Welcome to a special Tour de France Grand Depart edition of the live blog as the big race gets under way in Brussels with Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
On the live blog: Full coverage from today’s Tour de France opener, more on our exclusive about Lightweight wheels being used by Team Ineos, Cav’s lovely gesture as he goes for a ride with young fan + more
All the news from the site and beyond as the Tour de France gets under way in Brussels
Sat, Jul 06, 2019 15:19
SUMMARY
6 July 2019, 15:19
"I knew a bike ride would cheer us both up" - Cav takes young fan upset at his hero's Tour de France omission for a spin
Here’s a heartwarming story. A lot of people were upset when Mark Cavendish was omitted from Team Dimension Data’s Tour de France line-up earlier this week – but perhaps none more so than young fan Evan Llewellyn from Nottinghamshire whose mum Louise posted a picture of his reaction to Twitter, with the caption, “It’s okay Cav because I still want to ride my bike with you.”
This says it all…. no words. @MarkCavendish Evan has a message for you “ it’s ok Cav because I still want to ride my bike with you”. Sticking by his hero!@petatodd pic.twitter.com/X6Hb8hk9ir
— Louise Llewellyn (@LouiseLlewell11) July 2, 2019
What happened next is something the youngster will remember for the rest of his life. The former world champion and 30-time Tour de France stage winner took him up on his offer, with Louise posting pictures to Twitter of the pair out riding together.
Evan would like to thank his hero @MarkCavendish and @petatodd for making his dream come true! The experience they have just given him will last a life time- I don’t know what to say … THANK YOU! pic.twitter.com/6kKBFmniG7
— Louise Llewellyn (@LouiseLlewell11) July 5, 2019
It was an absolute pleasure Evan! Couldn’t bear to to see you sad. I knew a bike ride would cheer us both up! See you soon
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) July 5, 2019
What a day, unbelievable. Can’t thank Mark and Peta enough… what sort of legends would go to that effort. Genuinely blown away. Chapeau, and thank you!
— Tom Llewellyn (@TomLlewellyn84) July 5, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
Thomas and Brailsford share final thoughts ahead of Grand Depart
Defending champion Geraint Thomas and Team Ineos supremo Sir Dave Brailsford have been sharing their final thoughts ahead of the Tour de France starting in Brussels today.
Here’s what they had to say at yesterday’s press conference.
Brailsford: “We’re still in the infancy of this exciting new partnership with Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be heading into this Tour with them.
“Here we are, starting this edition of the Tour de France as Team Ineos, it’s an amazing feeling really – and it would be remiss of me not to thank Jim and his team.
“We want to help pay them back over this race.
“We’ve got a great team this year – of course we lost Chris [Froome], which was a big disappointment.
“But we’ve got two great leaders and a team packed full of Tour experience, which is vitally important in this race.
“With the group of guys we’ve got here, you couldn’t want for a better team. It’s an extremely exciting time for us and we’re all really looking forward to the race getting underway now.”
Thomas: “I feel in good shape. Of course the crash [at the Tour de Suisse] was a setback but I didn’t lose any training days and I’m feeling good on the eve of the race.
“There’s no lasting damage at all. Obviously, it was disappointing to hit my head. That was the reason I couldn’t carry on but I’ve still done some good training and I don’t think it’s affected me too much
“We’re excited heading into the race. It’s always a great occasion and we feel we’re ready for another strong three weeks.
“Myself and Egan [Bernal] are co-leaders and we’re excited about the challenge that lies ahead of us.
“Egan is an honest and good guy, and as long as we communicate well and are open with each other, like Froomey and I were last year, then it can work just as well. Obviously it will be a huge advantage to have two of us there in the final stages.
“I don’t know about being favourite. That’s for everyone else to talk about. I can’t bet on the races anyway, so the odds don’t really matter to me. I feel in a good place and I’m looking forward to the race, and I just want to get going now.”
6 July 2019, 15:19
Fans start Tour de France in the right way
If we learned anything from Chris Froome’s incredible solo victory on the Colle delle Finestre in the Giro d’Italia last year it was that hydration is key.
These guys are just being prepared…
6 July 2019, 15:19
Think disc brakes are heavy?
Think again! This Cannondale SuperSix Evo Disc is pretty darn light
6 July 2019, 15:19
Spotted: Team Ineos on Lightweight wheels
While snooping around the team trucks in Brussels before the Tour de France got underway, we spotted a few Team Ineos riders on very expensive Lightweight wheels.
