Welcome to Wednesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Tour de France poll: Who will win?; Froome shows of his new single-leg training regime; “Just let them all do it”, says Landis on doping; Peter Sagan slams the CPA over failure to act heatwave at Tour +more in the Live Blog
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Wed, Jul 24, 2019 20:05
SUMMARY
24 July 2019, 20:05
"Just let them all do it" - Floyd Landis on doping in cycling
Landis told Outside Online: “Just let them do it. Cyclists already dope at will. Legalising it would stop a few people a year from dying by suicide, from public humiliation. That would be the only change.
“You either quit racing your bike or you dope. The only people that walked away weren’t talented enough to do it in the first place. Let me clarify that: there’s never been a rider that was talented enough to win the Tour that didn’t win because they didn’t take drugs.
“If you’re watching the Tour de France for moral lessons, you have real issues.”
24 July 2019, 20:05
"I don't know why we pay them": Peter Sagan says something needs to be done about extreme heat as Tour head into the mountains
“I think the CPA should do something.”@petosagan believes the professional cyclist’s union need to act ahead of some extremely hot and harsh conditions this week#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/miz8j3VKGC
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 23, 2019
Sagan told ITV about the struggles on yesterday’s flat stage in temperatures that were in the high 30’s, and says the Professional Cyclist’s Union (CPA) “have to do something”: “I think so yes, I don’t know why we pay them.”
“Today we were sprinting but if you go into the mountains with this weather it’s going to be very bad.”
Today’s hilly stage is 200km from Pont Du Gard to Gap, and temps are expected to reach highs of 39c. Do you think action needs to be taken, shortened stages for example, if the mercury rises to a certain level? Clearly Michał Kwiatkowski is very much of the opinion that it’s just a case of getting on with it…
If you can’t deal with the heat, keep out of @LeTour. Things happen even on a flat stage like today. And it will only get hotter now@TeamINEOS
@GettySport pic.twitter.com/0kCTrw223M— Michał Kwiatkowski (@kwiato) July 23, 2019
24 July 2019, 20:05
Caleb Ewan makes a splash ....
That’s one way to warm down when you’ve just won a Tour de France stage with the temperature nudging 40 celsius …
No better way to celebrate your second stage win of @LeTour @CalebEwan #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/sPvHOYh4GF
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 24, 2019
24 July 2019, 20:05
RideLondon to be free of single-use plastic bottles for 2019
In association with Thames Water, Prudential RideLondon will no longer be handing out single-use plastic bottles over the event weekend of 3-4 August. The goal is to become the largest mass participation cycling event that is free of single-use plastic, saving on up to 65,000 bottles that were handed out in previous years. Instead, riders will be able to fill up their own bottles at drinks hubs across the route. Spectators will also be encouraged to bring their own refillable bottles.
24 July 2019, 20:05
Tour latest: a big old break
The rain was brief and the breakaway is in dryer territory.
La pluie fut brève, les échappés sont de nouveau au sec.#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/aQuuqLDxBr— Tour de France (@LeTour) July 24, 2019
It looks like this one might just about stay away, with a whopping 14 minute gap to the peloton. Plenty of big names are in there including Thomas De Gendt, Kasper Asgreen, Thomas Skujins, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Greg van Avermaet. Average speed so far: 45.6km/h.
24 July 2019, 20:05
Insightful as ever ...
Great to see Lukas Postal Worker is in the breakaway today. Post Office staff were banned from pro professional cycling for many years because of Lance Armstrong’s drugging but it’s good to see the ban has been lifted now.
— UK Cycling Expert (@ukcyclingexpert) July 24, 2019
24 July 2019, 20:05
City, University of London partner with Beryl to analyse urban cycling data for sustainable city improvements
The knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) between university scholars and smart light innovators/bikeshare firm Beryl is backed by a £287k grant from Innovate UK, analysing and gathering data on urban bike usage with the aim to use it for sustainable city design.
Senior University of London Lecturer Dr Andrea Baronchelli said: “It will give City academics a wonderful opportunity to investigate smart bike share schemes with a world-leading industrial partner, and, more broadly, advance our understanding of urban mobility through the analysis of an unprecedented wealth of data.”
