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OPINION

Tour de France 2010 - Rotterdam behind the scenes

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So, the Tour de France, there's Jens Voight, here's Dave Brailsford and his crew, moving past the Radioshack support crew and assorted Livestrong types, and a big chunk of the AG2R team… and there's Skippy of road.cc forum fame, yep I'm pretty sure it's him. We're in Rotterdam and all the various members of the cast are assembling fast bit part players and big movers and it doesn't start for another three days.

We're here in a very nice anywhere-euro-hotel on the Rotterdam ring road to look at some Tour tech. There's Lance and his very short new haircut, Johan and his oddly ordinary motorhome… really nothing flash at all.

The teams are off to the presentation ceremony and we're off to the airport. Oddly, our Tour de France starts before theirs but in the coming weeks we'll all be working as hard as we can to bring you the best bits from the world's greatest bike race. Okay, we probably won't work as hard as them – actually, let's not kid ourselves, we're not going to be working as hard as them – but we can at least try to match their calorie intake… in cake.

Upcoming, we've got Tour tech on the Team Radioshack TT bike and the Specialized Shiv that will be being piloted by Fabian Cancellara, and the Schleck boys. We'll also be looking at Cancellara's Project Black bike that he won Roubaix on – yes, that one – and which he'll be riding on stage 3 when the Tour hits the cobbles. And that's just a taster of the Tour tech treats we've got in store for you over the next three weeks. So keep it locked on road.cc… and good luck Skippy! 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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9 comments

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Mat Brett | 13 years ago
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He was chewing tarmac and barbed wire. He gets paid to hurt people, how cool is that? Legend.

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cat1commuter | 13 years ago
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I think of him as Jens "shut up legs and do what I tell you" Voigt. (No "h" in his surname BTW guys.) He's one of my favourite riders. Such a great character and sense of humour, it must be brilliant to have him on your team. Shame that this might be one of his last TdF appearances, since he is now 38.

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Louis Clark | 13 years ago
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I think he has legally changed his name to 'Big Jens Voight' actually. That's how Phil Liggett has exclusively referred to him for years anyway!

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Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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he was looking lean and mean… he's in my team too, he did smile though so I hope he isn't going soft.

He's got a really weird TT position too. More on that later  1

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Fringe | 13 years ago
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was Jens Voight looking lean and mean?, hope so hes got to get me some points for my fantasy TdF team, hopefully on one of them long go-out-and-kill-yerself-but-get- caught-at-the-end breakaways hes so good at.

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Jon Burrage | 13 years ago
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I am relieved that there isnt a 49cc motor hidden in the downtube. Now we can all relax and remember that Fabian is a hell of a rider!

Enjoy le tour.

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Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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don't worry we checked… got quite a lot on his bike's coming up  1

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James Warrener replied to Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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tony_farrelly wrote:

don't worry we checked… got quite a lot on his bike's coming up  1

if it has got an engine can you ask him where he got it from?

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Jon Burrage | 13 years ago
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Can you check closely to see if Fabian's bike makes a discreet 'whirring' noise?

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