The team normally rides Shimano Dura-Ace wheels but we’re speculating that the tough mountain stages of this year’s race have led the team to make some special equipment changes to provide a marginal gain.
Lightweight is a German company famous for making extremely light all-carbon wheels with a price tag to match, we’re talking £3-4 here folks, so not a cheap investment at all. We don’t know what the deal is between Ineos and Lightweight if there even is one.
6 July 2019, 15:19
Did Team Ineos buy their new Lightweight wheels?
Interesting…
6 July 2019, 15:19
Team Ineos confirms use of two wheel brands at Tour de France
We’ve just this minute had a reply from Team Ineos about our spotting of Lightweight wheels on some bikes a couple of days before the Tour de France Grand Depart.
“We can confirm we will use wheels from two brands during this year’s Tour. Shimano remains our main supplier and they are a valued partner for Team INEOS.”
So there we go, Team Ineos will likely be using the Lightweight wheels in the big mountain stages and the regular Shimano Dura-Ace C60 wheels for all other stages.
6 July 2019, 15:19
Bradley Wiggins gives us the history behind some of Eddy Merckx Yellow Jersey's
Brad Wiggins is a stylish man, mostly, and his love for cycling’s aesthetic history is well known.
Here, he talks us through some of Eddy Merckx yellow jerseys, giving a little bit of insight into what it takes to win the most coveted prize in cycling.
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first Grand Tour win.
Up until the end of his career, this dedicated and talented cyclist, nicknamed “le Cannibale”, brought home countless victories, riding in all weather conditions and on all terrains.
Merckx rode in the Tour de France seven times, achieving 5 wins and 34 stage wins. In 1969, he wore the Yellow Jersey for the very first time in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, right near his family’s grocery store.
This year the race will ride past the cycling icon’s house twice as they enjoy a summer start in the Flanders region.
Episode One | What this jersey means to me; Eddy Merckx @LeTour pic.twitter.com/rJlbv7oAIg
— Brad Wiggins (@SirWiggo) 6 July 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
Eddy! Eddy! Eddy!
EDDY EDDY EDDY ! #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/onEQzW2r5f
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 4, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
The Special '1'
Special pinning this on today Here we go #tdf2019 pic.twitter.com/3D8kpZ78BG
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) July 6, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
More details have come to light of the heartwarming gesture by Mark Cavendish who, learning that a young fan was upset that his favourite rider hadn’t been selected for the Tour de France by his Dimension Data team, travelled to Nottinghamshire to go for a ride with him (scroll down for our earlier story).
Five-year-old Evan Llewellyn’s mother Louise had tweeted her son’s response to Cavendish not being included in the squad, quoting her son as saying: “It’s ok Cav because I still want to ride my bike with you.”
Cavendish and his wife Peta subsequently travelled to Nottinghamshire, where the former world champion went for a ride with the little lad, both of them sporting Dimension Data kit.
Louise said: “Mark said it broke his heart to see Evan so upset. They rode round our village chatting away, Evan took Mark past his school and told him all about how he rides his bike!”
She added: “It was lovely to see them both smiling and enjoying their ride.
“We don’t know how to thank them both, memories from yesterday will stay with Evan forever.”
Evan and his family have also been invited by Tour de France organisers ASO to the Official Tour de France Fan Park in the Chilterns on Sunday 14 July – Bastille Day, no less – which coincides with the official sportive, L’Etape UK, and where the youngster will get the chance to meet Team Ineos riders Chris Lawless and Owain Doull.
6 July 2019, 15:19
Tour de France bingo to keep you entertained
Some stages of the Tour just aren’t as good as others. That’s a fact. So what can you do to keep yourself entertained during those long, days watching others in the saddle? Play Tour de France bingo of course!
Here it is. Your #TDFBingo for this year’s #TDF2019 Something to keep you entertained between the second intermediate sprint and the final feed zone. We’ll be watching on @Eurosport_UK @itvcycling and listening every night to @cycling_podcast. Who will get the first line? pic.twitter.com/uK6bEnJiG7
— TDF Bingo (@TDFbingo) July 5, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
Footage of the crash which took down stage contender Dylan Groenewegen
In a chaotic finale through the wide open streets of Brussels Team Jumbo-visma’s sprinter Dylan Groenewegen crashed with just 1.4km to go….