24 July 2019, 20:05
Halfway there: Froome battling back towards fitness
Working hard #cycling @TeamINEOS @Pinarello_com @wahoofitness @SidiSport @CastelliCycling pic.twitter.com/plJwWHJdZU
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) July 24, 2019
The four-time Tour de France champ’s recovery from his horrific crash just last month is well underway, showing us his best single-leg drills on the indoor trainer.
The doctor that operated said he expected Froome could be back on his bike outdoors in six months at the time – if this clip is anything to go by, looks like he might be ahead of schedule.
24 July 2019, 20:05
So there was a big climb on today's stage after all...
Not so much #TDFieldArt as dangerous-yellow-jersey-themed-rocky-outcrop-art but this chap with his red hankie deserves a medal for climbing up that without coming a cropper. 7/10 #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/FeOGZUZPSB
— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) July 24, 2019
24 July 2019, 20:05
Tour de France: Trentin takes stage 17
A strong victory for @MATTEOTRENTIN!
Magnifique victoire en costaud de Matteo Trentin !#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/vlG2A3rHPV— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 24, 2019
The Mitchelton-Scott man pulled away with plenty of time to spare as he crossed the line, in a fast and furious stage that saw his average speed clocked at a monstrous 45.87kph – not bad in 40c heat.
Full stage report to follow.
24 July 2019, 20:05
What's happening here, then?
A bit of beef between @tonymartin85 and @LukeRowe1990?
Watch the post-race analysis and #TheBreakaway coming up LIVE on Eurosport
– Eurosport 1
– Eurosport Player: https://t.co/bt3TbQdoIe pic.twitter.com/uXNLVaUBrT— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) July 24, 2019
24 July 2019, 20:05
Tell us who you think will win Le Tour
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
MaxiMinimalist 4 seconds 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.
Paul J 5 minutes ago
Obree had some actual talent in his legs though, in addition to his bike/aero engineering talent.
Maruis Kalchev 12 minutes ago
Малко като опит за доказване е излязло... Никой няма нужда от толкова голям въртящ момент и мощност на шосеен велосипед с тънки гуми, които дори трудно ще предават тази мощност върху пътя. А ако има и ограничение от 25 км/час е още по-безмислено.
mdavidford 26 minutes ago
Not sure how informative that is. I imagine for all most of us know it could be Europe's only 'volumetric modular building'. 🤷♂️
chrisonabike 28 minutes ago
Yes, but they're copying the adults of today...
chrisonabike 29 minutes ago
Indeed - but alas I think this is an effective argument for very few folks indeed. As for push-back, what else could we expect *? I think there are ways of selling this but we're far more likely to see headlines about the problems, while the successes are relegated to footnotes, because at that point it just works and there's nothing to see... * Given that this time there aren't politicians being persuaded to overlook thousands of deaths and the demolition of property by the billions from the motoring trades (and the excitement of being able to drive out with the bright things for a party at a roadhouse). Nor are we as tolerant of "accidents". (And noting that publicity about the cases of a handful of people killed by cyclists continues to reach the media; deaths related to motor vehicles not so much).
mdavidford 33 minutes ago
That rather ignores that the children of today are the adults of tomorrow.
fwhite181 40 minutes ago
@belugabob Arguably it's easier this way - we don't actually need to do anything to the streets except stop drivers driving down every scrap of tarmac. Where I live, a few well-placed bollards would make walking/cycling/scooting the quicker option and safer, while maintaining 100% vehicular access - just not allowing through routes in every direction.
Ashok C 1 hour ago
Sweet dreams from Bike@bedtime! Thank you for featuring this classic beaut.
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
@jackcycles wait a minute... I'm getting a sense of déjà vu ... **Khan!** Also on Mr. Stops - despite being at Hackney (which have done some good work) I believe he's been ... skeptical... of cycle infra. Perhaps he's of the vehicular cycling "I can so why can't everyone else" cult? Apparently he's also been involved with the National Federation of the Blind UK - a fringe group who managed to get some of the bigger groups on board a campaign taking aim at bus stop bypasses. (They believe these will cause havok for the visually impaired, despite these uncontroversially working in many places abroad. And indeed in the UK, for decades - but just not under that name.)
