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I've been listening to BBC R5 for nearly 2 hours this morning, no mention of the world's greatest bike race, Geraint Thomas, only extended woffle about what the presenter had for dinner in Zurich as it's the women's euros. I'm losing access to most BBC output in a couple of weeks as I live abroad, no great loss.
ITS TEWER DEE FRAANTS TEIME BAYBEEEH
Lizzie Deignan is joining Ned and David in the Never Strays Far podcast, wonder if she might be in the itv coverage too?
Loooks like a sprinty stage today. Here's Jeff Ring over at inrng's preview:
https://inrng.com/2025/07/tour-de-france-stage-1-preview-lille/
Barring some kind of sneaky breakaway win, I feel like the relatively uncomplicated nature of the finale today will favour the teams with the best lead-out trains. As far as I can see, Alpecin and Lidl have by far the most firepower in this respect. In the past Alpecin have relied a bit on being a bit barge-y in the finale to keep position - it'll be interesting to see if the heft of Lidl'd Consoni/Milan combo can counteract this. My money's on Milan.
(The caveat being that trying to predict the first sprint of the Tour is always a fools errand)
Has G hit the ground yet? 😉
Has G hit the ground yet? 😉
I was in the LBS earlier and we more or less said exactly this! Sort of a "what do you think will happen in the Tour?" conversation and between us we got:
G to crash on stage 1
and
Pogacar to win every stage / wear yellow from start to finish.
ITV4 coverage from 11.45. Bring on the final year of funeral plans and donkey sanctuary ads.
GCN Tech video looking at some of the bikes and kit:
It’s live on ITV, yes, live now!
G to crash on stage 1
This misunderstands the lore of Geraint Thomas. Not for him the quotidian venture of crashing on Stage 1. That's for normal bike riders without his deep experience.
No, Thomas will wait at least a few stages before crashing in an unprecedented and baffling way. Maybe this year someone in front will have a puncture that leaves a little slick of sealant that he wipes out on. Maybe he'll get a heron trapped in his spokes.
Crosswind alert!!
Ganna and Bissiger out.
Roglic hasn't crashed yet I don't think.
ITV4 coverage from 11.45. Bring on the final year of funeral plans and donkey sanctuary ads
And the deeply disturbing Sun Life naturist ad. 🤢
Plenty of drama already.
Anyone else having transmission problems with ITV4? Very low quality picture. Other channels are OK
Crosswind carnage!
Excellent! A winner not sponsored by a repressive regime or advertising premier killing technology!
Anyone else having transmission problems with ITV4? Very low quality picture. Other channels are OK
Yes. I had to stop watching ItvX and switch to normal telly.
Well done Sam Watson, what a result.
Hands up who else had Ganna in their fantasy team. I really am a bad luck charm 😂
I know, I'll pick two of the top 3 sprinters, bound to pick up some points on stage 1. Guess which two I picked...?
yep, picked Ganna
bonus point for getting a mention in the highlights show?
Some fool up there ^^^ was banging on about the straightforward finale today.
So Sad for Jake Stewart getting a mechanical. Was feeling that this was going to be a good day for him.
Kaden Groves deserves a time bonus for the way he avoided a crashed rider - awesome bike handling !
Today's stage is looking interesting and classics-y:
As usual, inrng is worth a read on the subject:
https://inrng.com/2025/07/tour-de-france-stage-2-preview-boulogne/
I feel like under usual circumstances the GC teams would just do their best to stay safe and let some classics riders fight it out. The thing is that Visma seem to want to create as much chaos as possible in these opening stages and the other big GC team have *quite* a good classics guy as their leader.
Whatever the scenario, if Van der Poel isn't up there in the finish today I'll be very surprised.
I missed the first hour or so of today's stage only just turned it on. Looks a damp and rather miserable day.
ITV4 is off into one of the occasional digressions they like to do which in some respects is a relief to mundane shite about the race when nothing is happening. Going to miss Ned and David when this coverage finishes, Ned always manages to find some history, literature or geography to weave into the narrative.
