Our Day Out - 18 July

Our Day Out – 18 July

Our day was very uneventful actually. A bit like the "usual" transitional stage, also very uneventful, with the usual small exceptions. The spectacular crash on a piece of totally useless street furniture. Rider OK, bike destroyed. The futile escape of yet another French guy and a Dutchman. The last ditch valiant heroic attempt by Sylvain Chavanel to ride faster than all the sprinters’ teams for the last five kilometres (failed). Very mellow countryside that I love deeply, although tailing off into boring vineyards, when it got out of our area. Last but not least, a massive sprint on the flat won by … Mark Cavendish. He is clearly the main personality of this Tour so far. No one else remaining in the Tour, has done anything of real note, except the top GC guys who have so far “not lost” the Tour.

Naurika noticed on the news (I missed the news trying to do this blog) that the French are actually starting to do what they usually do. They say that the reason that the French riders are not doing so well, as usual, is that they are the only clean ones. The rider who was interviewed and implied this without really saying it, did refer to"les étrangers". There is no way to know that this is a good analysis. It would be a shame for the French if one of the French riders, not a foreign rider on a French team (which has happened often enough), was found doping. What bothers me is that I have been reading Vélo, the French racing mag published by ASO, the same people who brought us the Tour. there are many articles about the French riders and their eating and training. It is my distinct impression that the French teams, for some reason I do not understand, are less good at training riders; the riders often talk about rather haphazard and self organised training plans. their eating habits are far too often French, not "cycling". Interviews with other riders often comment on the changes in training and eating when they go to other teams. I remember O'Grady particularly when he left Credit Agricole and went to CSC. I have no insider information, but I have the distinct impression that the other teams train better. Maybe they all use drugs. Columbia? Garmin (who have not done well)? CSC? Rabobank? All these teams are drug cheats? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

For us the day began by the short drive to Roujan, our chosen vantage point, mostly because it was easy to get to and might just make it onto the TV coverage. Technically the coverage began in time for us to be on TV, and you can see from one of the photos, if they had been showing the passage through Roujan we would have been on TV. But in fact, they showed several minutes of the escape climbing the little hill after Neffiès, plus some minutes of a Legend of the Tour and by the time they got back to the peloton, they were already through Roujan. Must happen every day in the Tour, entire villages missed out. Works of folk art never shown. Videos scrutinised only to find the camera on the motorcycle was pointing the other way. Still, that’s the Tour, you take the rough with the smooth.

Other than a very slight alteration in the Green Jersey competition, absolutely nothing changed, so rather than write a thousand words or more, I shall add my "home photos" to the blog. I still don’t know how to add them at the right place, so you have to read them at the end of the blog and from the bottom up. Sorry. Robbie McEwen managed to finish second today, best he has done. I don’t think this means he wants Green. I think, like all the sprinters, he would just like to beat Cavendish on a flat mass sprint. The young French guy who was in yellow for a day, Romain Feillu, finished third. Top five looking quite normal, except for Kirchen, who insists on staying there, only three points behind Zabel and 18 behind Hushovd and Cavendish. But it still is very much a competition. Cavendish is now in second place, up from fifth yesterday, but nearly everyone is speculating that he will drop out to focus on the Olympics, and not make it to Paris. And clearly Freire is still quite serious about the jersey too. So this is one battle that is not over in any way.

The yellow, spotted and white jerseys are still subject to hot competition, but since nothing happened to give us any hint of anything new, I will skip the subject entirely.

I will say one thing, Evens sometimes looks as if he is riding lop-sided. Maybe it will be all right, his shoulder, but he looks funny sometimes. Even today a bit.

These photos are best understood from the bottom up, not the top down, but I simply can't change the options yet.




I drove up with my wife. Me at the Tom Simpson stele on Ventoux just a few weeks ago. I know it is nothing to do with the stage, but I saw it in my photos. Just popped it in, wonders of technology.


Almost missed it, but you can see that Valverde even has a spare bike painted in the Spanish Champion's colours. I thought that was attention to detail, and of course, a big budget. Its on the far left, almost out of the picture. No comments about the quality, it has a massive shutter delay, just a little camera, no motor shots or anything.


I try every time to watch carefully. I try to pick a spot when they will be going slowly and not be in a bunch. Good choice today. And every time I don't even pick out the distinctive jerseys,nor hardly ever identify more than three or four riders. Its just a blur, like this shot which I intentionally picked to give the essence of watching a bunch of riders go by. You can see how a given person on a given day at a given place might find it a rather boring "sport" to watch.


