
site map

le Tour de France, 2008
- the race renewed

previous years, as seen by abelard.org:

Les Pyrénées, on the A64

site for le Tour de France (with daily reports during the race)

Time schedules of the 2006 Tour de France stages (and other links)

[also the original pages in French]

22 July 2008, after the sixteenth stage -from Cuneo, Italy to Jausiers, France

After a tourist trip in Italy, we are now back in France and headed towards Paris.

Saving catastrophes and Herculean performances, Cadel Evans still has the Tour well under control. There are only five left in any sort of conntention: in order, Frank Schleck, Berhard Kohl - seven seconds back, Cadel Evans - eight seconds behind Schleck, Carlos Sastre - forty-nine seconds in arrears, and Denis Menchov at 1 minute 13 seconds.

None of these four can have much hope against Cadel Evans on the time trial [contre le montre], scheduled for the penultimate stage [26 July, 53 km]. It is very likely that Evans will then take at least a minute or two out of all these riders.

Kim Kirchen, at seventh, is only 3 minutes 23 back, but one of the very few who could use the time trial to pull back time from Evans.

In historical terms, this Tour is very close with only just over five minutes separating the first ten riders.

However, all is not over yet. Tomorrow, 23 July, the seventeenth stage - 210 km from Embrun to L’Alpe-d’Huez, is an unusually horrific challenge, even for the Tour de France, complete with with three HC climbs [HC: hors classification; unclassified, because they are simply ridiculous]. Evans did give a hint of weakness on stage fifteen; thus, tomorrow must remain the last chance for the top riders to challenge, or even crack, him - a task that will require optimism as well as bionic strength. After all, today’s sixteenth stage was hard enough and Evans just treated it as a walk in the park.

[skoda ad - to follow]

For much more detail see the Tour de France website.

Le tour toujours. Image: Tour de France

17 July 2008, after the twelfth stage - Lavelanet to Narbonne

The remarkable dominance of English-speaking cyclists on the world stage is becoming impressive. After seven years of complete dominance by the American Lance Armstrong; Mark Cavendish (COL) has now won his third stage in the 2008 Tour de France - the first time this has been done by a British rider. His dominance in finishing melee sprints is currently looking overwhelming.

Meanwhile, Cadel Evans of Australia (SIL), although having an overall lead of just one second, looks set to dominate the podium in Paris. Despite a nasty crash, leaving him the worse for wear, he is maintaining his lead and putting real margins between himself and rivals. Evans has impressively tremendous strength in both climbing stages and contre le montre.

The rider immediately behind Evans, Frank Schleck - the CSC rider from Luxembourg, dropped over a minute to Evans in the fourth stage, 29.5km, Cholet time trial. With the twentieth stage, 53 km time trial [26 July] between Cérilly and Saint-Amand-Montrond still to come, saving more hiccups, the Australian looks home and dry to me.

And this all after British cyclists took nine gold medals at the world track cycling championships last March.

Le tour toujours. Image: Tour de France

this year’s longest stage - british winner!

Twenty-two year old Mark Cavendish from the Isle of Man, riding for High Road/Columbia, cycled to victory after 232 kilometres - the longest stage in this year’s Tour de France.

Giant ant
at Rond-point de l'Europe, Descartes. Ant sculpture by Michel Audiard
Giant yellow ant at Rond-point de l’Europe, Descartes, finished just in time for the Tour.
The peleton races round the roundabout with its ant sculpture by Michel Audiard

After five warm-up stages, the top ten places are held by

1	SCHUMACHER S.	Ger	GST	19h 32' 33"
2	KIRCHEN K.	Neth	THR	00' 12"
3	MILLAR D.	UK	TSL	00' 12"
4	EVANS C.	Aus	SIL	00' 21"
5	CANCELLARA F.	Swi	CSC	00' 33"
6	VANDEVELDE C.	USA	TSL	00' 37"
7	HINCAPIE G.	USA	THR	00' 41"
8	LÖVKVIST T.	Nor	THR	00' 47"
9	NIBALI V.	Ita	LIQ	00' 58"
10	GUTIERREZ J.	Spa	GCE	01' 01"

Schumacher leads the overall classification by virtue of a surprise win in the 29.5 km contre le montre (against the clock). Britain’s David Miller came second. However, these two riders are not rated as top climbers, and you cannot win the Tour without being a great climber.

Thus, as you can see from the table above, Cadel Evans and Christian Vandevelde (both of whom can climb) are already moving into threatening positions. This as the Tour speeds towards three days of ‘practice’ climbing around the Central Massif. And then the real Tour starts in the Pyrenees.

Note that the sixteen seconds advantage is no minor problem. If Vandevelde hopes to finish in the Yellow Jersey, he will have to seriously crack Evans in the hills, especially with another time trial looming on the penultimate day [26 July].

As the efforts to get drugs out of the Tour continue, Quickstep lost their star sprinter, Tom Boonen (2007 Green Jersey), over a positive test for cocaine. Surprisingly, strictly, this was not a cycle doping incident, but out he had to go. Meanwhile, Schumacher also has a similar shadow over a police stop regarding amphetamines, after a drink-driving arrest. The Tour organisers are trying to argue that Boonen and Schumacher incidents are somehow ‘different’, but no-one sentient seems to be able to explain why.

After fighting for two years, Floyd Landis finally lost his last doping appeal, and Oscar Pereiro has been declared the official winner of the 2006 Tour de France.

Le tour toujours. Image: Tour de France

background art to the Tour

I have been trying to get round to doing a section illustrating another part of the fun of thre Tour. Everywhere that you go on the Tour route, in among the banners and other festivities, you will see installations by farmers, school children, local villages, trade organisations and individuals. I hope to collect these together. The best way to give you a flavour is to collect a picture gallery.

Welcoming guardian at the entrance to Bastanes village, 2007