my research is correct, Versus is now/was/always has been owned/part of/parent to NBC Sports. With a quick look at the NBC Sports Cycling page we’re excitedly told they have a 2011 TOUR DE FRANCE ALL ACCESS page…. but that is all I can tell you. I don’t know if you have to pay for watching live coverage online that will be part of this super-user access as it doesn’t seem to be online yet… just 10 days before the start of Le Tour. It will almost certainly be geo-restricted to north America and I am sure NBC will be showing Le Tour on TV. I’ve no doubt that some of the American flavoured readers of this blog can confirm that in the comments section below.

Cycling.tv

Fairly similar to the NBC Sports site in the sense that it’s not really clear what they are providing during the race in the sense of Live footage or updates, Cycling.tv is fantastic for post race analysis and reports. It is essentially a digital magazine so floods the screen with lots of different features and options but never really feels like it’s focusing on one particular thing. There are a range of subscription options to this site and if you are interested in Pro Cycling and want to further your knowledge in a general sense I would urge you to check this site out. However, be sure you clarify what you get for the subscription price and what they offer for each race. It was many years ago when they were a much smaller site, but I got bitten by signing up and not realising they were only showing highlights of certain races.

L’équipe

As you are probably aware from the amount of trouble ‘Larry’ has got himself in to in France, L’équipe is a very powerful organisation in France and provides possibly the most comprehensive coverage of any printed media across th e world. Unfortunately the news paper itself is not available outside of large cities and is only printed in French, so unless you are confident at reading conversational french then the next best option is the L’équipe website via Google translate. If you can ignore the often clunky translations this site is a must for a good evening read between stages and to get some of the most up to date information on riders and teams in between live TV broadcasts. There is a lot that happens at Le Tour before and after the cameras are rolling so you need to stay on the ball!

Steephill.tv

The Steephill.tv site is a great one-stop-shop for news, interviews, highlights and some amazing photos from each day at Le Tour as well as most other major cycle races. It is always one of my evening sites I visit in between stages to catch up on highlights and usually the final few kilometers on demand. Right now you might be thinking you won’t need to bother watching a 3 minute highlight package as you’ll be watching the stages live on TV and chatting about it on Twitter for the whole of July. Let me tell you something…. even the most dedicated Tour couch potato will miss a stage or two. It’s inevitable if you have any sort of life outside of watching cycling on TV, which I’m sure you all have. And Murphy’s law says the day you miss watching it live is when a hilarious Saxo Bank soigneur shoves a steak in Clenty’s musette bag….now you wouldn’t want to miss that would you!? So the small highlights packages that you can catch up on whilst at work or as you go to bed become like beautiful nuggets of beautiful things. Trust me, if that is the only morsel of Tour activity you get that day, you’ll be more than pleased!

Pro-Twitter

Given that you are reading this blog you are probably already aware of the power of Twitter and how it is used by sporting stars and fans alike. A quick Google search will find you a list of Pro Cyclists and Pro Team accounts which are worth following on Twitter. I was going to list them all here for you and spoon feed you but decided it would take me until the end of stage 14 to do that and I got bored! It’s worth checking out the pro rider accounts if you find them as they often dish out some inside info and behind the scenes pictures before and after stages and are well worth following, even if it’s only for the month of July! There are some more…. and I must be careful here…. ‘colourful’ characters on Twitter that make watching cycling and interacting on Twitter very fun. In no particular order these include:

@UCI_Overlord, @podium_live, @cipothelionking, @festinagirl, @Bonnie_D_Ford, @flammecast, @TheRaceRadio, @sofaboy, @CycleBoredom, @AussieLarry, @nedboulting & @cyclingtips.

Road.cc Fantasy Cycling

If you have a competitive streak such as myself, merely watching Le Tour may not be enough for you! If you fancy yourself as a DS and think you can pick a decent team throughout the race I invite you to join my Road.cc Fantasy Cycling League. You will need to sign up to the site first and then join league 6665 . This league has been running for a while now and those that have joined already do have some points (most more than I do!) but don’t worry, the scores can be filtered for Le Tour so if you want to join now we can still compete evenly throughout July.  The rules and points scoring systems are pretty simple and can be seen here. This could create some interesting Twitter interactions in the future!

