Tag: Tour de France

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Bradley Wiggins out of Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins out of Tour de FranceWith continued ill-health Bradley Wiggins will not defend his title at this year’s Tour de France, Team Sky have announced. Two weeks ago, a worsening chest infection caused his withdrawal from the Giro d’Italia and he returned home for treatment, rest, and further assessment of an on-going knee condition. During his period of treatment and recovery Sky say he has been unable to train with any intensity and consequently will not be able to race at this month’s Criterium du Dauphine or Tour de Suisse.

 

Team Principal Sir Dave Brailsford today confirmed: ‘With illness, injury and treatment Brad has gone past the point where he can be ready for the Tour. It’s a big loss but, given these circumstances, we won’t consider him for selection… He hasn’t been able to train hard since the Giro and now he needs further rest. Whilst we all know these things happen in sport, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a huge disappointment for everyone in the team – and above all for Brad. It’s incredibly sad to have the reigning champion at Team Sky but not lining up at the Tour. But he’s a champion, a formidable athlete and will come back winning as he has before’

 

For his part Wiggins added: ‘It’s a huge disappointment not to make the Tour.  I desperately wanted be there, for the team and for all the fans along the way – but It’s not going to happen. I can’t train the way I need to train and I’m not going to be ready. Once you accept that, it’s almost a relief not having to worry about the injury and the race against time.’

 

‘I’ve been through this before, when I broke my collarbone,’ continued Wiggins, ‘so I know how it works. I’ll get this sorted, set new goals for this season and focus on those. This team has so many riders in great shape, ready for selection and we set incredible standards for performance, which shouldn’t be compromised.  We need to have the best chance to win.’

 

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Books Featured Reviews

Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition

tdf2013_book_largeOf course there are no end of books on various aspects of the Tour de France and numerous biographies of those you have ridden it to fill in the more personal (often painful) minutiae. But now, thanks to publishers Quercus, comes a book as rich and beguiling as the race itself. Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition, authored by Françoise Laget, Gilles Montgermont, Serge Laget and Philippe Cazaban is an enormous volume that pulls off the seemingly impossible trick of being both concise and suitably detailed in turn.

 

Covering the birth of the TdF before dedicating a page per race through the subsequent one hundred editions, it includes overviews that capture the agony and ecstasy along with brief stats, such as final standings, total distances, average winner speed and map, all of which helps contextualise things. But this, perhaps, is not the book’s strongest selling point (excellent though the prose are) as Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition is also a stunningly illustrated visual history with more than 250 photographs and illustrations – many previously unpublished – which elevates this beyond a ‘mere’ history.

 

Those that think they know the TdF are likely to find bountiful nuggets of archaic and obscure information here and the photographs will continue to captivate long after this year’s winner reaches the Champs-Élysées. As a written history, with substantial sidebars, this book is near perfect; as a collectable coffee table picture book it is unsurpassed.

 

Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition is published by Quercus (ISBN-10: 1782064141) and worth every penny of the £30 cover price. Available from, amongst others, Amazon.co.uk

 

 

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Books Featured Reviews

Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force

Bradley Wiggins Tour de Force

Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force by John Deering - Team SkyHard to move without bumping into another book on Bradley Wiggins – his autobiography, My Time, is out, as is an update of his In Pursuit of Glory, and the official Team Sky’s 21 Days to Glory. Then there are the books Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe, Press Association Sports, et al. Britain’s first ever Tour de France winner and Olympic hero is certainly proving a gift to publishers… We have to assume the collective noun for these is ‘a peloton’ and amongst this bunch we find Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force by John Deering, a regular contributor to Eurosport’s cycling coverage, Procycling and The Official Tour de France Guide. The fact that Deering has arguably nabbed the best title for his book reveals something of the tabloid headline nature of his book, but where it succeeds is in perfectly balancing biographic history with a virtual day-by-day account of Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France battle, thus splicing together several of the other viral titles available.

 

Deering pulls off his trick by alternating chapters between breathless present tense details of the TdF with stories of Wiggins’ childhood and rise through the ranks. Whilst the latter is really better detailed in Wiggins’ own books and words, Deering’s blow-by-blow of the Tour is both evocative and perfect for those looking to learn more about the machinations of team tactics and minutiae of life on the road. If you can forgive the tabloidisms (‘He kisses the podium girls with the relaxed confidence of a former lover’) then Tour de Force is a rewarding read that ranks amongst the best on its subject.

