Romain Bardet’s three-year-old son steals the show (again) on the Puy de Dôme; Should Mark Cavendish carry on to 2024?; Tour de France rest day round-up; London’s great active travel mysteries; Giro Donne recap + more on the live blog

Where were you when Mark Cavendish crashed?

Away from the intense, heartbreaking cruelty of life in the breakaway at the Tour de France, and the delicately poised GC battle, this weekend at the Tour was dominated by the Manx Missile’s devastating collarbone-breaking crash on a non-descript piece of road, on a non-descript moment of stage eight to Limoges.

That simple touch of wheels – less than 24 hours after mechanical problems robbed him of a golden opportunity, with apparently golden legs, to take the win in Bordeaux – abruptly brought to an end the sprinter’s 16-year association with the race, as well as his hopes of bagging that record-breaking 35th Tour stage win.

So close... (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

And that was all she wrote.

But not quite so fast. As we reported yesterday, Astana top boss Alexander Vinokourov has already hinted that a possible contract extension for 2024 could be on the cards for the 38-year-old, citing his own comeback from a crash at the Tour in 2011 to, ahem, controversially win Olympic gold a year later as evidence that the peloton’s elder statesman can bounce back from such setbacks.

“I hope we will see him soon back in the race,” everyone’s favourite blood doping attacker said after Cavendish’s race-ending crash. “Now it’s too early to say something about his race programme. For sure, in my opinion, his career cannot end here. I crashed out in the Tour of 2011 but I came back to win Olympic Gold one year later.

“It would be nice if Mark comes back to the Tour for a 15th time and win that 35th stage. We joked already about it yesterday evening.”

However, with Cav already announcing his retirement from the sport at the Giro in May, could the former world champion be swayed by Vino’s pleas to keep racing into 2024?

I imagine when we all get over the disappointment for Cavendish himself and the big anti-climax we’ve just been served, that him being tied on 34 with Eddy Merckx forever now is actually perfect.

— Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) July 8, 2023

The wisdom of that decision, if the 34-time stage winner does indeed make it, has been fiercely debated over the last few days, with the likes of Robbie McEwen noting on GCN that one more attempt at setting the record could be scuppered once again by one unfortunate moment, though Eddy Merckx himself said it would “be a shame” if the career of the greatest sprinter of all time was to end in disappointment, and said he hopes Cavendish will have one more crack at the Tour in 2024.

What do you reckon? Should Cav keep going for one final shot at 35? Or should he stick to his guns, and retire knowing he left the sport battling at the very highest level?

I think this calls for a poll…

Super Survey

Little and large 🤣 @bentulett01 @GannaFilippo #howmanytulettscanyougetinaganna pic.twitter.com/2l4bWlwBsX

— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) July 9, 2023

Two Tuletts for the price of a Ganna?

Speaking of special edition MVDP gear, Alpecin-Deceuninck has today launched a new rest day jersey in memory of Van der Poel’s grandfather, Raymond Poulidor, a name synonymous with yesterday’s ascent of the Puy de Dôme.

You may have noticed on yesterday’s stage, which started in Poulidor’s hometown of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, that the Alpecin-Deceuninck riders were sporting special one-off shorts featuring the purple and yellow colours of the French legend’s Mercier team.

And today, for their leisurely rest day coffee ride, Van der Poel, Philipsen, and co. were rocking a new, and very cool, Mercier-style jersey design, two years after wearing a similar retro kit in homage to the late Poulidor on the opening stage of the 2021 Tour de France.

Like the 2021 Tour designs, the kits and Oakley glasses worn by the riders on the Puy de Dôme yesterday, as well as today’s special Merci Poupou rest day jerseys, will be auctioned off for charity. Proceeds from the sales of the new jersey and a limited-edition t-shirt will also go to charities and organisations which help children, adolescents, and people with disabilities from different backgrounds to practice sport and outdoor activity.

Let’s just hope nobody decides to wave these new Poulidor-inspired jerseys over the peloton by a flimsy washing line, or else Lilian Calmejane will have something to say…

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Bowman Cycles (@bowman_cycles)

British bike manufacturer Bowman Cycles has relaunched its website over the weekend, ten months after the company’s new owners announced that they were “really excited about getting the Bowman brand back on track”.

Back in January 2022, Bowman was liquidated following a prolonged struggle with supply chain issues during the Covid-19 pandemic, and claims from unhappy customers of incorrect builds, poorly packed bikes, and a lack of communication.

> Bowman Cycles liquidates after "absolute clusterf**k" of supply chain issues

In September, new owner Lee James ‘Jim’ Crossland clarified that Bowman Cycles Ltd is “a new trading business with an established name” and proclaimed that “Bowman are back”.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Bowman Cycles (@bowman_cycles)

Another ten months down the line, and the first signs of life for the new/old business are starting to show, with a website selling small and large Bowman Dirty Palace aluminium framesets and jerseys now live.

In an Instagram post yesterday, Crossland wrote: “One day up and running and we are seeing a few sales, so I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone.”