Racing Jargon

Here is a small list of jargon that I have compiled that may help you this July when watching Le Tour if you are not that accustomed to Pro Cycling:

@: In English language race results in the G.C. (see below) an “@” sign is used to denote the amount of time or number of points behind the winner each rider is. In the example below Luis Ocana won the race, taking 6 hours, 51 minutes, 15 seconds to complete the course. Joop Zoetemelk was behind him and crossed the finish line 15 seconds later. Pollentier was still further behind and crossed the line 3 minutes and 34 seconds after Ocana. Van Impe and Thévenet finshed int he same group as Pollentier but slightly behind him. The “s.t.” means that they were given the ‘same time’ as Pollentier. If a rider finishes close enough to a rider who is in front of him so that there is no real gap, he will be given the same time as the first rider of that group.

1. Luis Ocana: 6 hr 51 min 50 sec

2. Joop Zoetemelk @ 15 sec

3. Michael Pollentier @ 3 min 34 sec

4. Lucien van Impe s.t.

5. Bernard Thévenet s.t.

Abandon: To quit a race. See also Broom Wagon

Arrivée: French for the finish line

Arrivée en altitude: French for hilltop finish

Attack: Generally a sudden acceleration in an attempt to break free of the peloton (see below). On flat roads it is usually done by riding up along the side of the pack so that by the time the attacker passes the peloton’s front rider he is traveling too fast for the pack to easily react. In the mountains it is usually enough to accelerate from the front.

Autobus: In the mountains the riders with poor climbing skills ride together hoping to finish in time to beat the time limit cutoff. By staying together in a large group they hope that if they don’t finish in time they can persuade the officials to let them stay in the race because so many riders would otherwise be eliminated. It doesn’t always work. Often the group lets a particular experienced racer lead them in order to just get in under the wire. This risky strategy minimizes the energy the riders have to expend and you will often see the top sprinters in the Autobus as the race heads into the mountains. You may also hear it called the Grupetto (Italian).

Bidon: French word for a water bottle, often thrown at unsuspecting members of the crowd.

Bonk: To completely run out of energy. Sometimes a rider will forget to eat or think he has enough food to make it to the finish without stopping to get food. The result can be catastrophic as the rider’s body runs out of glycogen, the stored chemical the muscles burn for energy. Famously José-Manuel Fuente didn’t eat during the long stage 14 in the 1974 Giro. He slowed to a near halt as his body’s ability to produce energy came to a crashing halt. Merckx sped on and took the Pink Jersey from the Spaniard who had shown such terrible judgment. It’s happened to many great riders including Indurain and Armstrong but not always with such catastrophic results.

Break: Short for breakaway.

Breakaway: One or more riders escaping from the front of peloton, usually as the result of a sudden acceleration called an “attack”. Riders will work together sharing the effort of breaking the wind hoping to improve their chances of winning by arriving at the finish in a smaller group. This can also be called a “break”. Some riders do not possess the necessary speed to contest mass sprints and therefore try very hard to escape the clutches of the peloton well before the end of the race.

Bridge: Short for bridge a gap. To go from one group of cyclists to a break up the road.

Broom Wagon: When Henri Desgrange added high Pyrenean climbs to his 1910 Tour he thought it would be necessary to have a rescue wagon follow the riders in case the mountain roads were beyond their ability to ascend, hence the Broom Wagon to sweep up the exhausted racers. It is still in use, following the last rider in a stage. Today when a rider abandons he usually prefers to get into one of his team cars. Years ago the Broom Wagon had an actual broom bolted to it but today this wonderful bit of symbolism is gone. In the 1910 Tour if a rider could not finish a mountain stage he could restart the next day and compete for stage wins but he was out of the General Classification competition. Today an abandonment sticks. The rider is out of the Tour for that year. Before a rider enters the broom wagon an official removes the dossard or jersey number on the rider’s jersey.

Bunch: When preceded by “the”, usually the peloton. Far less often a group of riders can be “a bunch”

Cadence: The speed at which the rider turns the pedals.