 

Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force by John Deering is published by Birlinn Ltd, £12.99 RRP paperback (ISBN-10: 1780271034) and £8.15 Kindle Edition. Available from Amazon.co.uk

 

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TdF: The Empty Years

20121027-091711.jpgFollowing the International Cycling Union’s announcement that Lance Armstrong would be stripped of his seven Tour de France wins (1999-2005), they have further confirmed that no substitute winners will stand in the now vacant spots. Given the breadth and depth of the scandal – which clearly goes far beyond just Armstrong – the UCI statement confirmed the break with tradition of reallocating first place positions, saying, ’The management committee decided not to award victories to any other rider or upgrade other placings in any of the affected events… a cloud of suspicion would remain hanging over this dark period – but that while this might appear harsh for those who rode clean, they would understand there was little honour to be gained in reallocating places.’

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Featured Features

Tour de France 2013

The route for the 100th Tour de France was unveiled yesterday at the Paris Convention Centre, in front of an audience of 4,000 people; as had already been widely rumored the historic centenary edition will me a monster of a climb with the kind of hills likely to rule out a second consecutive overall win for Bradley Wiggins. Indeed Wiggins has already declared it ‘more than likely’ he will play a supporting role to team mate Chris Froome and concentrate instead on winning at the more fitting Giro d’Italia (set in include more than 90km of time trial), saying simply, ‘I just want to be in a successful team.’

 

The 2013 Tour de France will begin, as was already known, on Corsica (June 29) with three days of racing over 511km before moving to mainland France for the first time trial – the team effort in Nice of 25km. The two subsequent (individual) time trials are set for Stage 11 (Avranches – Mont St Michel, 33km) and Stage 17 (Embrun – Chorges, 32km), a total of 65km down from the 100km of this year. The finish, as has been traditional for many years, will take place on the Champs-Elysees in Paris (July 21) after 3,360km of racing; with the twist for this celebratory edition being that not only will riders go all the way to the top of the famous boulevard and circle the Arc de Triomphe, but their arrival is to be timed for twilight too.

 

But it is without doubt the climbs that will define the 2013 edition; although the rumors that the TdF would finish atop l’Alpe d’Huez rather than in Paris proved – naturally enough – unfounded, the beast will still have to be tackled twice during the 168km Stage 18, and the legendary Mont Ventoux makes a welcome (!) appearance once more for 2013. Adding to the tough mix next year will be four summit finishes, not least of which is likely to be the penultimate stage’s ascent to Semnoz where the entire TdF could be won or lost.

 

The full TdF 2013 route is:

 

Stage 1 (June 29) Porto Vecchio – Bastia, 212km

Stage 2 (June 30) Basta – Ajaccio, 154km

Stage 3 (July 1) Ajaccio – Calvi, 145km

Stage 4 (July 2) Nice – Nice (TTT) 25km

Stage 5 (July 3) Cagnes sur Mer – Marseille, 219km

Stage 6 (July 4) Aix en Provence – Montpellier, 176km

Stage 7 (July 5) Montpellier – Albi, 205km

Stage 8 (July 6) Castres – Ax 3 Domaines, 194km

Stage 9 (July 7) St Girons – Bagneres de Bigorre, 165km

Rest Day

Stage 10 (July 9) St Gildas des Bois – St Malo, 193km

Stage 11 (July 10) Avranches – Mont St Michel (ITT) 33km

Stage 12 (July 11) Fougeres – Tours, 218km

Stage 13 (July 12) Tours – St Amand Montrond, 173km

Stage 14 (July 13) St Pourain sur Sioule – Lyon, 191km

Stage 15 (July 14) Givors – Mont Ventoux, 242km

Rest Day

Stage 16 (July 16) Vaison la Romaine – Gap, 168km

Stage 17 (July 17) Embrun – Chorges (ITT) 32km

Stage 18 (July 18) Gap – Alpe d’Huez, 168km

Stage 19 (July 19) Bourg d’Oisans – Le Grand Bornand, 204km

Stage 20 (July 20) Annecy – Annecy Semnoz, 125km

Stage 21(July 21) Versailles – Paris

 

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Books Reviews

Road to Valour

Road to Valour

Gino Bartali was born into near poverty in rural Italy on the eve of the First World War, yet rose to become one of the greatest names in European cycling, winning the Giro three times – 1936, 1937 and 1946 – and the Tour de France twice, first in 1938 and again in 1948 (the largest ever gap between TdF wins.) But this is not the only focus of ‘Road to Valour’, written by brother and sister Aili and Andres McConnon, because Bartali was also a war hero, secretly aiding the Italian Resistance and in so doing becoming a national hero…

 

The full title of the book is the exhaustingly long ‘Road to Valour: Gino Bartali: Tour de France Legend and Italy’s Secret World War Two Hero’ and here, we feel, the problems begin (not least because Cyclo never trusts a title with more than one colon…)

 

The McConnons recount the story in minute detail; ten years of research calling on first hand interviews with family members and team mates and dialogue culled from newsreels, papers and Bartali’s own writing. They are at pains to point out that the book is not a work of fiction; an ascertain they probably feel obliged to make because their often florid prose reads like an historic novel of lurid proportions. Their manner is likely to divide readers; a Marmite style that will either carry you along with the drama or distract you in an avalanche of over-wrought phrases and laboured similes. The fact that the book really falls between two stalls (outright drama and serious academic history) is never more evident than in the approach they take to footnoting their text – more than 50 pages of suffix notes are contained but not a single one is easily approached because none are referenced in the main body, leaving you trying blindly to find out where a quote or fact may have come from. It smacks, in short, of uncertainty.

