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Sunday, April 28, 2024

Tag: Le Tour de France 2009

Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – The Day After

And now Le Tour de France 2009 is all over; it's Monday morning and we're in a cafe at Montmartre - lucky us, I'm taking care to savour the moment. Even though the coffees are four euros each.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 21: Montereau-Fault-Yonne > Paris Champs-Élysées, 164km

Bonjour! The start starts today in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, but we're not there. Usually I start the VeloVeritas diary for Le Tour de France 2009 in the morning but then have to switch to 'other work' mode for most of the day - going back to poor old VV late in the day, as Martin and I fight off le vieux homme Morpheus.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 20: Montélimar > Mont Ventoux, 167km

Today was the famous Mont Ventoux stage... It's 9:00 pm and we're headed for the A7 "Autoroute du Soleil," and the drive north to Paris.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 19: Bourgoin-Jallieu > Aubenas, 178km

We left Bourgoin-Jallieu this morning, but first a quick run through some of the teams' performances; Cervélo: their Tour has been a good one, Haussler and Hushovd have won stages and Thor has made himself a whole load of new fans by the way he has ridden in pursuit of green.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 18: Annecy, 40.5km ITT

There's a little breeze fluttering the trees in Annecy, it's mild at 25 degrees but rain is forecast - chrono day. The thing about a Tour time trial is that the conditions I have just described might prevail for first starter, at 11:10, F des J's Belorussian champion and lanterne rouge (now that Kenny has gone home) Yauheni Hutarovich.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 17: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Le Grand-Bornand, 169.5km

It had to be an early start, today for Le Grand-Bornand. To get down to the Bourg-Saint-Maurice start, we had to drive against a section of race route and decided to get away early to beat the closures.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 16: Martigny > Bourg-Saint-Maurice, 159km

Sitting here in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, perhaps I'm going to revise my opinion that l'Equipe's Tour coverage isn't as good as the Gazzetta's Giro coverage. The Gazzetta looks better, but the L'Equipe goes so deep.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Second Rest Day

"Armstrong redescend sur terre," says the headline in L'Equipe - 'Armstrong brought back to earth at the Le Tour de France 2009.' Bert dominates the front page, smiling with his "smoking gun" finger held high - VeloVeritas says; "Chapeau, Bert!"
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 15: Pontarlier > Verbier, 207.5km

We finished in Verbier today, but first, a little diversion; I've always admired Bradley Wiggins as a pursuiter, but as a roadman, he's never cut the mustard; the cycling saddo's bible, 'Velo' doesn't lie.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 14: Colmar > Besançon, 199km

"Bonjour," really that should be the German equivalent there of, but my German is even more limited than my French. We spent the night in Freiburg here at Le Tour de France - just across the German border, the hotel room is huge, if a tad Spartan; but that didn't stop us from sleeping like bricks, before starting our day to Besançon.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 13: Vittel > Colmar, 200km

Bonjour from Colmar! A couple of unrelated items first: I just noticed that the Rolex ad on the back of yesterday's L'Equipe is a picture of Turnberry, with Ailsa Craig in the background - ah! the Auld Country!
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 12: Tonnerre > Vittel, 211.5km

Tour de France! Ca va? What does the '0' stand for in 02:30 ? "Oh my God, it's early!" Four hours sleep, as Barry White would say; "it's just not enough!" It's 14:19 and we're on the motorway, near Metz; we just got lost - no excuses, but the signage is grim. Destination Vittel.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 11: Vatan > Saint-Fargeau, 192km

'Cav sez; "Gotcha!" to Baz', as the Sun might say if it were to cover Le Tour de France, and today's stage into Saint-Fargeau. It took Barry Hoban a whole career - two decades - to notch up eight Tour stage wins - but they didn't all come from bunch gallops.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 10: Limoges > Issoudun, 194.5km

I didn’t think that Cav could win the Primavera now, after today's display in Limoges, I think that he can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to within the scope of his physical characteristics. He can win the green jersey on the Champs Elysees in Le Tour de France, Paris - Tours and the Worlds too-when the parcours suits him.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – First Rest Day

'Armstrong admits "there is tension at Astana's table" - says The Guardian headline today; I'd never have believed that!
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 9: Saint-Gaudens > Tarbes, 160.5km

