La fin du Tour

Once again the Tour has come and gone. It’s amazing how long we all wait for this grandiose event that comes with much awaited anticipation and goes in the blink of an eye.

Despite what many say, I still think it was a great and very exciting Tour.

The last 15 days of the Tour where good for me. We had a great group on Bikestyletours and had a great trip. The riding was a little less solid than in years past and in cycling terms I feel somewhat unfit at the end of a somewhat soft month of July. But off the bike it was great fun, a good trip, a great group of people and thankfully nothing but good weather.

Alberto Contador showed he IS the rider to beat. He showed hit amazing talent in the mountains by beating everyone he needed to beat on the hills. He confirmed his superiority with a clear win in the final Time Trial and he showed his class and cool-headedness by coping fantastically well with in-house team issues and stress to win his 4^th grand Tour in a row. Congratulations to Contador.

Lance came back to the sport in the best way possible in my mind. I’m over the moon to see Lance on the podium. As much as I would have liked to see Lance win the Tour, I think it’s actually best that he’s 3^rd. If he had won everyone would have said the Tour was boring. That now that Lance is back you know in advance what’s going to happen. It would also have raised all sorts of questions if Lance had won the Tour after 3.5 years out of cycling and a fractured collar bone in April. By finishing 3^rd he’s shown he is back BIG TIME!

He’s shown you can come back after 4 years off, he’s shown he’s a fantastic athlete… and in “only” finishing 3^rd, he’s made people look a little closer at his style and racing intelligence to notice things that we may have overlooked had he won. Lance was always at the front, never missed a split in the field. At the end of the day Lance raced smart! You can’t take anything away from the way he raced, he only lost a few meters when he legs couldn’t follow. Lance IS human, he’s not a machine and I think many world-wide will appreciate his 3^rd place that much more. However, he’ll be back next year… so look out!

In the world of the “fat guys”; the sprinters. Mark Cav showed he is the fastest sprinter in the world without a doubt.

Hushovd showed he’s the most consistent and possibly the smartest and more gutsy sprinter in the Tour.


Hushovd went out and got the intermediate sprint and gathered points where he had to and when he had to… ie: in the mountains when Cav was out of the picture. Tyler Farrar showed he’s a top sprinter and will be a force to keep an eye on in the future.


On the Champs on the last stage the Garmin team did the Yank thing and pulled out the TT skin-suits for the big crit on the last day... hmmm... not sure what that was about. They must have run out of clean clothing by tthe last day in Paris...
Skin Suits on a road bike?

The Belgian Quick Step and Lotto teams showed…. Nothing. Allan Davis must be sitting at home FUMING at the way his team and more to the point Tom Boonen raced this years Tour while he was sent home from Monaco the day of the Tour Start to give his spot to the Belgian National Champ Boonen.

The French showed they have some good riders and can win on the world’s biggest stage when the racing is suited to them. And In Brice Feillu the French might have a Tour rider and/or climber in the years to come. The French haven’t had a stage racer or good climber to years.

And how can you forget the two-prongued Shleck duo... A very strong and scary pair... Give Andy a few years to work on the TTing (which he has allready vastly improved) and he surely will win the Tour.

And that’s about it.

For me I have another trip in the Alps in a few days. 10 days on the Classic climbs in the Alps. Life couldn’t be much better than this!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Tour, and is already looking forward to next year’s running of the world’s biggest and best bike race.

To the Tour again

Well that’s it. My few days back home are over and it’s off to an early morning flight tomorrow to head back off to “la route du Tour”.

I’ve had a really nice few days at home. Wendy and Des from Australia have been over staying at my place and we’ve had a great time riding and drinking coffee. Though a crash on one of the local descents ending in the hospital with 2 broken ribs did put a damper on the week and gave us a pretty big fright. But we've still got in some good local rides and I've been able to show off this one-of-kind area I live in and come from. We've made the most of a bad situation and have had some good laughs on the way.

The cobbled climb of Cordes is 20% steep and over 23% in sections. This is a classic ride I take everyone up who comes to visit. It's a bitch, but a must do!

The past few days of the Tour have seen the usual “first week” sprint finishes. Nothing really to write home about and nothing of very much interest except for those taking part in the last few hundred meters. In the next few days we should be heading back towards some “real” racing again.

Until then, enjoy the Tour on TV, I’ll be on the side of the road soaking up the atmosphere, but most likely somewhat confused as to what is actually going on in the race. Mais pour le moment, vive le Tour et a tres bientot.

Tour de France, Week 1

After a rather long and painful train trip to Nice, I was finally at the Tour with Bikestyletours once again. I was on a trip covering the first few days of the race. Monaco and the TT course was great. A really good start to the Tour with a great course.

Levi, doing what Levi does.

The trips was once again really good fun. Not quite as much riding and not quite as fast as I would have liked, but we were sun-drenched and in a great part of the world.

It's been a very hard week early in the this year's Tour, even Jens has been grimacing!

So far the race has been very exciting and interesting. It’s great to see some old-school style racing coming into play in the first week of the tour, with Bordures in the wind and some unexpected time gaps.

Lance Armstrong seems to be in pretty good shape and his meticulousness and ability to be in the right place at all times and waste as little energy as possible is really shining through. Astana came through with a stunning TTT and showed their preparation. Though I did think it was a bit of a shame Garmin didn’t win the TTT. I would have rather see them win, as I don’t honestly feel they have many other cards to play throughout the rest of the Tour, and they deserve success. Astana on the other hand have plenty (maybe even ALL) the cards play in the next 2 weeks.

Hinault and Armstrong after the TTT: Best mates 4 ever?

Today is the first day in the mountains. Today we should see how everyone is really going. Will be very interesting to see how Astana race once the group of the favorites is whittled down. Great stuff!!!

First Mountain day into Andorra: Alberto Contador eyes the hights of the Pyrenees.

For me it’s time for a couple days at home. A quick race and then I fly up to Paris for another Bikestyle trip covering the last couple weeks of the Tour to Paris… oh great, I’ll have to ride bloody Ventoux again. L Actually last week’s ride up Ventoux wasn’t too bad. I rode up with a client who was pretty keen and it took us 1 hour 29… but we have ridden up there with clients where it’s taken over 3 hours… A quick nip up the Ventoux to keep the legs spinning (at about 50rpm, hmmmm)