16 thoughts on “Tour de France poll: Who will win?; Froome shows of his new single-leg training regime; “Just let them all do it”, says Landis on doping; Peter Sagan slams the CPA over failure to act heatwave at Tour +more in the Live Blog”
Landis is clearly still so
Landis is clearly still so drugged up he went for ride without pedals.
I’d bet cycling now is like the equivalent of what ‘natural’ body building is, just take some of the drugs, not all the drugs and maybe cycle off the drugs just a little bit, hence ‘natural’.
Landis clearly missed the
Landis clearly missed the memo about better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
overweight fat tub of sh1t
Is that a overeager piece of typing by road.cc, or did the overweight fat tub of sh1t wish to imply that nobody, who has ever won the TDF, did so without making use of drugs.
leqin wrote:
define drug/s?
Honestly don’t care what Landis says. We have a system that tests, cyclists in the pro ranks are the most tested with respect to participant numbers. If we are to accept Landis on his word then we can pretty much say the same thing across all other sports. Tennis, Gold and soccer do get a lot less heat with regard tests, there’s too much money in it for the system to catch the dopers.
“A total of 32,362 football samples were analysed across WADA-approved laboratories.
This compares with 30,308 in athletics and 22,652 in cycling.
Aquatics is next on the list with 12,973, followed by weightlifting with 10,262 and rugby union with 8,451.
Given the numebrs of pro soccer players globally that 32k tests is a drop in the ocean and even the number of pro/competition athletes across all disciplines massively dwarves pro cyclists.
With all due respect to Sagan
With all due respect to Sagan, every single tour in history has been ridden in stifling conditions, from my own first experience of France in mid summer the final day into Paris in 1990 was 40C/104F, from my old notes there wasn’t a day in the 10 days I was in the Northern parts of France (Normandy/Britanny/Pays de la Loire/Centre Val de Loire/Ile de France) that it dropped below mid 80s at the days peak temp. I tried to get all my miles done before 3pm setting off about 9ish (I was only doing 70 miles/day), I never even wore a cap but plenty of suncream and I spent almost as much money on fluids than I did on actual hotel/BB costs, it really was blinking hot and I worked in a kitchen as a chef so the heat wasn’t something I was unused to but it really was a scorching summer, even the locals were saying it was pretty mafting!
The pros today have better than ever access to get fluids not just from team cars but neutral service vehicles, they can get ice packs for their necks, the ability to fuel up has never been easier and more controlled to esnure salts are being replaced. Compare this to even 30 years ago and Sagan’s complaint seems to be a bit over the top. Is it hot, yes, but this isn’t unexpected, Tour down under and Tour of California and others are hotter. it’s an endurance race, the temperatures are as much a part of this event as the distance, speed and altitude gain.
Maybe Sagan could ask the CPA to tell the UCI they no longer want to wear/forced to wear a polystyrene hat that overheats your head in a ridiculous fashion and go back to wearing cotton caps that protect you from the sun whilst not frying your brain, it would seem to be the simplest solution with regards to overheating whilst also increasing safety in the pelaton?
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Yeah, I mean replacing a ventilated, lightweight helmet with a non breathable cotton cap is the ideal solution you irrelevant, boring, repetative, old fanny.
Any opportunity to get your opinion across on helmets, eh
40-50 years ago, footballs
40-50 years ago, footballs used to be made from heavy leather and lots of ex pros suffered from brain diseases as they got older which is generally percieved to be at a direct link. And Ex American Footballers were also suffering from effects of mutilple impacts of the head which lead to a ban on certain tackles.
Just because riding large distances in 40 degree temps was seen as being “manly” in the old days doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be looked at as OK these days.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
A bit like burning to death in cars used to be part and parcel of motorsport because nobody stood up to those on charge.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
you’ve clearly not read what I’ve said, things have improved already, massively so and rightly so, which makes your comparison bunk. It would have been relevant if things hadn’t changed but they hae as I mentioned.
So riding in hot temps now is not remotely the same to riding in hot temps BITD, in fact he can lounge around out the back when he likes so he’s got enough left for the days he might have a chance. He gets far more help in that respect than the pros that went before by a long long way.
Clearly one rider in the pelaton thought he was being a bit OTT, maybe you should explain it to them as to why having drinks on tap, supplements, salts, food, cool packs etc etc isn’t enough?
