TdF Stage 8: Libourne -> Limoges

I can’t cope with this, my nerves are shredded and it’s only Day 8!

Today is another transition / sprint stage, taking the riders 200km NE to Limoges (or (Augustoritum if you were a Roman here 2000 years ago…)

However, this contains enough lumps in the final, as well as an uphill finish, to potentially act as a late launchpad for midrange attacks and to disrupt sprinter trains and sap the legs of the pure sprinters. It can work for a rangy powerful rouleur / sprinter – last time the race finished here Marcel Kittel narrowly beat Bryan Coquard. Kittel is currently doing commentary for ITV4, Coquard is still racing though so…?

Other picks could easily include Mattieu van de Poel – he’s been an excellent leadout for Philipsen the last week but this finish suits him more than Philipsen. WvA could easily be up there in the mix as well if he wants it.

Biniam Girmay was a solid 3rd yesterday so is clearly on form and the finish suits him too.

Stand by for ore lingering shots of churches (that ^^ is Limoges Cathedral) and chateuax followed by a chaotic string of attacks and counter attacks!

Possibly also some pictures of bloody enormous beef steak…

😉

And there’s some interesting* information and pictures on the meteorite that hit the area 200 million years ago

Stage 8: A mysterious meteorite crater

*well I found it interesting and since I’m the one writing this, it’s going in!

going to be a chateaufest today 😀

it’s been on the market since the last time the peloton went past IIRC when Wiggins won 😕

some pics from yesterday

Live already on ITV4, while C4 have Silverstone F1 GP FP3 live, spoiled for sport choice!

startline cheese, Pog seems a bit happier at least 🙂

That’s a rapid start, they’re properly going for it!

Good interview with Cav on ITV4, effectively ruling himself out of today’s stage but he seems philosophical about yesterday, he’s definitely mellowed.

Break starting to go clear, chasing back on. The peloton either want a big group up the road to soak up the intermediate sprint points or they want nothing at all.

LOL @ Jumbo’s poker face 😀

#painting #TdF2023 Stage 8 live (ish) now! See all of my @letour #cycling #art #watercolors over at my #blog, https://t.co/4j6uLsXUV0 @JasperPhilipsen @AlpecinDCK congratulated by @jordimeeus @BORAhansgrohe #cyclisme #ciclismo #wielrennen pic.twitter.com/LwnXB4CW3p

— Greig Leach (@ArtofCycling) July 8, 2023

NNNOOOO!
Cav down. That looks bad. 🙁

Tiny innocuous looking shuffle rippled back through the peloton and the ONE person to go down was Cav – not even at speed. Doesn’t look good at all.

Shoot

Damn, he’s out

Abandoned. 🙁
Absolutely gutted, what a terrible way to end it all.

Looks like collarbone, shit shit shit. He’s in the ambulance

Gutting, yesterday could have been so different without the gear slipping in the sprint.

Cav’s achievements have been truly spectacular and will probably never be equalled but he has been the victim of some really bad luck over the years, so many crashes and mechanicals plus his long phase of illness – seemingly far more than others although maybe that’s just down to how long he’s been around.

Poor guy, what a terrible way to end it all. 🙁

My last sporting hero really 😔 He was in his pomp as I got into cycling, undoubtedly the best sprinter ever.

Poor Ned Boulting, his commentary has really faltered, he’s obviously very upset.

It’s not the dream ending we (and Cav) were hoping for. He looked really strong yesterday, too.

I wonder if he’ll give it one more season or whether that’s that?

Jumbo piling it on for WvA – the reward for him working his arse off for the first week to support Jonas is Jumbo setting him up for a potential stage win. Coquard and Girmay both well up there.

Pogacar well up in the wheels – maybe hopeful of a few seconds time bonus on the line if he can be in the mix?!

Simon Yates down at the back. Spare bike and chasing back on but he could drop right down the GC if he can’t get it back; the bunch is absolutely flying.

Jumbo are just the **** up kings at the moment!

Jumbo piling it on for WvA

They seemed to start the sprint 10km too soon!

Yep, WvA got boxed in by his own teammate in front and Pedersen/MvdP coming up each side of him. One hell of a sprint though, Pedersen just carried on going and going!

And they split the bunch leaving Vingagoagoago behind the split!

Great teamwork from Trek Lidl!

Another 10 metres and WVA would have had it.

Gutted for Cavandish.

Yeah WvA was a mile out of position when Laporte moved off

So sad for Cav, unlucky. Hope he heals up ok, looked nasty.

Surely he won’t want to go out like that given he was still right up there and has the speed, build a lead out for him, whoosh.

One more year, one more year, Mark Cavendish. One more year, one more year, I pray. One more year, one more year, Mark Cavendish. Cycling the ‘Manx Missile’ way.

Gutted!

I have actually shed a tear for Cav. Of every rider in this race, why oh why did this happen to Mark Cavendish?

Le Tour this year has been stressful.

Of every rider in this race, why oh why did this happen to Mark Cavendish?

There are certain riders who just attract crashes and/or who seem to come off worse in crashes. Like Geraint Thomas as well – absolute guarantee that if there’s a crash, G will be in it and will be broken by it, not just scuffs and scrapes.

So much of Cav’s career (and it is an astonishing and brilliant career) has been marred by what if’s and if only…

None of that is anything against Cav – I mean it’s unheard of for a sprinter to be active and winning for this long, some of the riders in the peloton today weren’t even teenagers when Cav was winning his first stages – but he really has suffered unfairly with illness, injuries, crashes and mechanicals

I remember Cav crashing in the Tour of Britain in 2015, up the road from Whaley Bridge. We were spectating only to hear Cav had yet again been taken away in an ambulance.

Does anyone think it’s possible for Cav to ride the Vuelta Espana?

Same when he crashed out in Harrogate in the 2014 Tour de France. Stage 1, that was when he properly buggered his shoulder.

Related note – the ITV4 highlights, if you’ve not had chance to watch is well worth getting on catch up.
Made even more poignant by Marcel Kittel being one of the analysts – it’s lovely to hear someone who has gone wheel to wheel with him so many times giving his verdict.

Sad to see Cav go this way, but in a way it’s quite poetic that he leaves his last TdF with people believing he had more to give. Yesterday’s sprint was classic Cav. He’s got nothing more to prove.

It does suck that the story ended this way but lets not let it distract from the most beautiful part of the story: how hard he tried to be at the Tour this year despite all the setbacks.

You know, if Cav had won yesterday or if he’d been so far off the boil he wasn’t competitive, then this wouldn’t be so poignant but….so near, so far….

Adios Mark! Gutted for you. Hopefully, the GC race continues to enthrall…

One more year, one more year, Mark Cavendish.

Can we crowdfund a team of lead out men?