a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 3rd July 2013

rapha.ccissue 14

ice-cooled jackets were #prostyle

29 30 01 02 03 04 05 06 07SATURDAY

— Tour de France S1SUNDAY

— Tour de France S2MONDAY

— Tour de France S3TUESDAY

— Tour de France S4WEDNESDAY

— Tour de France S5THURSDAY

— Tour de France S6FRIDAY

— Tour de France S7SATURDAY

— Tour de France S8SUNDAY

— Tour de France S9

the view from nice

Aussies Have GreenEDGE on Promenade des Anglais

french fancies Whispers and rumours heard on the roadside in France…

quotes

Mark Cavendish istrying out hydraulicbrakes – does theManx Missile needmore stoppingpower?

Rumour has it thatone team went on athree-day, apples-only diet a couple of weeks before theTour. Who, andmore importantly,why?

Movistar’s hotel for the firstnight was in a town calledPinarello, where they werejoined by Cofidis. Is there anew bike sponsorship an-nouncement on the way for the French team?

“anks for all themessages guys,much appreci-ated!!! Even thedope control guyscame to wish me well, and take my urine...”@geraintthomas86 is soldiering on.

“FAO Pierre Rolland: Polkadot shorts should always beburied at midnight under afull moon to ensure they staydead” @doctor_hutch

“What a great team today,and @simongerranswhat a hitter! Our team isjust fizzing.”@darylimpeyon Tuesday,full of Aussie confidence.

“It turns out the flight fromCalvi to Nice is the world'sshortest flight in an A320.Good to be on mainlandFrance though.” @koendekoert

Yesterday, the controlled power of the teamtime trial took over Nice’s streets. e spec-tacle of the teams flying tightly through thenarrow streets of the old town, before hit-ting the searing tarmac of the Promenadedes Anglais was impressive – and the aver-age speeds over 56kph even more so.Team Sky will be content not to be in theyellow jersey, since the pressure of defendingit so early in the race, with several ridersbelow 100% would have been a strain. Inthat sense the result, which saw them loseonly three seconds to eventual winnersOrica-Greenedge, was ideal. Less good forthe boys in black was the confirmation thatthe Australian team seems to have put itsmediocre 2012 French outing and the em-barrassment of Busgate behind it, and is areal force in this year’s race.ere is a general sense of relief that thegreatest race on earth, having scored aZorro-like path across Corsica, is now backon the mainland. While several riders havevowed to come back on holiday, not manyteams will miss the unpredictable stages andthe logistical difficulties of the island. Corsi-can highlights, apart from the spectacularhelicopter shots of mountains and beaches,were Kittel’s sprint and Bakelants’ break towin in Ajaccio.

And ChrisFroome’s littledig on the Côtedu Salario: one-twoing the peloton with Richie Porte afterthe Tasmanian already had them on theropes. Some will have seen it as hubris, but itwas more a desire to stay out of trouble. AsRobert Millar said of Ryder Hesjedal’s simi-lar exploit in stage three of this year’s Giro:“If you are going to fall off it may as well beyour own fault.”e teams will be welcoming two days ofrelative calm promised by a Mistral-lesstransition across Provence. Most of all, thoseinjured in the first-stage crash, includingOmega Pharma-QuickStep’s Tony Martinand Geraint omas. Further scans revealedomas has a hairline fracture of his pelvis.Continuing to ride cannot make it worse, soit will be a question of how much pain theWelshman can tolerate, and yesterday heshowed a lot of heart in taking big pulls atthe ttt.Cannondale's Ted King, meanwhile, hasbeen eliminated on the time cut due to hisinjuries despite widespread protests that heshould be reinstated, since those injurieswere sustained in the confused finish of therace's first stage.