 

A shame then as Bartali’s story is a fascinating and, indeed, important one. As a cyclist few have equalled his meteoric rise (certainly in the face of such social and political adversity), and as a war hero – a sort of Italian Oskar Schindler if you will – his bravery and moral integrity are truly inspirational. If you can get beyond the McConnon’s bombastic hyperbole an excellent read lays beneath.

 

‘Road to Valour: Gino Bartali: Tour de France Legend and Italy’s Secret World War Two Hero’ (phew!) is published by W&N, £20.00 RRP hardback (ISBN-10: 0297859994) and £10.99 Kindle Edition. Available from Amazon.co.uk

 

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Armstrong: ‘Enough is Enough’

In an official statement seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has announced that he will no longer fight the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) over doping allegations dating back to his World Tour days, saying, ‘There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, “Enough is enough.” For me, that time is now.’ USADA say they will ban Armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of his Tour de France titles, despite Armstrong, the UCI and USA Cycling making clear that they have no jurisdiction to do so.

 

Armstrong was faced years of accusations focusing on illegal blood transfusions and steroid and EPO (blood booster) abuse, but has consistently made himself available for testing and passed every test with a 100% clean bill of health. Yet the rumours and more recently the USADA witch hunt has continued. Now Armstrong – who is currently banned from his new passion for triathlon by the actions of the USADA – appears to have resigned himself to the position, saying of the Tour de France days, ‘I know who won those seven Tours, my team mates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours. We all raced together…’

 

He concludes his statement saying, ‘Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances. I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities… Going forward, I am going to devote myself to raising my five beautiful (and energetic) kids, fighting cancer, and attempting to be the fittest 40-year old on the planet.’

 

To read Lance Armstrong’s full statement visit lancearmstrong.com

 

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Books Reviews

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike

Published in hardback in March this year, and due in paperback soon, Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike by William Fotheringham looks deep into the psyche of the cyclist who, for many, is the best there has ever been.

 

One of the key factors that support the publisher’s guff about Merckx being ‘to cycling what Ali is to boxing’…is the numbers. Quoted as a total of 445 victories in the publicity material but as ‘over 500’ and 525 by sources as diverse as the Guardian and Wikipedia. We’d suggest that if you are pinning your story on statistics at least get them right…

 

What isn’t in dispute is that Merckx won more races than any cyclist in history; five Tour de France, five Giros d’Italia, one Vualta a Espana and three world championships. Possibly the greatest achievement was to win, uniquely, the yellow (Overall Winner), green (Best Sprinter) and polka-dot (King of the Mountains] jerseys in a single Tour (1969).

 

Fotheringham, one of the most entertaining of cycling writers, provides interesting historical and political background to the two sides of Belgium and the rich traditions of Flanders cycling. His biographies of Tom Simpson (Put me back on my Bike) and Fausto Coppi (Fallen Angel) may be much more thrilling but, in part, that’s because both characters were flawed and met with personal tragedy. Because Merckx was relentlessly successful and focused the catalogue of rides and wins impresses rather than fascinates.

 

However, what Fotheringham does provide, as always, is a compelling opening chapter that takes you to the heart of the book – Merckx, near the end of his career, fighting for a futile third place finish on a brutal Alpine pass, with a jaw that was broken in two places just that morning. He also presents a rider who always attacked, the first rider to dominate the classics and the tour, day after day. Interviewed by Fotheringham in 1997 Merckx answered the key questions posed in the book: ‘Why the years of focus? Why the need to win so often and so much?’ Merckx replied with a simple soundbite: ‘Passion, only passion.’

 

Fotheringham suggests it all starts with a sensitive Flemish youngster, an outsider who spoke French, and one who was, in a community where cycle racing was key to the culture, ‘too small to win’. It was this fear of failure that led him at times to pursue the needless annihilation of his rivals.

 

If the background and the cycling action are well researched and detailed one aspect has been widely critised: to some, Fotheringham ‘takes a bucket of whitewash to Merckx’s use of performance enhancing drugs’. Merckx was said to be distraught early in his career when he realised that professional cycling was ‘rotten to the core’ yet still went on to be caught doping three times. Whatever your views on that issue this book is yet another quality title from Fotheringham; a fascinating story of, by any measure, the greatest competitive cyclist of them all.

 

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike by William Fotheringham is published by Yellow Jersey – ISBN-10: 0224074482 – available from, amongst others, Amazon.co.uk