Caravan: The long line of vehicles that precede and follow the racers.

Caravan publicitaire: The line of cars and trucks that precedes the race, promoting various company’s goods and services. When Henri Desgrange switched the Tour to using National instead of trade teams, he became responsible for the racers’ transport, food and lodging. By charging companies money for the privilege of advertising their goods to the millions of Tour spectators along the route he was able to help pay the new expenses. When the Tour reverted to trade teams the publicity caravan remained. Although you rarely get to see it on TV, if you like getting sprayed with Evian water and having Haribo thrown at your face , you’ll love this bit!

Category: In European stage racing it is a designation of the difficulty of a mountain climb. This is a subjective judgment of the difficulty of the ascent, based upon its length, gradient and how late in the stage the climb is to be ridden. A medium difficulty climb that comes after several hard ascents will get a higher rating because the riders will already be tired. The numbering system starts with “4″ for the easiest that still rate being called a climb and then with increasing severity they are 3, 2, 1. The most challenging are above categorization, or in the Tour nomenclature, “Hors catégorie”, HC. The origin of the classifications apparently comes from the gear that the commissaire’s car needed to be in to safely drive the ascent. Therefore a steeper, harder climb would mean the car would have to drop from 2nd, to 1st gear, making it a category 1 climb.

Chapatte’s Law: Formulated by former racer and Tour commentator Robert Chapatte, it states that in the closing stages of a race a determined peloton will chase down a break and close in at the rate of 1 minute per 10 kilometers traveled. If a break is 3 minutes up the road the peloton will need to work hard for 30 kilometers to catch it. TV race commentator Paul Sherwen regularly uses Chapatte’s Law to come up with his often surprisingly accurate predictions of when a break will be caught. It’s now calculated by computer on French television.

Circle of Death: In 1910 Desgrange introduced high mountains into the Tour. The big stage with the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque was called the “Circle of Death” by the press who doubted that the riders could perform the inhuman task that was asked of them. Now the hardest mountain Tour stage is still occasionally called the Circle of Death.

Col: French for mountain pass.

Commissaire: A race official with the authority to impose penalties on the riders for infractions of the rules. A common problem is dangerous or irregular sprinting and hanging on to or drafting team cars. The commissaire will usually relegate the offending rider to a lower placing.

Contre-la-montre: French for time trial

Criterium: A bike race around and around a short road road course, often a city block. Good criterium riders have excellent bike handling skills and usually possess lots of power to enable them to constantly accelerate out of the corners. The Dutch and the Belgians are the masters of the event.

Départ: French for the start line of a race.

Directeur Sportif: The 0n-the-road manager of a bike team. Although French, it is the term used in English as well.

DNF: Did not finish. Used in results to denote that the racer started but did not complete the race.

DNS: Did not start. Used in results to denote a racer who was entered in a race but failed to start. Often seen in results in stage races where the rider abandons after the completion of a stage.

Domestique: Because bicycle racing is a sport contested by teams and won by individuals a man designated to be the team leader has his teammates work for him. These men have been called domestiques since Tour founder Henri Desgrange used it as a term of contempt for Maurice Brocco whom he believed was selling his services to aid other riders in the 1911 Tour. Today the term has lost its bad connotation and serves as an acknowledgement of the true nature of racing tactics. Domestiques will chase down competitors and try to neutralise their efforts, they will protect their team leader from the wind by surrounding him. When a leader has to get a repair or stop to answer a call of nature his domestiques will stay with him and pace him back up to the peloton. They are sometimes called “water carriers” because they are the ones designated to go back to the team car and pick up water bottles and bring them back up to the leader.

Dossard: French for the rider’s race number on the back of his jersey.

Drafting: At racing speed a rider who is only a few inches behind another bike does about 30 percent less work. Riding behind another rider in his aerodynamic slipstream is called drafting. This is the basic fact of bike racing tactics and why a rider will not just leave the peloton and ride away from the others, no matter how strong he is. Only in the rarest of cases can a racer escape a determined chasing peloton. To make an escape work he needs the pack to be disinterested in chasing for some length of time so that he can gain a large enough time gap. Then, when the sleeping pack is aroused they do not have enough time to catch him no matter how fast they chase. Hugo Koblet’s wonderful solo escape in the 1951 Tour is one of the rare instances when a solo rider outdid a determined group of elite chasers. A rider who drafts others and refuses to go to the front and do his share of the work is said to be “sitting on.” There are a number of pejorative terms for a rider who does this, the best known is “wheelsucker” or “twat”.