@crazy-legs Ned and the gang have a plan for next year. Neverstraysfar
Quinn Simmons - riding 650 on the back ? Shame that double-denim kits are no longer an item
That's better, first, second, sixth and yellow. Good last 10km to watch.
Good last 10km to watch.
Everyone has been intent on knocking seven bells out of each other today! Moments of real full gas hardcore racing, every last bit of terrain and wind direction exploited.
Good win though, that was well deserved and well executed.
Bit bemused by what Visma think they are achieving in the first two stages, unless you can either win the stage or drop Pog there's no point and the last two days have just set up MVdP and Pog.
Even if you watch the live coverage, the ITV4 highlights show is well worth a watch. As it's ITV4's final year broadcasting the Tour, they're showing excerpts from the archives and some historical race footage.
Even if you watch the live coverage
I've signed up the whole family to a cut-price cremation and saved several donkeys.
When I grow up I want a motorised profiterole...going to miss le tour highlights...it's literally been with me almost all my life
Bit bemused by what Visma think they are achieving in the first two stages, unless you can either win the stage or drop Pog there's no point and the last two days have just set up MVdP and Pog.
According to Daniel Benson on his substack, the plan was to set up WvA but he wasn't up for it, so they tried with Jonas V.
According to Daniel Benson on his substack, the plan was to set up WvA but he wasn't up for it, so they tried with Jonas V.
Fair enough with Wout but Jonas was never going to beat Pog or MVdP so why bother, just a waste of energy. Even Evenepoel played it more canny than Jonas and he often gets it wrong. Better to just mark Pog and try and let him waste his energy racing MVdP
Worth a skim on the VLab tactics. https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/vingegaard-adopts-classics-state-of-mind-at-tour-de-france-analysis/
Even if you watch the live coverage, the ITV4 highlights show is well worth a watch. As it's ITV4's final year broadcasting the Tour, they're showing excerpts from the archives and some historical race footage
I enjoyed yesterday's piece on Boardman's win in '94.
It's been really cool in these 2 stages to see some big names change the way they race.
- Jonas is absolutely having it - I don't know if it will win him the race but I really like it.
- MvdP played a really smart race today. He used to be all power and bloody mindedness but today he just sat in the exact right spot for the entire last 40km and timed his sprint to perfection. Love to see him turning into more of a racer and less of a WMD.
Jonas was never going to beat Pog or MVdP so why bother, just a waste of energy.
Because the alternative is to ride around France for 3 weeks watching his rear wheel.
There's always a chance that Pogacar will be caught in the wrong place, become isolated from any teammates, have an ill-timed mechanical.
Plus it's marketing as much as anything - JV can be written as an exciting rider who animates a stage, takes the fight to Pogacar... or he could be a boring person who follows a wheel for 3 weeks.
Because the alternative is to ride around France for 3 weeks watching his rear wheel.
There's always a chance that Pogacar will be caught in the wrong place, become isolated from any teammates, have an ill-timed mechanica
Dropping Roglic and Evenepoel was stupid on the first day, they want Pog and his team watching those two as well.
Yesterday all they did was set up MvDP for the win. It's all very well being attacking but they need to let UAE control the race and expenditure energy and then attack on a stage where Pog hasn't got an obvious advantage.
As for going if Pog is in the wrong place, yes good idea but seeing as he was right behind Jonas it couldn't have been hard to work out that day one and two were not those days. They should be following the favourite and making him control or animate if he wants a stage win
MvdP played a really smart race today. He used to be all power and bloody mindedness but today he just sat in the exact right spot for the entire last 40km and timed his sprint to perfection. Love to see him turning into more of a racer and less of a WMD.
He was helped by Jumbo animating the race and UAE chasing down attackers, had pog sat back when lipowitc went and made MvDP chase he would likely have won
Alex Dowsett replacing Chris Boardman (until Paris). (after reading his book I'm an even bigger fan than I was before).
philipsen out
Well that's opened up the sprint jersey a bit, Phillipsen taken out at intermediate sprint with collarbone!