STAGE 4, 25 km Tues 2 July

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 3rd July 2013

ice-cooled jackets were #prostyle

anatomy of a stage

Stage 8, 195 kilometresCastres - Ax 3 DomainesOur guide to the key stage of the coming week. is time,it’s the peloton’s first incursion into the Pyrenees, whicharrives in the shape of a testing double-header.A tough first week will have worn down many and aPyrenean double-header isn’t exactly a relaxing way tospend the weekend. e first key climbing test for thegc contenders to deal with arrives Saturday and willshow both who’s mentally fallible and who is utterlylegless.Whilst the profile doesn’t look as gruelling as othermountain stages this year, there’s more than 120km ofrolling terrain before the penultimate hors catégorie colof the Port de Pailhères, followed by the shorter butbrutal climb up Ax-les-Trois Domaines. Also knownas the Plateau de Bonascre, the final climb from Ax-les-ermes, home to healing thermal springs, has sec-tions of over 11%, so with 180km-plus already in thelegs, we might see some riders going backwards. In the2001 edition it was where, 2km from the summit,Armstrong looked over at Ullrich and left him fordead, nearly catching the less-threatening escapees inthe process. It’s a climb where, if someone has thelegs, they can launch a devastating attack.e big cheeses will be watching each other likehawks and whereas the likes of Chris Froome, Al-berto Contador, Ryder Hesjedal and Cadel Evans willbe playing poker, don’t be surprised to see Pierre Rol-land or ibaut Pinot plundering the fruit machinehere. An escape and a clever bit of descending couldset an alpinist on the path to glory. en again, wecould see a breakaway igniting the day’s racing, agroup of unknowns fleeing into the foothills for somegrimpeur gang warfare as the roads head skywards. Whatever the case, it’s the first proper foray in theareas the great race is famed for, the high mountains.Being the 100th edition it’ll be good to see who maybe the eventual King of the Mountains.

LondonPartly cloudy,sunny spells, highsof 25c. SouplesseJersey, Women’sClassic Bib Shorts,Lightweight Cap.

Ax 3 DomainesSunny, 28c andrising, the first hors catégorieclimb. Nice.Lightweight BibShorts, Arm Screens.

SydneyFair but cool, highsof 17c. Why notpop along to thenew cc?Classic Jersey andClassic Wind Jacket.

San FranciscoClear skies allweekend, 64-68f,bonne route.Pro Team Jersey, Pro Team Base Layer,Pro Team Socks.

CASTRES175m

AX 3 DOMAINES1375m

Col de Pailhères2001m

166km

motoman

Motorcycle DiariesFew people get as close to cycling’srace action as the ‘photo-motos’.In an exclusive column forDoppio, ‘Motoman’, ourman in the press pack, recounts the trials andtribulations of life as a not-so-easy rider. Five nights in a tent andI’m already knackered.Driving down on the motowas tough. I jousted with cars onthe a7, the inner-city motorwaythrough Lyon, and 1,000 kilometres later I’m waitingfor the ferry from Nice. Still, it’s better than last year,when by stage three I was already burnt out. at’show it goes, though, if you’re unattached. I’ve got ablue bib this year, too, one step up the hierarchy ofphoto-moto access from the white one I had before,so things are improving, but it’s still a long way from‘in-race’ access.Sunday was a relaxed day, hanging out at a team busin the morning for some behind-the-scenes shots.Monday I spent the day on top of the Col de Sella,watching vip helicopters land behind me, sweating inmy leathers and getting sunburnt. en I hooneddown the hill after the peloton for a meeting with theuci on the press boat, where I soaked up a bit of gos-sip from the photo editors, whose own photos aremostly unusable since they’re not in focus. It will onlyget worse over the coming weeks.Corsica has been intense and, since the local paperran an article about two Italian tourists being robbedof their bmw 1200 at gunpoint, I’ve been worriedabout my bike. I have an 1150, and most photo-motosfavour the k100 because it's lower, but the 1200 is thelocal mafia’s vehicle of choice for drive-bys it seems.Shoot first, ask questions later is their motto. Cometo think of it...

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