Drop: When a rider cannot keep up with his fellow riders and comes out of their aerodynamic slipsteam, whether in a break or in the peloton, he is said to be dropped.

Échappée: French for breakaway

Echelon: When the riders are hit with a side wind they must ride slightly to the right or left of the rider in front in order to remain in that rider’s slipstream, instead of riding nose to tail in a straight line. This staggered line puts those riders further back in the pace line in the gutter. Because they can’t edge further to the side, they have to take more of the brunt of both the wind and the wind drag of their forward motion. Good riders then form a series of echelons so that all the racers can contribute and receive shelter.

Équipe: French for team

Escape: When used as a noun it is a breakaway. When used as a verb it is the act of breaking away.

Ètape: French for stage.

Feed zone: The specific point along a race route where the riders pick up food and drink. Racing etiquette generally keeps racers from attacking at this point, but there have been some famous initiatives that have started while the riders were having musettes (bags) of food handed up.

Flahute: French slang for tough-guy bike racer, usually Belgian. A Flahute thrives on the cold-weather, rain, winds, slippery cobbles and sustained high speeds that characterize the Belgian Classics. A Flahute should expect to taste wet cow dung thrown up by the other riders’ wheels as they race across barely usable farm country roads.

Flamme Rouge: French. A red banner placed at the beginning of the final kilometer of a race.

Flyer: Usually a solo breakaway near the end of a race.

Field: See Peloton

Field Sprint: The race at the finish for the best placing among those in the peloton. The term is usually used when a breakaway has successfully escaped and won the stage and the peloton is reduced to fighting for the remaining lesser places.

GC: General Classification

General Classification: The ranking of the accumulated time to determine its winner.

Grand Tour: There are three Grand Tours, all lasting 3 weeks: the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España.

Green Jersey: In the Tour, awarded to the leader of the Points Competition. Often called the Sprinters Jersey as points are gained at intermediary sprints along the race route and at the finish of each stage.

Grimpeur: French for a rider who climbs well.

Hilltop finish: When a race ends at the top of a mountain, the rider with the greater climbing skills has the advantage. It used to be that the finish line was far from the last climb, allowing the bigger, more powerful riders to use their weight and strength to close the gap to the climbers on the descents and flats. The Tour introduced hilltop finishes in 1952 and did it with a vengeance ending stages at the top of L’Alpe d’Huez, Sestrieres and Puy de Dôme.

Intermediate sprint: To keep the race active there may be points along the race course where the riders will sprint for time bonuses or other prizes (premiums, or “primes”). Sometimes called “Hot Spots”.

ITT: Individual time trial.

Jump: A rider with the ability to quickly accelerate his bike is said to have a good “jump”.

Kermesse: A lap road race much like a criterium but the course is longer, as long as 10 kilometers.

King of the Mountains: In 1933 the Tour de France started awarding points for the first riders over certain hard climbs, the winner of the competition being the King of the Mountains. In 1975 the Tour started awarding the distinctive polka-dot jersey or ‘maillot a pois’ to the leader of the classification. The first rider to wear the dots was the Dutch racer Joop Zoetemelk. The classification has lost some of its magic in recent years because of the tactics riders use to win it. Today a rider wishing to win the KOM intentionally loses a large amount of time in the General Classification. Then when the high mountains are climbed the aspiring King can take off on long breakaways to be first over the mountains without triggering a panicked chase by the Tour GC contenders.

KOM: King of the Mountains.

Lanterne Rouge: French for the last man in the General Classification. Some years riders will actually compete to be the Lanterne Rouge because of the fame it brings and therefore better appearance fees at races.

Maillot a Pois: French for Polka Dot jersey awarded to the King of the Mountains. More correctly, Maillot blanc a pois rouges

Maillot Blanc: White Jersey. Currently worn by the best rider under 25.

