Monday, April 29, 2024

Tag: Le Tour de France 2008

Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 9: Stage 21, Etampes to Paris

Salle de Presse, Meridien Hotel, Paris, 18.55 Sunday July 27th. We were in Etampes, and we just watched Steegmans demonstrate how to sprint, he's a much better sprinter than he is a time triallist. Sastre won his, and CSC's first Grand Tour without drama, there was the usual show boating-'Carlos with glass of champagne', it says here on this script.
Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 8: Stage 20, Cerilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond

The Salle de Presse in Saint-Amand-Montrond, 17.30 Saturday 26th July and Carlos Sastre has just won the Tour de France, it won't be official until tomorrow after the big show on the Champs Elysee, but it's won. Personally I'm happy with the result; at least Sastre took the race by the scruff of the neck on L'Alpe D'Huez, an 'exploit.' Evans strategy of following may have been dictated by the weakness of his team, but it would have been hard to be enthusiastic about him as a Tour winner.
Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 7: Stage 19, Roanne to Montlucon, an day with Emma Davies Jones

Bonjour 08.30 we're just getting ready to roll. This is our second F1 hotel of the trip, Grenoble two nights ago and here, last night, basic but clean and the beds work fine - 33 euros for the two of us, so musn't grumble. It's another beautiful day in France, more that can be said for St. Etienne, which seems to be re-inventing itself as a 'Techno Town.' The old part of town is fine though, we had an excellent pizza in a little restaurant last night. Motorbikes and Emma Davies Jones!
Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 6: Stage 18, Bourg D’Oisans to Saint-Etienne

Guten dag! We honoured Carlos yesterday, so we best pay tribute to Big Marcus today. It's been a great Tour for Columbia - and it's not over yet. We had to be flexible today, the plot was to do a bike feature - the top GC riders plus points and mountains leaders - but the start at Bourg-D'Oisans was so tight for space, with team buses in the village streets that there was no room for the team trucks. These went directly to the hotels at the finish in St. Etienne, so it wasn't the best day to bike skek.
Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 5: Stage 17, Embrun to L’Alpe D’Huez

Ola! Wee bit Spanish there in honour of Carlos, a great ride-one that puts him up with the legends. But?... Is it enough to win him the 2008 Tour de France? We'll find out on Saturday, in the chrono; Cadel has to be the favourite though. It's 9.00 pm and we're still in the Salle de Presse on L'Alpe D'Huez, another long one, but they all are. We spent the night in Pra Loup, a word of advice, do not visit the Club du Soleil les Bergers hotel, it's not the answer!
Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 4: Stage 16, Cuneo to Jausiers

Ah! The glamour of the Tour, sat in the toilet of the hotel room in Jausiers, word processing at 06.30 am. I'm in here so as not to disturb Martin, who needs his sleep to get us up to l'Alpe D'Huez in a couple of hours. The BlackBerry lost it's ability to send emails last night, so instead of my usual tapping away on the tiny key pad, here I am on a full size job-albeit one that's perched on the edge of the shower tray as I sit on the you-know-what. But let's talk about yesterday-is that a song title?
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2008 – Day 3: Rest Day

Ciao! It was gone midnight when we hit the hay, last night. There was no thought of food, just sleep, it seemed to take an age to get off the mountain at Pratto and get to our digs at Racconigi - maybe it was just because we were so tired. Breakfast was chronic, stale bread, no cheese, no ham and everything else in polythene wrappers. First mission of the day was to meet Stuey O'Grady at the CSC press conference. He's a buddy of Martin's pal, Pete Jacques.
Diaries

Le Tour de France – Day 2: Stage 15, Embrun to Prato Nevoso

Follow the road until further instructed... Hurray, the satnav is working again! Ahh ! pardon, bonjour mes amis en Ecosse, bienvenu au 15eme etape de la Tour de France avec l'equipe VeloVeritas a Prato Nevoso.
Diaries

Le Tour de France 2008 – Day 1: Stage 14, Nîmes to Digne-Les-Bains

Le Tour de France 2008, Digne-les-Bains, Saturday afternoon, 38 degrees and U2 are telling us it's a "Beautiful Day" - that Bono, he knows everything. We were supposed to meet up with American reader, John Larsen in Forcalquier, watch the race and sample the local fare with a BBQ, however Jet2.com kept us sat on the tar at Turnhouse for an hour before take off, scuppering our chances of catching the race.
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Interviews

Chris Lillywhite – 1993 Milk Race Winner; “I was fiery back then!”

It occurred to me that VeloVeritas had never spoken to the man who won the last edition of the famous Tour of Britain Milk Race back in 1993; Chris Lillywhite. A quick message to our friend Martyn Frank, who was on management with Chris on the late, lamented Wiggins team and we were in touch.
Interviews

Robert Bartko – World & Olympic Champion and Six Day Star Retires

It's a term bandied around a lot; 'legend', too often in fact, in a world where superlatives fly around - but this gentleman really does deserve the title. Robert Bartko has been at the top of his trade for two decades and on Tuesday night in Copenhagen's Ballerup Super Arena he went out in style with his 21st Six Day win off 79 starts. It was just a matter of hours before the Copenhagen finale when his big frame filled the doorway of the VeloVeritas cabin before he sat down to chat to us about his career.
Diaries

Gent Six Day 2009 – Night Three

The Belgian papers are something else. Whilst you do get superb cycling coverage; in yesterday's 'De Gentenaar' we had to endure a colour photograph of a fatal road accident, complete with burnt out car and mangled push bike; a racist photo manipulation of Michelle Obama as a character from Planet of the Apes and images from a slaughter house, including a cow getting it's head chopped off - I'll stick with the Guardian.
Interviews

Star of the Future: Christian Meier – Taking the Next Step

Christian Meier (Canada & Garmin) is a man for his stats. Monday's mountain stage breaks down like this: 4,600 metre of climbing, 5,000 kilo joules expended, that's the equivalent of 5,400 calories - that's one hard day at the office.
Interviews

Kian Emadi – “the team sprint is a big focus”

GB's 21 year-old Kian Emadi – another product of British Cycling’s ‘Podium Programme’ which churns out a seemingly endless stream of super-fast track men - confirmed that his fourth place in the world kilometre championship was no flash in the pan with a sub 59 second ride to make him one of the fastest men in history. The tall man from Stoke-on-Trent took time to speak to VeloVeritas not long after he returned from Mexico.
Interviews

Oscar Onley – “I can get on with the business of training, racing and seeking to improve”

We recently ran an interview with a young Scotsman who’s ‘just doing it,’ over the in Heartlands of Flanders, France and The Netherlands – 21 years-old Mr. Sean Flynn. Another even younger Scotsman who’s out there in the similar arenas, not to mention Norway, is 19 years-old Oscar Onley. 

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