As you can see from the angle of the TV camera and from the angle of my camera, we would have been on TV if they had chosen this guy's shots at this exact time. They didn't. Did you know that Ronan Pensec, the French rider who once wore the yellow jersey, is in the TV studio alerting the actual real time editor of the TV shots, hat might be a good shot at any given time.


We really did want the sausages, but nothing came our way.


This is one of the more over the top loads that must be driven all over France. The people who are now the sole betting agents in France for sporting events, and it is only on the horses you can bet. Soon it will change and I can bet on the Tour next year.


Naurika managing to attract the attention of the washing powder people and getting freebie number four. sometimes it is embarrassing how much junk they give away, but that is the Tour. We failed to get a Cochonou sausage and there was no coffee. As far as our part of the caravan goes, we thought there were less vehicles and less stuff. Slightly boring in fact.


Although it looks like the streets might not have filled up yet in Roujan, they were actually stunningly empty all day. Quite a throng in the middle of town, but just a few hundred metres from the centre, there were mostly people outside their houses. Down the road it looked more crowded and on TV it looks like there are loads of people. But this is the least crowded observation point I have ever chosen. Seem to be endless English people in Roujan. Still a bit of shade, and a nice ambience.

An Ideal Tour Day ... NOT

An Ideal Tour Day – 17 July

Today I rode the route of the Tour ! In my car actually. I got up a bit later than I might have, and had to do an errand, and then “it was too late”; Also I have had a cold, and it’s a hardish ride. I wanted to scout out where Naurika and I could watch the Tour. And to remind myself about he exact route, the roads; the climbs the villages. Since we are going to see the Tour in real time, we can’t get home to watch it. Sad side effect of real time being only in one place.

I found the spot. You can find it too, on the Avenue Henri Mas going out of Roujan. The best way is to use the Google Maps (of France( special “street view” map of the complete route of the Tour, street by street. You have to find out about the detailed operation of the site yourself,, although the basic link is on the blog. But it is a fantastic little project/feature, especially of you know the area the Tour goes through this year. Every street. I remember the rough area from my rides with the club. We often go down into the “pays bas”, the low country, during the winter. The moyennes montagnes, really big hills, around us are a bit less than hospitable during the winter. Who wants to climb above 400 metres on a winter day? Not around here. The route through Roujan is quite twisty. The peloton should be well stretched out by the time they leave the town centre. The town streets are very narrow and twisty for the Tour, believe me. So as they leave town, there is fairly long straight bit with rows of plane trees on both sides of the road, classic. They provide a nice bit of shade. We might be able to pick out individual riders as they stretch past. The riders might be chatting and throwing out water bottles, but probably not. Anyway, we will pack the lunch and arrive under the trees in time to catch the caravan. They say it comes through at 12h45. So a bit earlier really, noon. Pick our spot, pull out the picnic. One of the small blessings of living in France, where I live, is that once in a while, more often for some, you can live “an ideal day”. But I don’t know why I make a fuss, you can live “ideal days” anywhere. The more the better. The only difference is that this is a “Ideal Tour Day”. One kind anyway.

So I kept going through the town. There was absolutely no sign whatsoever of the Tour along the whole of my route. Except the fluorescent arrows telling you which way to go. I knew the roads, so I didn’t need arrows. But it made me think that it still is my greatest clearly-defined dream to ride in a motor vehicle, containing my bike and at least one friend, along the entire route of the Tour. It is easy to define, not like “feel free” or “be happy” or “do the right thing” or even “get rich”. Imagine for a moment, as a normal person, what it would be like to have the entire route of thousands of kilometres, just laid out for you. Arrows and everything. And for most of the time you are driving on it, the road is closed. Maybe two hours or three every day of closed roads through the finest countryside in France. So you get up in the morning, have breakfast, maybe go for a ride or hang out in the village. Then you get in the car, with the bike or bikes, leaving in the late morning, and ride the Route of the Tour. That includes all the people too. To me, that would be heaven. I would do a podcast, sign a book contract, negotiate with a magazine or take gifts to manage to get to do that. This story is the really local one. Just the bit between Roujan and Clermont l’Hérault.

