Tour de France 2015

Quintana v Froome in the Mountains. With a decent handful of other contenders. Could be brilliant. But then last years yawn fest looked to be brilliant before it started.

It was only a yawn feat 'cos nibs smashed everyone on the cobbles. Including fabs. I wish that plus the astana/UCI troubles hadn't happened.

Belkin follow-up Lotto Jumbo team kit UCI un-approved... because yellow

shame. Decent looking kit.

ASO have announced the 5 wildcard teams this morning;

• Cofidis
  
• Europcar
  
• Bretagne-Seche-Environnment
  
• Team Bora
  
• MTN-Qhubeka
  
  

I'm really pleased about the last one, that's a huge boost for African cycling.

That's awesome news!

Pleased to see Europcar and BSE - although both seem inevitable.
Any chance that EB-H would make the team for MTN?

only 3 French teams? ;-)

MTN, nice indeed! maybe we'll even see Theo Bos in sprints, fingers crossed

Nice to see that steve cummings may get to ride another tour. A wise move from bmc maybe.

Can't see why he wouldn't. The first week should quite suit him and he'll be used somewhere in the train to lead out one of their many sprinters.

MTN will be targeting whatever stages they can and some of those in the first week will suit Ciolek or Eddy Bos himself.

mtn have got Goss too, and Farrar, maybe they should all just go for it and cover the road?

Mtb 1-2-3-4-5?

Goss and Farrar are past it at the top level sadly.

Farrar should concentrate on staying upright and leading others out and then trying to keep calm when it doesn't go his way.

@Chadders81 true, the pair have both said they're gonna be on leadout duties, Farrar going for some one dayers early in the season.

thinking about it though, you know how most leadout men drift all over the shop once they're done trying to cause problems for the peloton... I think Farrar has found his calling

For appreciators of Henri Desgrange.
The Greenwich Grand Boucle in honour of his 150th birthday - next Saturday..
http://www.lfgss.com/events/544/

Newb here...

I happen to be in the Pyrenees between the 14th and the 16th - hoping to stand on the side of the road at least one of the days. Does anyone know of any decent reading on the internet with how i'd go about sorting it out/travelling to the route etc...When is the exact route published?

Cheers!

the exact routes of the mountain stages are (not yet published on the letour.fr website but they're) not hard to figure out beforehand, as there is usually not many more than one way up and down between the cols the peloton climbs and descends

ok - thanks.

Best.Tour.Ever

100 days to go.

Yates twins are riding the Tour for OGE

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/yates-twins-to-ride-tour-de-france

in case anyone's planning to come to the start of the TdF in Utrecht by bike: there's a great 'cyclist camping' in the city

http://www.cyclecampingcartesius.nl/

Looks like I'll be heading over for a few days of this, probably get stages 3-6.

Quite excited as I've never been before.

Quite worried that end up in the wrong places and see nadda as I've never been before.

Haha.

Looks like nobody will be heading over the Galibier on the way to the Alpe as the road from Briancon to Grenoble seems to be still closed after the Lautaret by then. So either Croix de Fer or Glandon to get to the Alpe, the Marmotte rides over the Mollard. This road closure must be bad for local businesses.

When do the teams announce their rider lists for the tour?

@Zerostar

When do the teams announce their rider lists for the tour?

Good article on that subject here:
http://inrng.com/2015/06/selection-dilemmas/