Maillot Jaune: See Yellow Jersey.

Maillot Vert: French for Green Jersey. In the Tour de France it is worn by the leader of the points competition.

Mechanical: A problem with the function of a racer’s bicycle, usually not a flat tire. Because rules have sometimes been in place that prevent rider’s changing bikes unless a mechanical problem is present mechanics have manufactured mechanicals. In the 1963 Tour de France Anquetil’s manager Géminiani cut one of Anquetil’s gear cables so that he could give him a lighter bike to ascend the Forclaz.

Minute Man: In a time trial the rider who starts a minute ahead. It’s always a goal in a time trial to try to catch one’s minute-man.

Musette: A cloth bag containing food and drinks handed up to the rider in the feed zone. It has a long strap so the rider can slip his arm through it easily on the fly, then put the strap over his shoulder to carry it while he transfers the food to his jersey pockets.

Natural or nature break: Because races can take over 7 hours the riders must occasionally dismount to urinate. If the riders are flagrant and take no care to be discreet while they answer the call of nature they can be penalised. Charly Gaul lost the 1957 Giro when he was attacked while taking such a break so he later learned to urinate on the fly.

Off the back: To be dropped.

Paceline: Riders riding nose to tail saving energy by riding in each others slipstream. Usually the front rider does the hard work for a short while, breaking the wind for the others, and then peels off to go to the back so that another rider can take a short stint at the front. The faster the riders go the greater the energy saving gained by riding in the slipstream of the rider in front. When the action is hot and the group wants to move fast the front man will take a short, high-speed “pull” at the front before dropping off. At lower speeds the time at the front is usually longer. See echelon

Palmarès: French for an athlete’s list of accomplishments.

Parcours: The race course.

Pavé: French for a cobblestone road.

Peloton: The main group of riders traveling together in a race. Breaks leave the front of it, dropped riders exit its rear. Synonyms: bunch, group, field, pack.

Piano: Italian for soft. It can mean slow or easy when riding. The Giro often has “piano” stages where the riders intentionally take it easy until the final kilometers leading up to the sprint.

Pink Jersey: Worn by the rider who is currently leading in the General Classification in the Giro d’Italia. It was chosen because the sponsoring newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is printed on pink paper.

Podium: The top three places, first, second and third. Many racers know that they cannot win a race and thus their ambition is limited to getting on the podium. In major races such as the Tour and the Giro, attaining the podium is such a high accomplishment that it almost makes a racer’s career.

Points: The usual meaning is the accumulation of placings in each stage. Today the Tour gives more points to the flatter stages so the the winner of the points competition is a more likely to be sprinter. See General Classification. In the Tour the Points leader wears a green jersey, in the Giro he dons a purple jersey.

Polka-Dot Jersey: Awarded to the King of the Mountains

Prologue: French. An introductory stage in a stage race that is usually a short individual time trial, normally under 10 kilometers. The Tour has also used a team time trial format in the Prologue.

Pull: A stint at the front of a paceline.

Rainbow Jersey: The reigning world champion in a particular cycling event gets to wear a white jersey with rainbow stripes. The championships for most important events are held in the Fall. A former World Champion gets to wear a jersey with rainbow trim on his sleeves and collar. If a World Champion becomes the leader of the Tour, Giro or Vuelta he will trade his Rainbow Jersey for the Leader’s Jersey. Thor Hushovd is the current World Champion.

Rouleur: French for a rider who can turn a big gear with ease over flat roads. Rouleurs are usually bigger riders who suffer in the mountains.

Soigneur: Today a job with many duties involving the care of the riders: massage, preparing food, handing up musettes in the feed zone and sadly, doping. Usually when a doping scandal erupts the soigneurs are deeply involved.

Sprint: At the end of a race the speeds get ever higher until in the last couple of hundred meters the fastest riders jump out from the peloton in an all-out scramble for the finish line. Teams with very fine sprinting specialists will employ a “lead-out train”. With about 5 kilometers to go these teams will try to take control of the race by going to the front and stepping up the speed of the race in order to discourage last-minute flyers. Sometimes 2 or 3 competing teams will set up parallel pace lines. Usually the team’s train will be a pace line organised in ascending speed of the riders. As the team’s riders take a pull and peel off the next remaining rider will be a quicker rider who can keep increasing the speed. Usually the last man before the team’s designated sprinter is a good sprinter who will end up with a good placing by virtue of being at the front of the race in the final meters and having a good turn of speed himself.

