In a stage tailor made for Julian Alaphillipe, Julian Alaphilippe attacked over the final climb, claimed victory in a three-up sprint, and took the yellow jersey.
The French — who haven’t had a Tour winner since 1985 — will be ecstatic as on paper this looks like a repeat of 2019, when Alaphilippe took the Tour lead early and held it up to the penultimate stage, despite Alaphilippe’s insistence that he is not targeting the overall this year. Continue reading
Jasmin Glaesser won a gold medal for Canada today, in the women’s Pan American Games road race. Teammate Allison Jackson won bronze, and fellow Canadian Guillaume Boivin also won bronze in the men’s event. That wraps up the Games for cycling, and Canada won 11 golds in 18 medal events for a total of 20 medals — an unprecedented performance for our team.
Meanwhile, in the Tour de France, the overall result has seemed like a foregone conclusion since Chris Froome crushed his rivals in the opening Pyreneean stage, But today Nairo Quintana kept the suspense alive to the final stage.
On the climb to l’Alpe d’Huez, the Colombian put Froome on the ropes for the second stage in a row and managed to get to within 1:12 of the yellow jersey — close, but not close enough. Continue reading
It has often been said (mostly by me, and usually in hindsight) that the Tour Pool mirrors the Tour de France itself.
Such was the case today, as crashes and crosswinds during a flat stage reshuffled the standings in both the Tour and the Pool. In the real thing, today put an end to Rohan Dennis’ sojourn at the top of the overall, points and young rider classifications. In the Pool, Chris White #2 suffered the same fate, plummeting from first to 16th overall.
It was kroppCircles who took the day’s honours with a very impressive total of 64 points, followed by four teams tied on 62 points: France in my Pants, annedon, Winning on koolaid and Piping Places, with A-OK getting an honourable mention in sixth place with 56 points. Continue reading
Who says flat courses make for boring races?
A crash at a key moment and strong crosswinds combined to blow the Tour de France peloton apart with about 60 km to go today. As the dust settled, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador found themselves in the front group as Daniel Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Thibaut Pinot were left flailing behind a gap that would grow to more than a minute and a quarter by the finish.
Almost incidentally, Fabian Cancellara finished third on the stage to take a crucial 4″ time bonus, leapfrogging Tony Martin into the yellow jersey by a 3″ margin. Yesterday’s winner Rohan Dennis missed the split, and not only relinquished the yellow jersey, but the green and white jerseys as well. Continue reading
The Ottawa Tour de France Pool 