Egan Bernal bloomed in yellow while unique Alpine dramas unfolded as a wonderful Tour rode towards its conclusionThe most meaningful touch of the 2019 Tour de France was not the slap Luke Rowe gave Tony Martin after the German had tried to run him into the gutter, leading to the expulsion of both riders from the race. It was the touch of hands between Julian Alaphilippe and Egan Bernal as they rode in the peloton towards Paris, a salute from the man who had brought the race to life to the one who was about to take the spoils: a moment summing up a race that, over the course of three weeks, had rekindled old enthusiasms and enraptured new audiences.What,...
A nation must wait for a successor to Bernard Hinault after their hopes disappear in the Alpine mistsWhen Thibaut Pinot fell into the arms of his teammate William Bonnet by the roadside 36km into Friday’s stage of the Tour from Saint Jean de Maurienne to Tignes, the scene was heart-rending but familiar. Pinot, and the Tour, have been here before. The dramatic, tragic story of a Frenchman who has captivated the home crowd and is forced out by ill fortune and great physical suffering is a plot-line the Tour has written many times. Related: Waiting for the peloton: Tour de France fans - in pictures Continue reading...
Host country’s hopes of first title winner since 1985 are high after a breathtaking weekend thanks to Julian Alaphilippe’s risk-takingThe headline writers of L’Équipe seldom let you down. On Sunday they scraped the mould off a pun – JOUR DE FRANCE – held in storage for almost three and a half decades. Those words were chosen to celebrate a day on which all the nation’s stars aligned in the bike race that represents its greatest sporting spectacle: a Frenchman won the queen stage on the Col du Tourmalet with another Frenchman successfully defending the yellow jersey in its centenary year and the president of the republic along for the ride. And there was now the strong possibility that the race...
Making it to Paris is for every rider, from the maillot jaune to the lanterne rouge, an emotional experience that transcends racingThe Tour de France is big, really big. That’s the first thing that hits you, 4,500 people working on it, and only 176 of those are riding. There is no other bike race that even comes close to this scale. Yes, there are two other Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, yet they are family affairs in comparison.The nature of the course doesn’t vary massively: it’s approximately 3,500km long, made up of 21 stages, mixing from flat transitional days to battles of epic proportions over some of the highest mountain passes in Europe. The rider...