Stage race: A cycling competition involving 2 or more separate races involving the same riders with the results added up to determine the winner. Today the victor is usually determined by adding up the accumulated time each rider took to complete each race, called a “stage”. The one with the lowest aggregate time is the winner. Alternatively the winner can be selected by adding up the rider’s placings, giving 1 point for first, 2 points for second, etc. The rider with the lowest total is the winner. The Tour de France used a points system between 1905 and 1912 because the judging was simpler and cheating could be reduced. Because points systems tend to cause dull racing during most of the stage with a furious sprint at the end they are rarely used in determining the overall winner. Because points systems favor sprinters most important stage races have a points competition along with the elapsed time category. In the Tour de France the leader in time wears the Yellow Jersey and the Points leader wears green. In the Giro the time leader wears pink and the man ahead in points wear purple or more accurately “cyclamen”. The race’s ranking of its leaders for the overall prize is called the General Classification, or GC. It is possible, though rare, for a rider to win the overall race without ever winning an individual stage.

Switchback: In order to reduce the gradient of a mountain ascent the road engineer has the road go back and forth across the hill. The Stelvio climb is famous for its 48 switchbacks as is L’Alpe d’Huez for its 21. In Italian the term is Tornante.

Team time trial: See time trial. Instead of an individual rider, whole teams set off along a specific distance at intervals. It is a spectacular event because the teams go all out on the most advanced aerodynamic equipment and clothing available. To maximize the slipstream advantage the riders ride nose to tail as close to each other as possible. Sometimes a smaller front wheel is used on the bikes to get the riders a few valuable centimeters closer together. With the riders so close together, going so fast and at their physical limits, crashes are common. Some teams targeting an overall win practice this event with rigor and the result is a beautifully precise fast-moving team that operates almost as if they were 1 rider. Sometimes a team with a very powerful leader who is overly ambitious will shatter his team by making his turns at the front too fast for the others. Skilled experienced leaders take longer rather than faster pulls so that their teammates can rest.

Technical: Usually refers to a difficult mountain descent or time trial course on winding city streets, meaning that the road will challenge the rider’s bike handling skills.

Tempo: Usually means riding at a fast but not all-out pace. Teams defending a leader in a stage race will often go to the front of the peloton and ride tempo for days on end in order to discourage breakaways. It is very tiring work and usually leaves the domestiques of a winning team exhausted at the end of a Grand Tour.

Tifosi: Italian sports fans, sometimes fanatical in their devotion to an athlete or team. The term is said to be derived from the delirium of Typhus patients.

Time Limit: To encourage vigorous riding the Tour imposes a cutoff time limit. If a racer does not finish a stage by that time limit, he is eliminated from the race. This prevents a racer’s resting by riding leisurely one day and winning the next. The time limit is a percentage of the stage winner’s time. Because it is the intention of the Tour to be fair, the rules are complex. On flat stages where the riders have less trouble staying with the peloton and the time gaps are smaller, the percentage added to the winners’ time is smaller. On a flat stage it can be as little as 5% of the winner’s time if the speed is less than 34 kilometers an hour. In the mountain stages it can be as high as 17% of the winner’s time. The faster the race is run, the higher the percentage of the winner’s time allowed the slower riders. The Tour has 6 sets of percentage time limits, each a sliding scale according to the type of stage (flat, rolling, mountain, time trial, etc.) and the stage’s speed. If 20 percent of the peloton fails to finish within the time limit the rule can be suspended. Also riders who have unusual trouble can appeal to the commissaires for clemency. More than once Paul Sherwen, now a television racing commentator, was given special dispensation for riding courageously when he had suffered misfortune but bravely continued and yet finished outside the time limit.

