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Cholet – Cholet (ITT)
Some call it The Race of Truth, the French call it Le Contre le Montre the normal description is Individual Time Trial. I call it Silly Bike Day. One by one the riders go out on a bike that’s worth...
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Cholet – Chateauroux
Everyone riding the Tour has a number stuck on each side of the back of their shirts. Today all the Garmin Chipotles were given yellow numbers as they are currently leaders of the team prize and Will...
View ArticleAigurande – Super-Besse
I’ ve been promised ride in a Team Car. I know this will mean lots of cool footage of the riders coming back to discuss tactics, pick up drinks and power bars; a chance to hear what they say over those...
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Brioude – Aurillac
I have been making my own cycling documentary (separate from this one) for the last couple of years about the rider who comes last in the Tour. www.rougefilm.com But you can only be last in the race if...
View ArticleFigeac – Toulouse
Oh the glamour of it all. Everyone got wet today: the fans, the press / TV folk (that would be us), and of course the riders. When they came hurtling past us, in the shute in Tolouse this afternoon,...
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Toulouse – Bagneres-de-Bigorre
I suppose you think that because I’m at the Tour I’m really clued in about the race. Fat chance. Over the last days I’ve started to notice the same faces outside Big Garmie and, as we wait like...
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Pau – Hautacam
We drove to the top of the Hautacam in Har-V. It’s a beautiful drive with lovely views of the valleys below. Not quite as dramatic as the Alps perhaps but it’s a relentless 15 km climb and there’s only...
View ArticleRest Day Pau
I’ ve often heard it said on rock ‘n roll tours that, when you’re on the road, there’s no such thing as a day off. And when I asked one of our esteemed rouleurs the other night if it was true that...
View ArticleLannemezan – Foix
Of course the Tour de France is just that and I am realising that I’m not getting quite as much France as I’d expected with my Tour… Today’s stage ended in Foix and the bit of Foix I saw felt almost...
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Lavelanet – Narbonne
Let us commence, aujord hui, with a statement of the bleedin’ obvious: you cannot compete in, let alone win, the Tour de France without a bike. Unlike the riders who come in all shapes, weights,...
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Narbonne – Nimes
At first glance the members of the peloton are mostly very handsome and very healthy young men and there’s not an ounce of spare fat between the lot of them. When you look downwards you notice a number...
View ArticleNimes – Dignes-les-Bains
Sometimes even a magic sticker isn’t quite magic enough. Each day the official Tour guide lists the route of the Tour (them) and then a separate route which is described as the Off Race Itinerary (us)....
View ArticleEmbrun – Prato Nevoso
Cycle teams, like rock bands, have roadies. The roadies pro cycling teams have are broken down into three sub-groups: doctors, mechanics and soigneurs. The doctors obviously look after all the medical...
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Rest Day Cuneo (Italy)
I often tell a joke about the difference between heaven and hell which defines, in cliches, the difference between English, French, German and Italian people. If I needed another illustration for a...
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Cuneo (Italy) – Jausiers (France)
Tuesday morning found me quivering with excitement for I had been promised a seat in Car #1. I was going to be right there in the thick of the action, camera in hand on a mountain stage, and I was...
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Embrun – L’Alpe-d’Huez
L’Alpe d’Huez is the Lords, the Wrigley Field, the Wimbledon, the Monaco Grand Prix of cycling. There are certainly bigger and nastier mountains but ‘the Alpe’ is the one we all want to ride up. Bourg...
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Bourg d’Oisans – Saint- Etienne
The night before Stage 17 to l’Alpe d’Huez we found ourselves outside a hotel in Gap imaginatively titled Gapotel. In the cold evening light the mechanics and soigneurs were downloading the gear from...
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Roanne – Montlucon
I have attracted the personal attention of my very own TdF security guy – and not in a good way. At the end of every day’s race only people with bibs are allowed in the 100metres immediately after the...
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Cerilly – Saint-Amand-Montrond (ITT)
The final Time Trial day of this year’s Tour started for David Millar at 8am with my camera in his face and a massive swig of water. Breakfast followed – an impressive selection of bowls of cereals....
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Etampes – Paris Champs-Elysees
After 3 weeks of sun, rain, crosswinds, storms, flat stages, sprint finishes, brutal climbs and mountain-top finishes the peloton moves out of Etampes on a hot Sunday morning with much fanfare and very...
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