UAE Emirates-XRG's Tadej Pogacar, my predicted yellow jersey and polka jersey winner:
The fourth of July has arrived. Not the day 250 years ago that Britain gave America its independence, only kidding folks! But the fourth of July is the date of le Grand Départ when this year's Tour de France starts.
It's that time of the year again. The Tour de France, the 113th edition, is about to start later today. Le Tour de France is one of the three grand tours raced every year. The other two grand tours are Il Giro d'Italia held in Italy and La Vuelta a España in Spain. Grand tours are three week-long races; other professional road cycling races are usually about a week-long or a day-long.
I love the Tour de France with a passion. I love the peloton of riders dressed in very colourful attire; I love the spectacular views of France, especially the chateaux and sunflower fields; I love the riders suffering as they climb a very steep mountain up to a summit finish; I love the crazy fans screaming at and running with the riders; I love the crashes; and I love the bunch sprints as the riders strain to the finishing line. The Tour de France is one of my highlights of the year.
Though I've been to several stages of the Tour de France as a spectator, because the cyclists whizz past fast, the best place to watch a stage of the Tour is at the finish line where there is usually a large television screen showing the race. However, and generally, I prefer to watch the Tour de France on television because I don't miss any of the action and I have the advantage of commentators identifying the riders and explaining the race as it unfolds. However, this year I'm unable to watch live coverage on my television unless I subscribe to a streaming platform which I'm not going to do. The Tour de France will be shown live on television on the S4C channel but it's a Welsh-speaking channel . Even if I could get it here in England, I only know two Welsh terms, bore da and Cymru (meaning good morning and Wales respectively) which won't stand me in good stead following the race. Instead, I will have to rely on the daily highlights shown on Channel 5.
This year's Tour will start in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Saturday, 4 July, and it will end on the Champs-Élysées in the French capital, Paris, on Sunday, 26 July.
There are 21 day-long stages of the Tour, with two rest days after each week of racing. There are seven flat, four hilly and eight mountain stages (with five summit finishes), plus two time trials. Each stage winner gets €11,000 (about £9,400 or $12,600).
There are 23 teams, each comprising 8 riders, taking part in this year's Tour. Of the 184 riders who start, many will not finish. The winner of the Tour de France is the rider who reaches Paris in the least time; he will wear the coveted yellow jersey, le maillot jeune, and, for his efforts, he'll be given €500,000 (about £428,000 or $572,000). Even the last rider to Paris gets an accolade, la Lanterne Rouge; there's pride in completing the race!
This year's Tour covers 3,321 kilometres, about 2,068 miles. A rider will have to pedal about 100 miles a day at an average speed of about 25 miles per hour in mainly hot temperatures. The Tour de France is a brutal race. The blood, sweat and, tears,, plus broken bones, all for the glory of wearing the jerseys, winning the stages and even completing the race!
There are four jerseys up for grabs in the Tour de France. The yellow jersey goes to the cyclist who pedals to Paris in the least time (see HOW TO WIN THE YELLOW JERSEY). The other three jerseys are the green jersey awarded to the best sprinter (see HOW TO WIN THE GREEN JERSEY), the polka dot jersey given to the best climber (see HOW TO WIN THE POLKA DOT JERSEY), and the white jersey bestowed to the best young rider who finishes the race in the shortest time.
Here are my predictions for the four jersey winners. I think UAE Emirates-XRG's Tadej Pogacar will win the race and wear the yellow jersey in Paris for the third year running. I predict Team Visma-Lease a Bike's Jonas Vingegaard will finish second and UAE Emirates-XRG's Isaac del Toro will third on the podium in Paris. UAE Emirates-XRG and Team Visma-Lease a Bike are the two of the biggest-budget teams on the Tour - the other two big budget teams are Netcompany-INEOS and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Like in all professional sport, money usually wins out!