Time trial: A race in which either an individual or team rides over a specific distance against the clock. It is intended to be an unpaced ride in which either the individual or team is not allowed to draft a competitor. The riders are started at specific intervals, usually 2 minutes. In the Tour the riders are started in reverse order of their standing in the General Classification, the leader going last. Usually the last 20 riders are set off at 3-minute intervals. If a rider catches a racer who started ahead of him the rules say that he must not get into his slipstream but must instead pass well to the slower rider’s side. This is one of the more often ignored rules in cycling. The Tour’s first time trial was in 1934.

TTT: Team time trial

Transfer: Usually a Tour stage will end in a city one afternoon and start the next morning from the same city. When a stage ends in one city and the next stage starts in another, the riders must be transferred by bus, plane or train to the next day’s starting city. This schedule is normally done so that both the finish and start city can pay the Tour organization for the privilege of hosting the Tour. The racers loathe transfers because this delays their massages, eating and resting.

UCI: The governing world body of cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale.

Virtual Yellow Jersey: Not the leader of the Tour in fact. When a rider has a large enough lead on the Tour leader, so that if the race were to be ended at that very moment he would assume the leadership, he then is called the Virtual Yellow Jersey.

Virtuel Maillot Jaune: French for Virtual Yellow Jersey

White Jersey: See Maillot Blanc

Yellow Jersey: Worn by the rider who is leading in the General Classification in the Tour de France. Traditional history says that Eugène Christophe was awarded the first Yellow Jersey on the rest day between stages 10 and 11 during the 1919. It is further believed that Yellow was chosen because the pages of the sponsoring newspaper L’Auto was printed on yellow paper. Both may not be true. Philippe Thys says that he was given a Yellow Jersey by Tour founder Desgrange during the 1913 Tour. And Yellow may have been chosen because jerseys of that color were unpopular and therefore cheap and easy to get.

Woah! Without doubt the longest blog post I’ve ever written but I hope I’ve managed to hold your attention and that these tips will help you enjoy Le Tour de France in whatever way you choose to follow it. Please feel free to leave any of your own comments and tips below. Until next time…..

@StevieDexter

By my calculations it is exactly 18 days until the start of this years pinnacle event in the season’s calender, Le Tour de France. This year’s event is set to be a real spectacle with 4 mountain-top finishes and the re-installment of the team time trial as well as enough flat stages for the sprinters to shake a stick at. [ED - While we are on the subject of mountain-top finishes, here's a neat little fact for you to taunt your buddies with. This year's Tour passes over the highest mountain it has been over in it's history. Le Col Agnel stands at 2,777m and will be at an average of 6.5% and has only been used in Le Tour once before in 2008 when Egoi Martinez crested the summit first with Simon Gerrans eventually taking the stage win.]

As I write this, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse are in full swing where some of the big guns are showing their worth, knowing that it is vital in preparing the body for the perils of Le Tour as well as being able to get the closest possible reconnaissance of your rivals before the riders arrive on L’Ile de Noirmoutier on the 2nd of July. We have already witnessed a somewhat crazy, if not enthralling (compared to last year) Giro d’Italia with notable rides from Scarponi, Gadret, Nibali, Rodriguez and the punchy José Rujano who all seemed to be fighting for 2nd place after Clenbutador turned on the gas in the mountains.

The ‘Alternative List’

Over the next few weeks you will undoubtedly be inundated with lists of possibles, probables, big hitters and no hopers for this years Tour. Quite boringly these official publications, online and in print, have their image to think about and don’t generally rock the boat… well now you have me! Here is the ‘Alternative List’ of information on some of the biggest riders (and one other) in this years race with my own take on their chances…

Alberto Contador, Clenbutador, Clenty… what ever you want to call him he is going to play a big part in this years Tour, as he has done over the past few years. The diabolical state that he and the UCI have left our sport in over the last 12 months is unexcusable to you and I but the powers that be seem to sleep soundly at night. The wins that he gifted to José Rujano, Igor Anton and Paolo Tiralongo in this years Giro in an attempt to gain kudos points to cash in at Le Tour made me choke on my filet mignon. Personally, I cannot fathom how anybody who knows anything about professional cycling could cheer for Clenty and I hope he snaps a spoke or drops a chain on every major climb and gets found to be the cheating ass that we all know he is. That is all.

