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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Tag: Le Tour de France

Stories

Alexi Grewal; In My Shoes

Alexi Grewal; In My Shoes. Imagine you are a young man. You are racing in your first Tour De France. You do not know it will be your only one. You have climbed the ladder from the outside in, from day one. You have won the Olympic Games, you have survived a season on your own in Belgium, you have survived all things Grewal.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

The Finale: Stage 20 (bunchie) Very Tardy!

The strangest stage of the whole race from the point of view of the staff is the finale into Paris. Our team base is in northern Spain, and so all non-essential equipment went from Bordeaux back to Spain (rather than go to Spain from Bordeaux via Paris — a 1200km detour). Thus we were truckless (or untrucked?) for the only time in the race. Very Tardy.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 20; Paris: Cav, of Course

This morning at 07:00 we had Serge Gainsbourg with 'sea, sex and sun,' it's noon now and we've got Jane Birkin, '69, annee erotique.' Do these people never give it a rest ? We're nearly at the stage start, Dave has done the biz all the way up from Bordeaux.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

Redundancy and Happy Surprises: TdF Stage 19 (time trial)

Time trials are always difficult days at races. Firstly, the riders line up knowing their final position in the race depends on their forthcoming hour of solo work, and secondly, the logistics for the staff are super complex here at the TdF Stage 19.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 19: Bordeaux – Pauillac 52km ITT; Schleck Surprises, But It’s Bert

"Sea, sex and sun," sings Serge Gainsbourg on Radio Nostalgi - all very well, but the boys have 640 K to drive, this Sunday morning, it's the TT from Bordeaux to Pauillac. Today's chrono is 52 kilometres, but Saturday's L'Equipe glossy magazine takes us back 30 years to a much shorter effort against the watch - the Olympic one kilometre championship in 'Moscou.'
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

The Final Efforts: Stage 18 (bunchie)

The Final Efforts. We’re on the downhill slope for this race now, and the fatigue is starting to show. It’s getting tougher and tougher to chisel our heads off the pillow each morning, and the coffees are having smaller and smaller effects.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 18: Salies-de-Bearn – Bordeaux; Cav’s Fourth

Cav: he really is impressive - we were at five K to go when Oss passed on his death or glory bid out of the break; he was flying. The bunch Like some high speed linear motored Japanese train - whhoooooooossssshhhhh! Those carbon rims slice the air.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

The Next Level: TdF2010 Stage 17 (mountaintop)

The Next Level. Today, TdF2010 Stage 17, was the showdown. As all who watch cycling know, any stage with a mountaintop finish is where many of the overall selections happen, and when the mountain is the Tourmalet, which is enormous both in terms of the difficulty of the climb, as well as its history, it’s all the more definitive.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 17: Pau – Col du Tourmalet; Top Two Ahead, Big Gaps Behind

'Andy talks tough !' say the headlines, he did try his best yesterday, his men used whatever was left to drive up the lower part of the Col du Tourmalet - then he went for it. However, not for one moment did it look like Alberto Contador was under pressure.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Second Rest Day

'How's it goin' Shane?' we ask Skyman Shane Sutton as we cross the car park in search of Michael Barry for a rest day interview at the Le Tour de France 2010. 'Been better, mate!' he fires back between hard draws on his fag - it's difficult for a man who wears his heart on his sleeve to 'spin.'
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 16: Bagneres-de-Luchon – Pau; Bbox 2 In A Row

Today was a good day, we took in all five cols of the stage, starting in Bagneres-de-Luchon - it only adds to your respect for the pros when you see what they have to deal with. The gruppo was travelling at funereal speed, 30 minutes down when it passed us near the top of the Aubisque.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

How far to go? Stage 16 TdF2010 (mountain)

How far to go. Stage 16 TdF2010 was the biggest climbing stage of the Tour, but the last climb was some 60km from the finish, which made for a weird looking profile for the day. The boys scaled four enormous mountains, the first beginning from km 0. Tough gig.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 15: Pamiers – Bagneres-de-Luchon; Tommy Gun

Voeckler, you have to admire him, he's a racer. Whatever happens, it's been a good Tour for Bbox, Charteau in polka dots for a good stretch and now Tommy takes a big one. Going down to Pro Continental doesn't seem to have affected them one bit - and it's saved them a fortune. It was a tad mad up on the Port de Bales today but great to be there - Monday afternoon, high in the Pyrenees under a clear blue sky with the world's best cyclists just inches away.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 14: Revel-Ax3 Domaines; Playing Poker

We left Ax3 Domaines this morning, and are now in Lourdes - a strange place, like a religiously themed Blackpool; only it's not little replicas of the tower they're selling, rather all manner of tat plastered with religious images. The last time I was there was with Martin, we sat, stunned in a late night pizza place - yellow jerseyed Rasmussen had just been sent home from le Tour by Rabobank.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 13: Rodez-Revel; Vino’s Day

