Author: Henri Giroud

Highlights Report Tadej Pogačar made Tour de France history on his way to winning stage 18 from Pau to Luz Ardinen, becoming the first rider ever to win back to back summit finishes in the yellow jersey. After the success of yesterday on the Col du Portet, the leader of UAE Team Emirates also triumphed in Luz Ardiden having also climbing the Col du Tourmalet which came close to the halfway point. The big names in the race came to fore on the final climb, 13.4 km at 7.5% average gradient where a sustained pace from Rafal Majka narrowed down the group.…

Highlights Report On the queen stage of this Tour de France, 178.4km from Muret to the top of Col du Portet at 2,200 meters above sea level, Tadej Pogačar once again showed his class, taking his second stage victory in the 2021 edition of the Grande Boucle . The race saw the men in the general classification control the initial stages, with UAE Team Emirates protecting and escorting the Yellow Jersey to the slopes of Col du Portet, a 16.3 km climb with peaks of 10% gradient. Halfway through the last climb, Pogačar attacked, with only Vingegaard (Team Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos…

Highlights Report After the second and final rest day, there was nowhere for the riders at the Tour de France to hide – if they didn’t have the legs this week, there was nothing more to be done. While the 169km stage today started with a downhill stretch, there were four categorised climbs over the parcours, each one evenly spaced to have the maximum impact on the tired legs of the peloton. The highest altitude start in Tour de France history meant there would be a fast descent, with attacks being followed by counter-attacks. However, the high-speed opening made it…

Highlights Report Sepp Kuss has won the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France. The rider of Team Jumbo-Visma escaped on the final climb from the break of the day, which also included Wout van Aert and Steven Kruijswijk. In his hometown, the American rode solo to his first win of the season. Van Aert, Kruijswijk and Kuss represented Team Jumbo-Visma in the large leading group, while Vingegaard was assisted by Mike Teunissen in the reduced peloton. Vingegaard was again very strong and moved up a place in the rankings. Van Aert did an excellent job for Kuss in the…

Highlights Report Bauke Mollema and Trek-Segafredo finally found just reward for their efforts in breakaways in the 2021 Tour de France. The team entered this year’s race targeting stages, and the team focused everything on getting in breakaways. To achieve a breakaway in the Tour is one thing, to then claim victory, something so highly sought by every team, is something else. The only way is to try, try, try. And if you fail, try again. It was the mantra of the Trek-Segafredo, who fell just short of victory in Stage 7 with Jasper Stuyven, and again in the Ventoux…

Highlights Report Cav won. That’s 34. He’s matched Eddy. Here’s a nice photo: Results Stage 1Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep5:04:292Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep3Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix General Classification 1Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates52:27:122Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo0:05:183Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma0:05:32 Points 1Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep279 Mountains 1Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic50 Young Riders 1Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates52:27:12

Highlights Report After the exertions of climbing Mont Ventoux twice yesterday, riders would be grateful for the flatter terrain of stage 12. The parcours covered only one third category climb in the middle of the day, but the peloton would have in the backs of their minds the thought that at the end of the day, the hard climbs of the Pyrenees would be 159.4km closer. While the stage was predicted to finish in a sprint, one rider who wouldn’t be contesting the win was Peter Sagan, whose knee injury had worsened over the past few days and did not…

Highlights Report Wout van Aert has won the eleventh stage of the Tour de France in an impressive way. The Belgian of Team Jumbo-Visma was the strongest in the difficult stage that went over the Mont Ventoux twice. After an impressive solo, Van Aert claimed the victory. The Belgian national champion went full steam ahead after his second place in yesterday’s bunch sprint. He tried, after many efforts in the beginning of the stage, to get to the front of the race. In the descent to the foot of the first climb of the Mont Ventoux he joined the leaders,…