Anyway it’s a lovely, superb, excellent ride through some quite intriguing geography. Its not the bigger hills near us, which should show up in helicopter shots, nor is it the flat bit by the sea, which you can see from that road. You can also see the Pyrénées on a clear day at the top of that climb. The climb, the fourth category climb, starts just after Neffiès, the next village. One guy in our club told me yesterday he goes up the climb in his big ring. I guess that means it is not going to be a real obstacle for the lads. But I kept thinking if someone like Voigt got going, relayed by Cancellara, they could motor up the hill and maybe get rid of someone. Naw, just dreaming. I certainly lose minutes on this hill when riding in the club. A lovely sinuous descent, where a demon descender could easily put time into lazy riders that lost a minute or two on the hill. Most likely, nothing will happen, but it is a really good climb. I am willing to bet they go up that hill at perhaps three times my speed, certainly well over twice as fast as I do. There was one tight turn on the climb where some bits of bitumen were scattered on the road, but no doubt they will sweep that up. I came across a few bits of road surface so new they don’t have markings. If you watch the Tour carefully, there are many more stretches of road than you might expect that have been done, so recently there are no white lines.

Oh yes, on the descent, on a 360 turn, there is a fountain that I have stopped at. Last time I rode it, we were going up and Joseph, ten years older than me but whom I sometimes cannot keep up with, thought we would stop. Why not, it makes the climb easier and you get to chat. But they kept going and we more or less had to follow. Lots of cyclist stop there, as well as people in cars filling up water jugs. Nice spot. Maybe it has a name in the book that Jean-Paul Olivier has.

Partway down the descent is a house or two called La Roquette. One of those blue signs for nowhere in particular or “lieu-dit”. I asked a guy in the club to remind me which climb it was, as I had not been over there for months. Anyway he called it La Roquette, and so does everyone else. It is NOT, at least by really local cyclists, and called Cote de Resclauzes, like the Tour says. There is no sign at the top either. Although it is called Côte de Resclauzes on some maps like that. Fourth category, they say.

Partway through the ride, just after they leave Cabrières, you could make a slight left and be forced to climb a pretty fierce hill before you rejoin the main road to Clermont l’Hérault. I would like to see those guys take that hill in the big ring! Although no doubt they can. Anyway they keep going through some utterly lovely kind of gentle, but rocky countryside until they descend into Clermont where they do “revetaillement”, feeding. We thought of doing the Tour in Clermont, but it will be totally mad there. Loads of people lining the streets. Too much competition for goodies. Altogether not relaxing. I think Roujan, just outside of town will do.

The way home was a known road and quite quick. In fact, from Clermont to my town was the exact route of the Tour last year. So all but the bit before Roujan was “a Tour route”. I remember exactly where I watched it last year with Naurika. Always will. That is what the Tour does for you in France, it gives you an extra layer or two for the countryside, whether in your neighbourhood or elsewhere. I remember almost every place I watched the Tour. Although I am losing the details in my old age, I think I remember them in great detail. I reckon nearly everyone does that. It’s a “shared national experience”, but like a good shared experience, has a million variations, even if it is shared. So look for the two of us in your videos. Unless plans change, we will be dressed in something bright and will be amongst the plane trees at the exit to Roujan. The thing is, as we all know, the cameras can only point in one direction. If they are pointing to the right and we are on the left, then no chance for immortality. We got on the TV last year, so we shall see this year. Actually the sad thing is that unless the Tour is ever so slightly slower than the schedule, the TV will begin to broadcast about ten minutes after they pass through Roujan. Probably no TV appearances this year.

In case you missed it, one of the striking things was that there was utterly no sign whatever of the Tour, throughout the route, except the arrows. I guess that route it is not a great place to watch from campervans. If I really were obsessed, I would re-drive the route tonight, and see if anyone is parked up anywhere. Nice road to park up on, that is certain. And not far from the motorway if you know the roads. Not a sign of the Tour. Other than the ones that say don’t take this road. Road closed. Just the fluorescent arrows. I found that rally strange. It’s a huge event, but for local people, it is totally ephemeral and does not change anything about their lives ever. Some large percentage of tourists and residents check it out if it goes through their town. Or in my case, near enough. But it really is quite ephemeral. Everyone is off the route within half an hour of the passage.