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Sagan was saying the heat is OK on the flats but they should consider things as they head into the mountains – not unreasonable to think about things given during multiple days over 100F, the different efforts involved, the elevation (and the combination of the heat with that), the slower speeds on exposed slopes and the fact that we’re heading into hotter days in what is already record breaking temperatures for Europe in general, and France in particular.
He may less happy with the heat than others, but it’s no unreasonable to ask the organisers to look at what coming up and see if anything could / should be done even if that decision is to carry on (which it probably will).
Sagan’s comments were valid
Sagan’s comments were valid and the rule changes seem appropriate. Longer feeds, good, and an extra bit of time for the gruppetto. What’s not to like?
And those hills, some of them are, like, really steep. Surely we can make do with just the slightly steep ones? And think how much less stressed the riders would be if the bikes had a little motor.
Why has nobody thought of this before?
mike the bike wrote:
But not a big one, because I’ve see the IOM TT and people are killing themselves all the time there. So maybe just a little motor, one you could fit into on of your tubes and use when you are super ‘stressed.’
https://sportsscientists.com
https://sportsscientists.com/2007/11/the-effect-of-epo-on-performance/
if you have seen the link and we know for a fact that mid peloton riders are getting busted then it’s pretty easy to work out that doping is still rife in cycling and who the fuck cares anyway . Landis is spot on . It’s a waste of time and money , clean / fair sport “whatever that is “ let them dope .
Landis one of the greatest tour wins ever, absolutely brilliant. Just a shame he never got to race again when other dopers did . How come some dopers are allowed to keep their tour wins and some not , because it’s all bullshit that’s why . Armstrong was the king of the tour he beat a whole peloton of doped up to the eyeball rivals and don’t give me that Simeoni bullshit ,he was a busted doper . And if EPO was available at the chemist tomorrow every weekend warrior would be queuing up . Go by it online . It works ,i subbed 35 mins easily the madone . It’s good shit ,highly recommend. Just mirco dose . You will soon know why the pros are that much quicker. Enjoy.
For the heat, imo Sagan’s
For the heat, imo Sagan’s comments are valid. It’s a real scorcher there, heat records are being broken left and right. Imagine riding 177 km at average speeds of at least 40 kmh in that. Sh*t, I rode 25 km commuting from work to home today, temps of 37.6 in the shade, like riding through a hairdryer…went 2 minutes slower than usual and it felt 50% harder. Garmin says my zones were off too, due to the heat. And that’s nothing compared to what those riders need to do, i doubt an ice pack compensates for that.
For the doping: I’m not and never was a pro rider but what I do see even on my amateur level are that people get caught left and right (we have a system of unannounced doping controls for sporters here, even if non-competitive). Why they do it is beyond me, bit like riding a Strava segment on an e-bike and grabbing KOM-status while the rest of your stats don’t work out.
Xenophon2 wrote:
I have to disagree, a e bike uses a outside scource of power . Taking PED’s is only advancing your athletic potential . Take Froome for instance ,before he joined sky and Dr Leinders he was a nowhere man , look how quickly he transformed into a tour winner . He happens to be a good responder there are more talented riders who don’t respond as well “ recover as quick “ then you have riders like pantani or Armstrong, gifted genetics who responded well ,in Armstrong’s case I would say he was never pushed to the limits on any of his tour wins . He had a few issues but no one could compete at his level it would have been good to have seen him come up against some competitors who would have pushed him . Maybe Contador if they peaked at the same time . You can’t compare Froome in any way ,because his team are such a important factor . No way he could win a tour with no team mates around him. Drugs do work and the stigma needs to be taken away and let them get on with it and those who live in fairy land won’t have to wonder anymore .
make them legal and the same people will be winning and the times ,well look at some of them . Porte and Froome both quicker up the madone than a juiced up Armstrong. Some of Froomes times up cols were in the top ten times matching and beating that of caught doped riders .he may have had team mates wheels to suck but other known climbers couldn’t hang on most of the time .i mean at times we had 5 or 6 sky riders in the last 1 -2 kk of mountain top finishes. Armstrong or Bertie would be alone most of the time . Dr Leinders knows his stuff . I want some .