Tour de France 2014

Read our very own Max Leonard's excellent book about that.

What about the poor sods who consistently finish at the back?
#gotmyeyeonthatjersey

You can buy that jersey on Strava.

The sponsors have been content to have someone win it six times in a row in the past so they are probably quite happy to have Sagan win it again and again. But it was a dull competition this year. It's hard to see how it can be re-jigged to make it closer though when Sagan is so good.
On the other hand the mountain jersey has been good the last couple of years with stage winners taking it rather than people who lead over one or two climbs first every day and then disappear.

The FDJ kid's face says it all.

Nauvardaskas position on the bike OMG

Long shot, but is anyone able to send me a text message when the ca last 10 km are up? If so PM me pls.

Thanks guys!
Unconditional love for the forum indeed.

What about the poor sods who consistently finish at the back?
#gotmyeyeonthatjersey

can I have a 'Hell yeah!' for Ji Cheng? Giant Shimano's Chinese locomotive is riding his first tour, and is going to finish it (as one of the racers with an awesome amount of km's at the front of the peloton, too)

Hell yeah!

^^apparently they've nicknamed him the "breakaway killer", not bad for his first tour

....and he gets to win a prize of sorts (lanterne rouge)

Poor bloke looked like he spent the whole first week on the front of the bunch. He must have done some serious suffering in the mountains.

I guess he'll be doing his thing again in Paris? Hells yeah.

That's a crazy 1st tour.

Lars Bak to Danish television:
"I use 180 mm cranks, so don't have a wattmeter. I just keep it at 50 km/h all the way..." And Tony Martin is on a 58 tooth big ring and clinchers (as usual).

He's got quite a granny ring on the cassette if that makes anyone feel even slightly better...?

The 58 isn't to give him a bigger gear than a 53 or 55 would. Think its so he can use the middle of the cassette instead of the 11t sprocket and therefore run a better chainline.

Looks hard as nails though doesn't it!

Nibbles - warming up in his Italian Champ jersey... you know - so he doesn't get his yellow one all sweaty.

The 58 isn't to give him a bigger gear than a 53 or 55 would. Think its so he can use the middle of the cassette instead of the 11t sprocket and therefore run a better chainline.

Bet he still ends up on the 11 a few times.

Damn straight.

That Lampre helmet is well out of order.

I've a 57t C-Rec chainring somewhere that came off a mercian tt bike I had.

Went one ride on it for the lols before having to switch to the small ring to get over the very modest rise that was in the way of me getting back to my house again. Seeing the Panzerwagon churning that thing around is incredible.

The way he pumped across the finish line I wouldn't have been surprised to see the whole bike disintegrate beneath him. Epic stuff.

^^ That translation for Panzerwagen in french should be voiture blindée.

What has Bardet got on the back of his neck? Looks like a fucking bum bag.

Ice pack. Surely he's going to throw it away at some point.

Icepack