Well just scrap everything I wrote in the previous blog, except that Remco Evenepoel is still in charge. It should have been an uneventful flat stage to pick the race up after the ITT. But COVID… But CRASH… and what did I say about 3 minileague teams unscathed so far?! Five riders tested positive for…

Imperious A close contest was expected in the Individual Time Trial between Roglic and race leader Evenepoel, but the Belgian proved to be streets ahead of everyone else. What doubts can remain that Remco Evenepoel is the best rider in the race, and that there is a changing of the guard as the younger generation…

Simon Yates in 2018 won a stage at Les Praeres which is literary “The Prairies” – it’s an area of grassland … so they are finishing in a field? Maybe, but it’s a field in the middle of the Peñamayor mountains. Today the victor was little Louis Meintjes in his first Gand Tour stage win…

Vanity, all is Vanity! Perhaps my favourite scenario in this crazy sport is a full-on chase to catch the breakaway. Four or five teams against four or five unfancied breakaway artists. Cat and mouse. Will they, won’t they? There is gambling in the peloton – can we commit just enough riders to make the catch…

Bora! Bora! Bennett!(*) (* with apologies to German fun hardcore dance band Scooter) Sam Bennett takes the stage win for BORA-Hansgrohe two days in a row! But the rider of the day has to be his lead-out man Danny van Poppel who was on the front going flat out, realised his man was missing, stopped…

Big Sam is Back! Belgian-born Irish sprinter Sam Bennett for Bora won a thrilling if slightly chaotic finale stage 2. Much was being made of his “drought” of wins since his last Grand Tour stage victory on the 4th stage of the 2019 Vuelta. That’s a stage victory for four GreenWightRed teams: Cuchara de Madera…

Here we go! The Team Time Trial is a rare beast in recent years. But it is one of the more predictable forms of bike racing, given the depth of science and training for the top teams. One of the top performance engineers and aerodynamic specialists for Skineos, for example, is Dan Bigham who proved…

Procession and sprint. Champagne and the Champs-Élysées. Corks and cobbles. Everyone knows the script. In the early break – right from kilometre zero – Wout van Aert sprinted away with Pogacar in his wheel, so that Vingegaard in yellow had to chase them down. Smiles all round and the party had begun. In no time…

Jumbo’s eaten all the buns! The sprinters’ teams kept the breakaway on the leash the entire stage. Whenever their lead went towards a modest 2 minutes they would bring it back to 20 or 30 seconds. Just for once this looked like a nailed-on conventional bunch sprint stage, but when the sprinters came to the…

Tadej Pogacar may have considered praying for a miracle at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, or at least of filling his bidons from the holy spring, for nothing short of a miracle seemed likely to shift the yellow jersey from his back wheel. However it was a moment of fellowship & sporting respect…