Bonjour from Le Tour de France in Rodez-Revel! Vino - he's a boy. Born 16-09-1973 in Petropavlosk, he was a stagiere with Casino in 1997; he won the Dunkirk Four Day in his first full season and finished that year with six wins - an impressive debut.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

R&R For Some: TdF Stage 13 (mountaintop)

After a single day of respite from the searing heat of the majority of this race, we were back into a bright sunny day for TdF Stage 13 with high temperatures. This meant the support crew were back up the road helping our boys as best we were able on the big climbs.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

Curtain Raiser: TdF Stage 13 (break or bunchie?)

TdF Stage 13...The big question of the day: will it be a sprint or a break? The Tour has now fallen deep into the second half of the race and the real show to sort out who will finish where in the general classification starts today as we hit the high mountains of the Pyrenees.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

Bad Morning Good Day: TdF Stage 12 (3km wall finale)

Sadly, Tyler abandoned yesterday as his body finally said “enough”. We were all disappointed for him. It was very saddening to see his face, which showed the acute disappointment he felt. The race itself did go on, however, and typically, Garmin-Transitions were flying the flag despite the setbacks today at the TdF Stage 12.
Editorial

New to VV: Toby Watson presents Tobe’s Blog

We're very pleased to announce that Garmin Transitions physiotherapist Toby Watson will be contributing articles to his new VeloVeritas blog.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 12: Bourg-de-Peage-Mende; Bert’s Back!

Le Tour de France, Bourg-de-Peage-Mende, and Bert's back! And we were there to see it, a privilege. L'Equipe today says 'Fin de la Trêve' - that's 'end of the truce, (or respite)'. That's how it looked to us, Contador letting Schleck know that he's just fine.
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At Random

Garmin Physio Toby Watson

Bad Morning Good Day: TdF Stage 12 (3km wall finale)

Sadly, Tyler abandoned yesterday as his body finally said “enough”. We were all disappointed for him. It was very saddening to see his face, which showed the acute disappointment he felt. The race itself did go on, however, and typically, Garmin-Transitions were flying the flag despite the setbacks today at the TdF Stage 12.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2007 – Day 5: Rest Day

Rest day, it's a bit of a misnomer if you are journo on the Tour. My first task was to get the washing done, I try to travel light and do a washing every couple of days, it's a "fine drying day, today" as my mum used to say, so by the time I get back tonight, my wardrobe should be replenished. I left Martin to get a little extra beauty sleep after all that driving and wandered-off to find a caff. It didn't take long and I soon had my cafe au lait and armagnac in front of me.
Interviews

Kris Withington – Garmin Transitions Mechanic

If mountain biking is your thing, and you're not really into road bikes, how - and why - would you end up working as a mechanic for a ProTour team? We met Garmin Transisions mechanic Kris Withington recently on the Giro d'Italia, chewin' the fat at the start of Stage 12 in Citta Sant'Angelo, and so we thought it would be great to find out the answer to that question, and discover a little more about this Giro, as well as life on the road with a top professional team.
Diaries

Gent Six Day 2010 – Nights Five and Six, Iljo-Schep Hold On

It's Monday morning, I'm sitting in some horrible 'theme' bar at Charleroi Airport. My flight home to Edinburgh is cancelled due to the snow in Auld Scotia and the best I could wangle was Charleroi to Dublin, tonight then Dublin to Prestwick in the morning. My pal Dave has booked me into a hotel at Dublin airport, so I'm as sorted as I can be. The alternative flight from here was late on Wednesday night. The six all seems a long time ago...
Interviews

Alex Coutts – in Asia

Scottish rider, Alex Coutts, who is a regular interviewee on VeloVeritas, has been riding in Asia this season for the Giant Asia Race Team; it's now been five months since his season started in the Tour of Langkawi. As "The Burntisland Buzzard" is training again in Spain for a hard six week period of racing in China, Japan and Korea, we thought it was about time we got an up-date on life competing in the UCI Asia Tour circuit.
Race Previews

Bec CC Hill Climb: Preview of the 52nd Edition

The 2006 edition of the Bec CC Hill Climb was absolutely remarkable on several fronts. Firstly, for the very first time in the history of the event we had a dead heat for 1st place. Gary Dodd of Sigma Sport, and Bill Bell of the Gemini B.C. battled to the line, in atrocious weather to both record a time of 1.49.17. Neither of these 'Kings of the Hill' have, as yet, stuck their heads above the turret for this years event, and neither have they been spotted out reconoitering White Lane in prep for another crack at taking the honours.
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