Is this your first year of watching the Tour de France? Even if it isn't, you might have a few burning questions about some aspects of the race. If you're not clear about the history of the Tour and how and why it first started, what an echelon is, what the different classification jerseys mean, and many of the other peculiar details of the the world's greatest bike race, this lovely animation explains all.
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Tour de France explained in animated video

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David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He’s a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He’s mildly competitive, though he’ll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur – Just Ride Bikes.
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@chrisonabike To be fair, that Elon Musk seems a fair minded bloke. I can't imagine him allowing anything that blights the lives of the general population, in order to make huge profits.
@mdavidford that's called "reducing the problem to the form of a previously solved one"...
So if they don't fall over it will just cheerfully drive into them?
@Mr Blackbird this is the argument not to let driverless vehicles in, because that leads to a slippery slope where what you say happens. Or there's a self-catalysing process where firms say "look our vehicles are so much safer / more efficient they should be exempt from rules around speed etc" which means more use, which means that the streets become even less appealing to vulnerable users, which means "better safety" numbers ... until we just ban people from the streets (but it wouldn't matter because nobody goes out without a vehicle anyway). Sounds like dystopian paranoia - until you see the incredible sums of money being dumped into this and read the philosophies of the men who are doing it. Actually ... that approach would just be a continuation of the UK's existing trajectory to "improved road safety" (by making it less convenient for vulnerable road users and more for drivers) in most places!
@Paul J He probably had a crap season because he was missing his tag team bum chum Iserbyt, one or the other were always holding the other riders up so that one or the other could win. Not decent sporting riders in my opinion.
Vanthourenhart is a smacked ass cheat. He must be missing his cheating tag team partner Iserbyt, AKA F*cking dwarf as so eloquently put by Ryan Kamp. He is trying to get Kuypers to be his new tag team cheating partner. What Mason did was fine, Vanthourenthart saw him coming and deliberately moved into his path, leaning in to shoulder barge him. What was the fine for? The barge or the outburst? Or both? If you watch Vanthourenhart, if anything doesn't go his way he always spits the dummy out and starts shaking his head. It's a shame he has to be such a knob, it spoils his talent somewhat.
@IanEdward Frustration is probably a factor. He had a crap season last year, by comparison to the season before that. He's possibly anxious about doing better this season, particularly as he's starting to get on in age.
@the little onion well @open_open_roads maybe has a point about online policing - *that* ought to be the easiest to deal with: the offender themselves is often documenting the offence! Or would be if there wasn't the volume of data / if only the tech firms cared. And if it wasn't easy to say "must have been a deep fake mate" / "cat got my phone". Aside from following the priories they're given from on high it wouldn't surprise me if the police were slightly more car-biased than most: like some other trades aren't vehicles their offices? That's why the few who do make the effort (like Mark Hodson) stand out.
The bad bonfire night violence in Niddrie was 2023, so unless the video has already been doing the rounds for a year, the "journalist" needs to get his facts straight.
this is bonkers. Two things stand out 1. this kind of thing must be one of the very lowest-effort crimes to prosecute, for the police. The cyclist does all the hard work of collecting the evidence, putting in the details of time/place, providing a statement via the submission portal etc. Other than speeding recorded on fixed cameras, is there anything easier to prove? 2. How many instances have there been where a driver goes to court, disputes that a close pass was in fact too close, and wins? Realistically, how many prosecutions have failed because of the standards of evidence cited here by the police? It all sounds very suspect. Institutionally anti-cyclist.
8 thoughts on “Tour de France explained in animated video”
I love stuff like this – I’ve
I love stuff like this – I’ve sent it to my friends so they’ll maybe understand my strange July obsession 🙂
Enjoyed that. Thank you.
Enjoyed that. Thank you.
that deserves a wider
that deserves a wider audience….
This is superb
This is superb
Terrific video. And my
Terrific video. And my assembly for Monday planned. Thanks.
Loved hearing that accent
Loved hearing that accent saying words like ‘mountain’ and ‘donkey work’
Is it possible to tell if
Is it possible to tell if someone has an underbite from the way they sound?
great vid especially as it
great vid especially as it sounds just like a stella cidre advert