Tour de France 2012

I know why there have to be stages like today's, but after a few days with relentless climbing, that felt literally and metaphorically a bit flat.

Quite looking forward to seeing a bunch finish again tomorrow - Sagan and Goss going elbow to elbow hopefully.

Much as I like Froome, his girlfriend Michelle Cound @michellecound on twitter, comes across as the personification of every bad Saffir stereotype. She has been on fire today again with some silly and unnecessary tweets.

tell all

Much as I like Froome, his girlfriend Michelle Cound @michellecound on twitter, comes across as the personification of every bad Saffir stereotype. She has been on fire today again with some silly and unnecessary tweets.

Racist.

What's with the lion the yellow jersey bearer has to wave about at the end of stage jersey presentation? Sorry if this is a daft question.

Much as I like Froome, his girlfriend Michelle Cound @michellecound on twitter, comes across as the personification of every bad Saffir stereotype. She has been on fire today again with some silly and unnecessary tweets.

The lesson here is not to follow opinionated and biased partners of pro riders.

What's with the lion the yellow jersey bearer has to wave about at the end of stage jersey presentation? Sorry if this is a daft question.

To remind certain riders that they need to hold their lion

What's with the lion the yellow jersey bearer has to wave about at the end of stage jersey presentation? Sorry if this is a daft question.

To signify the rightful ruler of Narnia, where the winning rider goes for dinner. (you can sometimes make out the wardrobe behind the podium)

To remind certain riders that they need to hold their lion

To signify the rightful ruler of Narnia, where the winning rider goes for dinner. (you can sometimes make out the wardrobe behind the podium)

Ha ha. Seems I'm not the only one who doesn't know. :-)

No, it's just they are better than the truth. Which is boring and pretty obvious

No, it's just they are better than the truth. Which is boring and pretty obvious

I resorted to Google. I guessed it was some sort of sponsorship thing. As you say, pretty boring. I like the Narnia idea better.

This is a bit vague but I seem to remember watching/ reading about a car that carries replacement bikes during the tour, incase a rider's bike failed. Not a team car or anything like that, they were completely standard bikes with clip/ strap pedals.
Can anyone shed some light on this as I cant find any info and would like to know more about the spec etc of the bikes (if they even exist!).
Taa.

They're called neutral support vehicles. In the tour sponsored by Mavic and in the giro, Vittoria?

They're called neutral support vehicles. In the tour sponsored by Mavic and in the giro, Vittoria?

so is that the same crew that supply the "standard road racing bicycle"?

Just done a huge shift at work, then helped my brother move house.
Then I cooked a meal for my folks, took my lad swimming, before cracking a beer and sitting down to the TdF.

Not a scintillating stage, but the presence of Dave in the break had me sweating.

Surely not..

Not after all this time.

Back in the day I followed Millar on the Tour de France & the Tour of Spain, fitting holidays around his riding. And when he won... man! It was special.

That special happened again for me today, but I've got the added pleasure of knowing he's squeaky clean.

That sprint finish against Santiago Botero in 2001, neck tendons straining and teeth gritted, the bowed head of his opponent and the punch of victory - it happened again! 11 years later! And this time it's the Tour!

Chapeau Dave!

I fucking loved it.

Yeah, TDF has mavic, and AFAIK always has been.

They have a ride out mbike too with wheels on it.

Though I don't think I've EVER seen one being used! I guess because the teams have about 4-6 bikes pre-set up for one of the main riders, and pedals/quick changes to make suitable for the others. whereas the neutral cars bikes will be very generic, even pedal matching could be a mission!

Here is Jens Voigt riding a far too small, clip and strap neutral service bike in the TDF a few years back. It's simply not possible to have the right size bike with right pedals available to all the riders on mountain stages when they are spread over many miles of road.

They are/were aluminium Cannondales. Clips and straps, Mavic wheels. Don't know about group sets but I think they're Shimano, probably Ultegra.

+1 Lucy.

^^^ I thought they would be more bling than that? Looked like carbon wheels and modern/current dura ace?

But yeah, clips/straps makes sense, otherwise would need an entire boot full of pedals ready to go to cover the array of systems out there.

http://www.mavic.com/en/assistance

In the Giro it's Pinarellos.

This is the post race interview from cyclingnews.

Like Voeckler in Stage 10, he may be a hardened tour vet' now, but he can't hide his emotions.

Just read Wiggins' article in the Guardian. I think it is brilliant and exactly what he needed to say.

This. Great piece. I hope (and am massively impressed if) he sat down on his laptop and wrote that between stages!

Guardian article was ace and a welcome air-clearer. I especially enjoyed this amongst the comments:

"He forgot to add 'c*nts' at the end. Everybody needs a catchphrase."

Can someone please make a T-shirt with a picture of Wiggins looking huge just the word "c*nts" superimposed?
(maybe "huge" is the wrong word for Wiggins... maybe more... err... intense...?).

Oh, and chapeau Millar!

Oh, and whats the deal with Sean Yates?

Is he always like this?

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/cyclingnewsbc/?title=Did+Sky's+Sean+Yates+drive+the+race+course+after+this+morning's+incoherent+interview?&dashboard=tour-de-france&id=1733495202001&yr=2012