 It Is not that long ago the road book of the Tour de France followed a loose narrative formula. The early stages would be fought out among time-trial specialists or sprinters, there would be a chance or two for the aggressive, punchy riders of the bunch, and the solid, diesel engines contesting the overall race in Paris would be ticking along steadily, staying out of trouble and within range, until the final week of the race when the flag would drop on the race proper. If you're a traditionalist, I'm afraid this year's Tour can only be a huge disappointment so far. For all the rest of us, it has frankly been a daily, extraordinary, page-turner. Yesterday's racing was a thrilling case in point, right to the line. Less than one week in, the two big favourites were already slugging it out on the slopes of the mighty Tourmalet mid-stage as if we were on stage 16, rather than stage six. It's almost as though the team of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, Jumbo Visma, have other things to be getting on with and would really rather skim read through this particular edition of Tour Winning for Champions. Except they couldn't, because the other big pre-race favourite, Tadej Pogacar has some time to make up of his own and did exactly that with his first stage win if this year's race. It's not as though we were short on drama before yesterday, either. We'd already had an opening stage and first yellow jersey go unusually to an actual GC rider, the Bury boy Adam Yates. We've had two fiercely contested sprints with drama in both cases running beyond the finish line, and the day before, on stage five, we'd had a day of such aggression from Vingegaard that we assumed the plot might revert to a version of normality with a calmer second day of climbing to allow the Pyrenean dust to settle somewhat. But no. Jonas Vingegaard is the man in yellow (Picture: Getty) So far, seconds have bee){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
It Is not that long ago the road book of the Tour de France followed a loose narrative formula.
The early stages would be fought out among time-trial specialists or sprinters, there would be a chance or two for the aggressive, punchy riders of the bunch, and the solid, diesel engines contesting the overall race in Paris would be ticking along steadily, staying out of trouble and within range, until the final week of the race when the flag would drop on the race proper.
If you’re a traditionalist, I’m afraid this year’s Tour can only be a huge disappointment so far. For all the rest of us, it has frankly been a daily, extraordinary, page-turner.
Yesterday’s racing was a thrilling case in point, right to the line. Less than one week in, the two big favourites were already slugging it out on the slopes of the mighty Tourmalet mid-stage as if we were on stage 16, rather than stage six.