Tour de France: Stage 15

Nice segment on Radio Tour. 

Everything caught. Typical sprint finish except Cav was in a group that finished about 15 minutes back. 

Tour de France: Stage 14

That was an excellent finish. Two races, the yellow jersey reduced “peloton” and the breaking apart breakaway. 

Pinot and Bardet were together near the end. Then, like an angel, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, somehow, some way – Cummings emerges and flies – seriously- flies through corners and manages to win the stage. So awesome as it was Nelson Mandela tribute day and Cummings rides for MTN Qhubeka. 

For the GC, wow. Froome does a lot and in the end even sprints to the finish just to show Quintana who’s boss. Think he got a second. Q takes over 2nd from Tejay now 3rd. Valverde plays with Contador and then kicks past, leapfrogging C in the overall. Nibali did ok and is in the top 10. 

Wow. Chris Froome says a spectator threw urine at him and shouted dopé. Good for you to speak up. And even if Lance Armstrong was pedalling along, don’t throw urine at him. And that fanatic (not fan) should be made to ride those climbs while we throw yellow sports beverage at him (her?), especially if they aren’t a top sporting performer. So there. 

Tour de France: Stage 13

Typical. 

Nasty crash for Peraud. 

Breakaway remnants caught at about 350m to go. 

Thought Sagan would get it but Van Avermaet did. 

Splits in the field at the line even though hill was less than 1k. 

Tour de France: Stage 12

They sure don’t use Jens much during the broadcasts. 

Man this is a long broadcast today. Watched about 3 hours of broadcast time and there’s still 100k to go!

Dowsett and Dempster out. 

Bunch of action at the end. Seemed like nothing was gonna stick so didn’t write about it. 

Tour de France: Stage 11

50.6k to go. Apparently they have now covered half the distance of the entire Tour. 

Sounds like Johan Van Summeran had to abandon earlier today. 

Pinot is off the back. Break off the front with about 7 minutes. 

Peraud off the back now. Abandon by teammate of JVS. Rein Taarame abandoned! Apparently Rui Coata too!! 

Majka alone at front. Rest of break, no footage, no mention, no graphic. Small yellow jersey group just over 5 minutes back. Porte, Geraint, Froome, Nibali, Quintana, Tejay, Contador, Valverde, Mollema, Gallopin etc. 

Yikes! Cows ambling across the road on a descent! 

Nibali again off the back near the finish. 

Majka wins. Lot of heart shown today by Dan Martin. Finished 2nd by just under a minute. Would have liked to see him get the stage for his efforts. He does get most combative 🙂

Tour de France: Stage 10

Sorry to hear about Ivan Basso -testicular cancer. 

Barguil crash. 

15k climb at the end. Decimation. Annihilation. Gesink alone at front, now joined by Valls(?). Nibali and others off the back. Gallopin still in “peloton”. 

Gesink alone again. 8.5 to go. Sky taken over pacemaking from Movistar. Looks like Barguil only just getting dropped!

The dude in Baywatch attire – as though it isn’t hard enough to climb without *that* chasing you. 

Valverde made a move. I think Froome possibly could be suffering somewhat. 

Gesink looks great. 7.2. Says Nibali is nearly a minute and a half back of maillot jaune group. 

Yes! Contador cracking. Gesink, gap, Porte, Froome, Quintana. Tejay gapped. Froome attacks!! Gap. Guess I was wrong. 

4.5 Froome. 33 seconds Quintana. Gesink in there somewhere, not listed on graphic. Van Garderen 1:11. Contador 1:41. Nibali 3:22. 

Geraint, Valverde, Rolland with Tejay. Saying Porte is near Quintana, can’t see. 

Says Froome is doing over 30k/hr. 

Wow. Froome, nearly a minute, Porte. Quintana, 1:30ish Gesink. Valverde, Thomas, Yates, Rolland. Even Gallopin beat Tejay. Contador 2:50. Nibali 4:26. Wow. 

Overall. Froome, 2:52 Tejay. Quintana 3+. Valverde, Geraint, Contador, Gallopin, Gesink all 4+. Barguil & Nibali 6+. So Froome increased his lead by 2:40!

Gorgeous shot of a bird at the end. 

Tour de France: Stage 9

TTT. Very close for yellow/stage win. Didn’t watch very closely at all. 

Tour de France: Stage 8

Interesting finish. 

Tour de France: Stage 7

Saw a bit of this the same day it occurred but only now able to watch from the start. A bit lost after being so into it and now going so long without seeing any. 

Already watched well over an hour, still more than 85k to go!

Sprint finish. Go Cav!

Tour de France: Stage 6

Fast forwarded a lot. 

Forgot to give props to Bling for his gutsy riding on despite injury yesterday. 

Wtf Tony Martin. He elbowed and took himself and Nibali down! Final 3k though. They say touch of wheels. 

Stybar gets the win! 

I think Tony broke his collarbone. 3 teammates pushing him to the line. Sad podium 😦 Classy congrats to his stage winner teammate “just enjoy the moment”