As Jean Rene Bernadeau kissed Pierrick Fedrigo after the sharp featured former French champion took the second Bbox stage of the 2009 Tour, from Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes. I think what he said was; “well done son, we’ve all got a job, next year!”
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 8: Andorre-la-Vieille > Saint-Girons, 176.5km

Clever and strong, Luis Leon Sánchez won this afternoon in Stage 8 from Andorre-la-Vieille into Saint-Girons, adding this to his win at Paris-Nice earlier this year.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 7: Barcelona > Andorre Arcalis, 224km

Neo-pro Brice Feillu (Agritubel) proved the strongest rider today from a group of nine riders who reached the Andorre Arcalis climb together after being at the head of the race for nearly 200km.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 6: Gérone > Barcelona, 181.5km

Less than one week into its debut Tour, the Cervélo Team scored a sprint victory today with Thor Hushovd in the 181.5km sixth stage to Barcelona. Hushovd battled through rain and slick roads that saw team captain Carlos Sastre fall without major consequences.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 5: Le Cap d’Agde > Perpignan, 196.5km

Today's fifth stage from Le Cap d'Agde saw the first successful breakaway of this year's Tour. Thomas Voeckler held off the chasing peloton by seven seconds to win out of a five-man escape in the flat but windy 196.5km course from Cap d'Agde to Perpignan. Russian rider Mikhail Ignatiev also held on from the break to claim second with British sprint phenom Mark Cavendish leading the pack snapping at their heels for third.
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At Random

Interviews

Lee Rosie – Scottish 100 Mile Champion and Record Breaker!

I for one imagined that Kyle Gordon’s 2018 Scottish 100 mile time trial record of 3:36:10 was going to be ‘on the shelf’ for a long while but records are there to be broken and Spokes Racing Team’s Lee Rosie did that very thing in the Scottish 100 Mile Time Trial Championship, taking two minutes from Kyle’s time with a stunning 3:34:10 ride.
Diaries

La Vuelta a España, Stage 15: Solares – Lagos de Covadonga Preview

'Why do you want to go further, nothing is there?' the cute park ranger asks us; she's guarding the last section of the fabled climb. We're beside Lago Enol, one of the beautiful Lagos de Covadonga and we need to drive the finale to complete our mission for the day. 'Two minutes?' we plead with her - 'you have ten and then I come looking for you!' she smiles. She's right, low cloud, grass, rock and no lightweight climbers - just a lone Asturian cow...
Interviews

Jayden Copp – Aussie Winner of the Sint Katelijine Waver Kermis 2014

If you’re not on one of the National Federation programmes there’s only one way to catch the eye and sign that coveted first pro contract. That is, either as an individual or with your team you head for Belgium, France or Italy and fight for results. It’s the time honoured way, good enough for Tom Simpson, Robert Millar and David Millar. A name which caught our eye recently in the Belgian kermises was 23 year-old Aussie, Jayden Copp (Bianchi DCM Arbitrage) with two fourth places, a second then a win. Well worth a word we thought.
Interviews

Nico Mattan – A Drink with VeloVeritas

It was too good an opportunity to miss - Viktor with his pils; me with my Diet Coke; Ghent-Wevelgem and De Panne winner, Nico Mattan with his Carlsberg. I was interviewing Nico thanks to his DFL team mate, Evan Oliphant, who set the meeting up.
Diaries

Rotterdam Six Day 2012 – Day Six, and it’s Peter Schep on top

Peter Schep / Wim Stroetinga win, Franco and Mouris second, Stam/Havik third - a result which everyone is pretty happy with. The Dutch winners are the classic Six Day combo - big, strong, mature, silky smooth Peter Schep and the younger, smaller, more erratic but rapid Stroetinga.
The VeloVeritas Years

The VeloVeritas Years – 2018: John Archibald’s National ’10’ Championships

A National Champs in Scotland? We weren't going to miss that! Together with the strong possibility that one of our 'own', Ribble's John Archibald could take the win in the RTTC '10' Championships on roads we know so well meant that we were up and out early to be able to catch the early starts as well as the 'bigs'. This day exemplifies what VeloVeritas is all about - standing at the roadside with cameras and stopwatches, discussing form and equipment, weather and traffic volumes, capturing the effort and bringing the day to our readers, and is our pick for 2018.
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