Back to serious business of the race results, although I hope that nothing happens today so there will be little to write about. It is supposed to be pretty much two nothing stages for the next two days. This will allow everyone to rest a bit before tackling the serious business of the Alps. From what I know of the route, there should be a repeat of yesterday. It is possible that the both stages could end in sprints. But most likely an escape will get away and certain teams will respond behind to make sure it is not a problem. Then the escape will duke it out or the sprinters will duke it out. There are all the sprinters teams, and all the GC leaders’ teams want to make sure “nothing happens” until the end of the stage. Anyway if there is something interesting today or tomorrow, I would love it. Countryside is pretty good all day. Not that mostly flat and boring landscape with big fields and no hills. In fact, they basically traverse the whole of Languedoc Roussillon. They don’t really do the beach bit; they sort of do “the back country” bit, and avoid the serious hills and any of the bigger cities or towns.

Right that’s it for the pre-tour bit. Next bit is results. Or little stories.

AND THEN ….

First story on the news, Ricco caught. NOT an Ideal Tour Day. Damn, what a drag! Ruins so many good stories. Life time ban for that guy! Now I have learn about CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator). I was looking forward to the countryside and a blog already done. Putain! As they, men and women alike, say all the time around here. Waves of sadness. Smaller, thank goodness, waves of anger. I say that by now, anyone who dopes should be banned, after due process, for at least two years, maybe four from riding any UCI race. Ooops, the Tour is not UCI anymore. So each race makes new rules? Their own rules? Getting all a bit dicey now there is not an agreed body running the racing. A bit like the market! I am not even going to discuss drugs, although … Ricco is using the newest epo that you only have to inject every two weeks or once a month, rather than three times a weekly as in recent kidney dialysis. Apparently this new epo is very expensive and not available for all kidney patients yet, just cyclists and other athletic cheats. My solution, let them all use drugs!

So some of the jerseys changed, although nothing terribly significant, other than the departure of the entire Saunier Duval team happened. Mark Cavendish won AGAIN. Actually it would be good if he let one or two other sprinters win a stage, its not nice to win everything. But he had a perfect lead-out, he was perfectly placed, he veered into the clear air just a fraction a second before Sebastian Chavanel, and then rode faster than anyone else to the line. I saw an interview with Chavanel, and although he mentioned that he had to slow just slightly when Cavendish drifted into his path, he did not make any accusations about Cavendish “cutting him off”. Seeing the slo-mo, it seemed to me it was a close call. Maybe there is only a whisker of a difference between a good sprint and an illegal one, fractions of a second, one centimetre. The young lad does need a little bit of media coaching over the winter months though, if he is going to keep being interviewed. I should think the Columbia people can find someone to do the job.

The green jersey competition is still hot, with all the sprinters trying to get points at the end, and some of them trying hard in the intermediate sprints. Freire still has a fairly good sized lead, and got 24 points today. Zabel also got 24 points with Hushovd 19 and Kirchen 10. Unless they all get slung out of the Tour, one of them should be in green in Paris. I quite like that we have no idea at all which one. Or will my earlier hunch that a non-sprinter (Kirchen) might win it turn out to be accurate.

The mountains jersey is now a total and utter mystery. The present leader, Sebastian Lang is neither a climber nor high on the GC. He is just a guy who rode over some hills in a break. He certainly won’t win it, as his Gerolsteiner teammate young Kohl, is actually a serious climber, and might decide to go for it. We won’t know for a couple of days, until the real mountains. Anyone who makes a break could win enough points the first day to take the jersey. Well, nearly anyone. An absolute mystery. After two mountain stages, we have no idea at all.

The young jersey is much the same, although now Andy Schleck, Kreuziger, Nibali and Monfort are going to duke it out for the next few days. I still go for Andy. It is a nice jersey to wear, but it is so directly related to the GC, it just means we watch and note the young guys on the GC. Nibali is now tenth, with the removal of the previous drug cheats in eighth and ninth. I admit we don’t know that Cobo cheated. The other three young guys I mentioned are in 18^th 19^th and 20^th. Come the mountains, we will know.

As for the yellow jersey, we know nothing more. No one lost or gained time today. Shame we won’t have those attacks of Saunier Duval or Ricco. Maybe someone else will try it. The only changes in GC were for two more riders to move up into the top ten. Astarloza and Nibali. I did say I thought the top ten would look a bit different before Paris, but I never thought it would change for those reasons. I guess I still don’t rally want to know about the drug cheats. Like drunk drivers or speeders, if they get caught, bust ‘em. They all know the rules.

That’s all for today. I had more to day, but am upset about the Ricco thing.