Tour de France set for Grand Départ! The Tour de France begins in Nice on Saturday. 2020 has been, all around, a very strange year. The Tour de France, normally a July commodity, this year is beginning on Saturday, August 29th. It will conclude in Mid September, a week before the start of the Giro d'Italia. Very rare indeed. Challenged as it is, the show will roll on, even if the conditions turn dark with impending coronavirus challenges. There have been many challenges since the Tour started in 1903, from wars to blizzards, to problematic train conductors. The Saturday start in Nice will be just one more challenging start, but history tells us the Tour will roll on. Coronavirus is again surging in France, and the Tour may face unique challenges, but it is the Tour... the UCI has modified, over and over, the regulations for the Tour. The two strikes, you're out, for the teams in the Tour have now been limited to riders themselves, rather than the included entourage. The teams plan to arrive in Paris on September 20 having survived. This becomes more of a challenge given the plethora of false positives... The 2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal will lead the challenge of the Ineos Grenadiers team over the next four weeks. The Jumbo Visma team is heavily favored, as is rider Primož Roglič, who is a Slovenian racing cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Jumbo–Visma. Readers of this space may remember coverage of him as a ski jumper, before he jumped to cycling. He is the current World No.1 ranked road cyclist at UCI World Ranking for 30 consecutive weeks, and is heavily favored as race leader for this year's Tour. He was injured in a recent crash, but he announced two days ago that he feels ready to face the challenge. The French challenger is likely Julian Alaphilippe. While often the Tour begins with a short prelude, or a team time trial, the drama comes quickly this year, with the opening weekend including five categorised climbs in 48 hours, two of which, the Col de la Colmiane and the Col de Turini, both on stage two, top 1,500 metres. If the racing is fast and furious, as it has been since this year’s post lockdown restart, then there will be significant damage done to many in the peloton. Normally the build up to the Tour, and training for the cyclists, begins with the classics in March and April, the Giro in May, and shorter stage races in June. This year, the season began a few weeks ago, so some of the riders will, undoubtedly, lack stamina for some of the climbs. The first mountaintop finish comes on stage four, at Orcières-Merlette ski station, overlooking Gap, a climb on which Spain’s Luis Ocaña rode into folklore in 1971, by leaving his great rival Eddy Merckx far behind. Two days later, after the race has crossed the Rhône valley, there is another mountain-top showdown, on Mont Aigoual in the Cévennes, making it a breathless opening week. The cyclist will arrive for two stages in the Pyrenees Two arduous but moderate stages in the Pyrenees are followed by the first rest day and a transfer — by bus for the riders, rather than as usual by air — to the Charente and a circuitous 10th stage, between Île d’Oléron and the Île de Ré that, if the wind blows off the Atlantic, may prove as chaotic as any of the mountain stages. Should COVID worsen, it is rumored that the Tour may be stopped here, and the Yellow Jersey be awarded by way of a final stage. Should the Tour continue, which we have every hope that it will, The route then traverses the Massif Central and recrosses the Rhône before a triptych of mountain stages in the Vercors, Savoie and Jura regions. But the organisers are clearly hoping for a cliffhanger with a mountain time trial to La Planche des Belles Filles, scheduled for the final Saturday, prior to the usual grand finale on the Champs Elysées. Allez, Allez! riders. Here's to everyone following this year's Tour de France. As Always, Eric http://speedorex.blogspot.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/omnisport/1813372128.44435.1598676205744%40mail.yahoo.com.