I cannot see a French rider winning or even finishing in the top three. No French rider has won the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault in 1985, over forty years ago! But I hope a French rider wins a stage or two, especially the stage falling on Bastille Day, the 14th of July. Watch out for Netcompany-INEOS' Kévin Vauquelin - he's a French cyclist riding for a British team, more proof of a post-Brexit Entente Cordiale! French success drives up local interest in the Tour de France. (It's a bit like the three co-hosts of the ongoing World Cup - America, Canada and Mexico - doing well, and they are doing well, to maintain local interest in the tournament.) Come on Kévin! Just as France has loaned the Bayeaux Tapestry to the British Museum, we've loaned a successful cycling team to catapult a French cyclist's success!
Alpecin-Premier Tech's Jasper Philipsen, my predicted green jersey winner:
For the green jersey, always the most difficult to predict, I'm going for Alpecin-Premier Tech's Jasper Philipsen. But there's a lot of ifs for this prediction to come right - the sprinter's form, his lead-out train, his team's priorities, other teams' sprinters and priorities, and crashes, plus the weather.
For the polka dot jersey, I'm predicting UAE Emirates-XRG's Tadej Pogacar. Often the yellow jersey winner also wins the polka dot jersey because to win the Tour de France a rider has to be an exceptional climber. And this year's Tour is visiting five mountain ranges - the Pyrenees, Massif Central, Vosges, Jura and Alps. It's often in the Alps when the winner of the Tour de France becomes known.
And for the white jersey, I'm going for UAE Emirates-XRG's Isaac del Toro as the best young rider. This will be the Mexican rider's Tour de France debut but a lot is expected of him especially as he's riding for a big budget team in support of Tadej Pogacar.
Will you be watching or following this year's Tour de France?
If so, who do you will think will win the race?
Per usual, I'll keep you all updated what happens on the Tour de France over the next three weeks. There'll only be a further three blog posts unless people want more!
In the first comment below are 16 bits of Tour de France trivia for nerds like me!
UAE Emirates-XRG's Isaac del Toro, my predicted white jersey winner (and possible Bulge of the Tour contender):
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20 comments
Like you, I'm unwilling to pay for the channel where I could stream the Tour de France (NBC Sports here in the US). There are usually some pretty good daily recaps on youtube, though. I need to catch up...
I must admit that I'm struggling to get into the race so much with just watching daily highlights.
I also like the views from the helicopters. The analysts on the US broadcast also noted the heat and expect it through the last stage.
Here, it is on a streaming platform that is an affiliate of NBC. Sometimes they show it on an NBC channel, but the live broadcasts are always on streaming. Youtube is another great resource for highlights and an added benefit is that there are multiple sources.
Tadej seems hard to beat. Jonas is an enigma since he is coming off the victory at the Giro and the winner of that race ususlly does not fare well in Le Tour.
I think Jona Vingegaard will have a good Tour but Tadel Pogacar will have an better one. It's interesting that Tadej Pogacar often skips the Giro d'Italia.
@spunkycumfun I think so too. England has a tough one today in Mexico City.
@njfitguy1 It will be a very tough game for England. It's the altitude which will be England's problem. There's no way England's players can acclimatise. Mexico have only lost two of their last 80 home games. So far, they've won all of their World Cup games without conceding a goal.
Even if England win, we'll meet Brazil probably in the next round and then possibly Argentina. That's a tough route to the final!
America have a very winnable game against Belgium, an ageing team that have promised a lot but delivered little over the last few years.
This has got to be a grueling race, especially in the climbing stages. I admit that I do not follow the Tour, but i admire those who compete in such a demanding race.
It's a brutal race.
I do enjoy the Tour de France and your fun posts on it every year. I need to find a channel that is showing it though. I may just have to watch highlights on my phone.
This is the first time I'm not watching it live on television. I'm too tight to pay!
I hope you enjoy the Tour De France my friend and may your weekend continue to treat you well..
I've got some tough choices to make - do I watch football's World Cup or cycling's Tour de France?!
Is it supposed to be extra hot this year?
It's often hot when the Tour de France is on but it's very likely to be even hotter this time.
@spunkycumfun That's why I consider it one of the toughest sporting events in the world.
@njfitguy1 I'm struggling to think of a more brutal race, perhaps an ultra-marathon in the Sahara desert!