After a few weeks of rumours, Rotterdam has been confirmed as the host of next year’s Tour de France Femmes Grand Départ.

In a rest day announcement, ASO have revealed that the 2024 Tour Femmes will have a distinctly Dutch feel to it, with three of the race’s eight stages taking place in the Netherlands.

🇳🇱 𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐌 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐄́𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐂 𝐙𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 🚴‍♀️ The Netherlands will host the first three of the eight stages that make up the 2024 edition, beginning with the Grand Départ in… pic.twitter.com/854s3jDYQT

— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 10, 2023

According to a statement from race director Marion Rousse, the Tour’s first stage will take the riders from Rotterdam to The Hague, while the second day will roll back the clock with a split stage – in the morning the riders will roll out of Dordrecht for a presumably short and snappy road stage, before an afternoon time trial on the streets of Rotterdam.

“The world hub of women’s cycling was a natural choice to host the biggest bicycle race on Earth”, Rousse said. “The last few seasons have been a tale of Dutch ascendancy. Starting from the home of these champions will kindle a great popular celebration. Expect their supporters to turn out in force.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

The lengthy Dutch start is likely a result of next summer’s Paris Olympics, which has also shunted the Tour Femmes – scheduled in 2022 and 2023 to overlap with the men’s race by a day – to a mid-August slot, between the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and the start of the Paralympics, with eight stages set to take place over seven days between Monday 12 August and Sunday 18 August.

The Dutch start also means that both Tours de France will get underway on foreign soil next year, with the men’s race beginning in Florence for its first ever Italian Grand Départ, while the proximity of the Paris Games has likewise ensured a groundbreaking finish in Nice for the first time in the Tour’s history.

The Tour Femmes’ foray in the Netherlands next year could also be followed by the return of the men’s race soon after. Rotterdam, The Hague, and Valkenburg will again form the centre of this proposed Grand Départ, which is expected to take place in 2027, though a decision has yet to be made by ASO.

The full route of the 2024 Tour Femmes will be announced in Paris in late October.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper has suggested local authorities review “controversial” or unpopular low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), and blamed the active travel schemes for setting “people against each other”.

Expressing his belief in “giving people more choice on how to travel”, Harper addressed his move to halt funding for new LTNs, adding that the government had to stop backing policies “that are about... banning cars or making it difficult for motorists”.

Read more here: > Transport Secretary calls for LTN review, blames “controversial” schemes for setting “people against each other”

A week is a long time in bike racing, to paraphrase Harold Wilson, and that has certainly proved the case at this year’s Tour de France, a race that is currently – on its first rest day – shaping up to provide the kind of to-and-fro, pendulum swinging GC battle we haven’t seen at the Tour since 1989 and Greg, Laurent, aero bars, and all that.

On Wednesday, as Jonas Vingegaard left Tadej Pogačar seemingly struck to side of the Marie-Blanque, it seemed that it would take divine intervention for fans to be treated to a GC spectacle at this year’s race. The Dane and his team, prepped to perfection, appeared just too strong and precise. Almost a minute down already, an injured Pogačar, for all his mind-blowing performances in the spring, couldn’t seem to cope. The Tour was over. Or so it seemed.

But the Slovenian champion reminded us all of his status as the best male cyclist in the world – dodgy wrist or not – the very next day on the climbs to Cauterets, where Jumbo-Visma’s strength and apparent hubris worked against them, allowing the UAE Team Emirates leader to jump away from an abnormally impotent Vingegaard, seemingly stifled by his own team’s long-range marauding tactics, to begin clawing back the deficit bit by bit.

(ASO/Charly Lopez)

That fightback continued yesterday on the Puy de Dôme – Pogačar’s trademark acceleration, missing even on the opening stages in the Basque Country, distancing his rival, agonising metre by agonising metre, as Vingegaard channelled his inner Jacques Anquetil to hang on by his fingernails, shipping just eight seconds in the end to the resurgent Slovenian.

The return of the Puy de Dôme to the Tour de France was laden with nostalgia – exemplified by L'Équipe’s front page from yesterday, which superimposed this year’s two leaders onto the iconic shoulder to shoulder image of Anquetil and Poulidor from 1964 – so it was fitting that Pogačar and Vingegaard served up another iconic, and heavily symbolic, moment in their continuously blossoming rivalry.

Sensational attack from Tadej Pogačar 🚀

A typically thrilling acceleration from the @TeamEmiratesUAE rider on Tour de France Stage 9.
________
🇫🇷 #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/NC2Qf4LMxm

— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 9, 2023

Of course, beyond all that modern day myth making, for the Tour’s big two, as they stood on the tiny, makeshift podium at the summit of the Puy yesterday evening, their primary concern is that the apparently cataclysmic 47-second gap that emerged in Laruns on Wednesday has shrunk to just 17 seconds.

After one of the hardest opening weeks in the Tour’s history – and one that has provided enough story lines to cover the entirety of most grand tours – the pendulum hasn’t exactly swung the other way in the battle for yellow, but equilibrium has certainly been restored. And that bodes well for the rest of the Tour.