Brother Grimpeur the Younger, Andy Schleck has to be classed as the bookies favourite of all ‘never-tested-positive’ riders. Baring a mind bendingly stupid Schleckanical, Andy will have a strong team around him that will able to control the race until they hit the mountains, and if all else fails, he has been working on his camouflage and concealment to enable him to hide 10km from the summit and just jump out from the woods in front of the leading group. After coming so close in the last two years the Grimplette will need a large wallet in his jersey pocket to take this years event and may be better off trying to secure the white jersey of the Young Rider classification for the last year he is eligible.

I’ve never hidden my feelings about dopers or those ‘that have never tested positive’ but annoyingly I have a soft spot for Veino. Whether it is his sheer brazenness, his tears following his first win after returning from his ban in the 2009 Tour de L’ain, or the realisation that he is one of the only remaining cyclists left in the peloton who I loved to watch when I begun to get into the sport. Every sinew of my body tells me I should want to throw a lead filled bidon at his tiny blonde head but my noggin-box stops me every time and I end up screaming “Gitmek Veino, sadece fincanda piss yok!”

Cadel ‘Cuddles’ Evans generally looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp but opitimises everything that is Australian. He might look like a bag of melted Hershey’s Kisses but with a flash of those amazingly vein-busted legs, a cheeky joke with his 2km wide gob and the dulcet tones of his Northern Territory upbringing he could have your girlfriend away from you in a second… and have you believe it was your fault! A true Aussie! Cuddles may be 63 years of age but he is one of the most exciting riders to watch in the Pro peloton and able to finish 3 week grand tours with only 1 working elbow, which is not something that has been said about many cyclists. I love Cuddles’ post race comments as much as seeing him gnarl his way to victory and hope he can be the first man in history to race Le Tour for a full 50 consecutive years.

Given his recent Tour de California victory and the fact that 90% of this posts’ readership is probably American I though I should add a Yank into the list to keep the flying monkeys from the window. If you hadn’t already realised this post does not have a massive basis on facts… and that’s what makes Chris Horner a perfect pick for the US’ entry into the ‘Alternative List’. After being shepherded around the suburban roads of California by his team to the biggest win of his career, Horner made my favourite quote of the year thus far when discussing his Tour pedigree:

“I have definite plans of riding there in 100 percent form. I will focus solely on working to bring my form back up to 100 per cent for the Tour de France. I plan on being top five, if not on the podium. I think I can climb with anyone in the world and I’ll show that in July.”

Sorry what!? You can ‘climb with anyone in the world’ now that you’ve won the Tour de America!?!?! I beg to differ… nay… I say you frickin’ can’t! I’m not belittling the ’4th Grand Tour’, really I’m not, it really was an exciting event this year that I enjoyed watching, but Horner was in the same kindergarten class of ’48 as Cuddles! He got 10th overall last year but I think he may have inhaled some funny smoke from all of those college kids lining the Californian roads if he thinks he can mix it with the bog boys come July. Not to mention, I can’t think of a suitable nickname for him… he’s got no chance!

Twiggo has just taken victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné and in doing so, has probably smashed to smithereens all possibilities of winning Le Tour. Like any true Brit, the Mod-father performs well when he is able to be humble and stay out of the limelight but falls to useless stiff upper-lipped pieces when people start looking at him. After his great performance in the 2009 Tour, his preparation for 2010 mainly consisted of riding every race that supplied you with a starting number and thus he had enough energy to competitively race the first 70% of every Tour stage and began to falter just in time for the live TV coverage to start, which made him look like an ass! This year is different. He and Team Sky’s Davey B recognised the mistakes they made with his preparation straight after he’d ballsed up the 2010 event and are ready to crack some skulls… but then he went and won on Sunday and now his odds are as short as Samuel Dumoulin, D’oh!

Let us know who you will be cheering/booing for in July and please remember, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are entirely mine and do not represent those of The Boss or Lovingthebike.com! If you wish to sue, please be aware I have very very little money… it’s probably not worth it!

Lead, follow…. or get out of the way!

@StevieDexter