@spunkycumfun there was an ultra triathlon first in Hawaii. Swim bike and run marathons in a row. That’s probably as bad as a day you will find
@LT121969 That sounds bad. But in defence of the Tour de France, that was bad in one day, Tour de France riders have to keep on going day after day for three weeks.
The Tour AND the World Cup - banner days for you for sure.
It's a great summer for me sporting-wise!
There's a good 2 part film on Phil Liggett (2nd part marked part 5)
Phil Liggett is a living legend. Thanks for posting the clip.
@spunkycumfun If you're able to see this one, you may be able to see their highlight videos.
@njfitguy1 I'll give it a go.
Time delayed here. Streaming on Peacock starts at 10
My highlights show starts at 7pm (my time). I'm trying hard not to find out the results beforehand!
I had this blog post more-or-less all drafted by yesterday afternoon. But then the draft just disappeared (clearly nothing to do with me!), and I had to start over all again!
You can write a draft on here? Or do you use a word processor and copy and paste over?
Used to watch it every year but gave up after the LA debacle.
@mwants269 You can't save a draft on this site. I draft on an email and then copy-and-paste it here.
@stonnerking The sport is no longer riddled with performance-enhancing drugs. Lance Armstrong (plus others) did a lot of damage to the sport.
@spunkycumfun I blame the others before Lance a lot more than Lance himself. I think the issue with Lance is he was really good at the "enhancing" and the desire to "get him" improved the detection game. How many are angry because he "ruined it for them"
@spunkycumfun That's what I thought.
@mwants269 I've learnt my lesson. I'm now saving my Tour de France draft blog posts in two places, in an email and in a word-processing file.
@mwants269 I don't know about that. Lance Armstrong was a great rider probably even without drugs. I accept that was the direction that professional road cycling was going but Lance Armstrong took it a new level.
It took him a long time to admit it and he took quite a few other riders down before he admitted it. I suspect Lance Armstrong was beyond the control of his teams, most notably the US Postal Service, he rode for. But that's only my suspicion.
There are some very good American riders on the Tour de France - Sepp Kuss, Quinn Simmons, Brandon McNulty and Matteo Jorgenson to name a few.
Greg LeMond is my American hero of the Tour de France. He won without drugs.
Even the British rider Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France victory is tainted with drugs. Geraint Thomas is my British hero of Tour de France racing.
@spunkycumfun I agree, Lance took it to a new level. And, to keep up, the drug enforcement rules and agencies got tighter, stronger, and better. It was a form of an "Arms Race".
As I said, Lance was so good, that for now, nobody can get away with performance enhancing drugs.
@mwants269 All Tour de France stage winners and jersey wearers are routinely tested after each race now.
@spunkycumfun like I said ruined it for all who followed after.
With all those samples, wonder if they take a toll
@mwants269 The main complaint I hear from riders tested is that it reduces their time to recover from a gruelling race.
@spunkycumfun You would think they would be met at the finish line and samples taken minutes after they are done. The result being no real time lost.
Having had blood samples taken for various doctors recently, it's pretty fast. Most of the time is them checking my information and confirming I'm me. The draw is minutes at most.
@mwants269 The riders are tested immediately after the race has finished. If tested positive, the rider is then sent home in disgrace.
@spunkycumfun So no real time lost. They must like to gripe.
@mwants269 No time lost if negative, but thrown out if positive. That zero tolerance policy seems fair.
Because of the vagaries of the site, in the blog post I've had to omit the accent in Tadej Poga?ar's surname otherwise, if included, it reads Tadej Poga?ar!
The site clearly doesn't like Slovenian accents or perhaps it doesn't like Slovenians!
Here are 16 bits of Tour de France trivia.
4, Traditionally riders of the Tour de France were largely drawn from countries like Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and obviously France. But of late the Tour has become increasingly multinational. There are now riders from America, Argentina, Australia, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine and Uzbekistan regularly riding the Tour. The peloton is now very cosmopolitan. But there's no Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea and Turkey, so the Tour de France hasn't quite gone global!