＜Cycle*2019 ツール・ド・フランス＞
集団落車発生
https://t.co/WAvdOMt0LL#TDF2019 #jspocycle pic.twitter.com/Q8X2LyJ8Ih— J SPORTSサイクルロードレース【公式】 (@jspocycle) July 6, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
Fulgsang crashes hard but manages to chase back on
And it wasn’t just stage contenders affected by the usual nervousness and twitchy legs of the opening day, the GC contenders also hit the ground.
Jakob Fulgsang, riding for Astana, came down hard with 18km to go. At first he looked ok to continue with just superficial wounds. However, he hit his head hard at it appeared as though his glasses had smashed cutting his eyebrow.
With the team time trial tomorrow a big day for the GC boys, it will be interesting to see how Fulgsang recovers.
＜Cycle*2019 ツール・ド・フランス＞
落車…！
https://t.co/WAvdOMt0LL#TDF2019 #jspocycle pic.twitter.com/8n5f2OCpYB— J SPORTSサイクルロードレース【公式】 (@jspocycle) July 6, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
Geraint Thomas fine to continue despite a classic "'G' tumble"
Rumours were swirling after iGeraint Thomas took a tumble in the aftermath of Dylan Groenewegen’s crash with 1.4km to go.
Although it looked fairly innocuous in the initial footage, until it was confirmed that Thomas was back on the bus safe and sound, fears of possible injuries sustained were circulating.
His former team mate and good friend Peter Kennaugh seemed to realise everything was fine straight away as he called the crash “just a ‘G’ tumble”.
And indeed the Ineos man has come out to reassure everyone that he was fine and he basically “toppled over” with his bike taking most of the damage.
“I’m fine. I gave myself enough space and avoided the actual crash. The main thing is that it didn’t do any damage – the bike took the hit and I just toppled over!”
@GeraintThomas86 pic.twitter.com/OxX8ytz9bs
— Team INEOS (@TeamINEOS) July 6, 2019
6 July 2019, 15:19
All it takes is an inch...
Mike Teunissen won a dramatic, surprising and powerful sprint to take the yellow jersey, and his biggest career win to date.
The Jumbo Visma rider was the lead out man for Dylan Groenewegen but when his leader crashed he made the decision to push on and go for the victory himself.
He has previously finished 2nd at Dwars Door Vlaanderen and 7th at Paris-Roubaix but this victory will be something else for the 26-year-old Dutch rider.
Michael Matthews (Sunweb) found himself on the front with around 250m to go and was forced to make his effort.
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted off his wheel with Sonny Cobrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Teunissen in pursuit.
In the end Teunissen had the strength to come around Sagan just as the Bora-Hansgrohe rider was beginning to fade.
Indeed Ned Boulting and David Millar were so shocked they intially thought it was Teunissens team mate Wout Van Aert who had won the stage. It was only once the photo finish had been confirmed that they realised it was the lesser known rider that had taken the opening stage of the 2019 Tour de France in a brilliant, opportunistic dash for the line.
now that’s what you call a photo finish #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/rTSj1yPTgb
— BlueWorld (@TheBluePlanet13) July 6, 2019
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
Gm_Crop 4 hours ago
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
IanGlasgow 4 hours ago
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge. https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
Rendel Harris 5 hours ago
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Bill H 6 hours ago
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
pbunyon 6 hours ago
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions?? If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
chrisonabike 6 hours ago
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count". "Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country) Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys. As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends). (The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
belugabob 6 hours ago
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
Astralstroll 8 hours ago
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
Mr Anderson 10 hours ago
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
MaxiMinimalist 10 hours ago
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.
5 thoughts on “On the live blog: Full coverage from today’s Tour de France opener, more on our exclusive about Lightweight wheels being used by Team Ineos, Cav’s lovely gesture as he goes for a ride with young fan + more”
“extremely light all-carbon
“extremely light all-carbon wheels with a price tag to match, we’re talking £3-4 here folks”
Bargain
Class Mr C, pure class!
Class Mr C, pure class!
6.66kg! That’s devilishly
6.66kg! That’s devilishly light. Didi will love it.
At least they have got rid of
At least they have got rid of weird slow riding watchfinder bloke.
ktache wrote:
Yeah I never got that advert, surely it would take the same (or less) effort to have ridden at a fairly normal speed and filmed it in slow motion? Just made it come across as low budget, which as a glorified pawnshop they would probably have been trying to avoid.