Category: Sidesaddle Blog

The 2018 Tour de France heads into Paris today – July 29th, and if there are no last moment disasters Geraint Thomas will keep his yellow jersey and enter the history books as winner of the 2018 Tour de France.

He scored a few other notable achievements in this Tour: the only rider ever to win the famed Alpe d’Huez stage wearing the yellow jersey; one of only a few “domestiques” to eclipse his team leader to win the Tour.

But what a Tour de France! Surprise sprints, crushing crashes, amazing attacks, champions cracking as new ones emerged. Let’s take a look at the highlights, and get ready for a Parisian Wrap Up…

From the kick off in the Vendée, the 2018 Tour de France was a thrill ride.

Columbian rider Fernando da Gaviria snatched two impressive sprint stage victories, but had to withdraw mid-way though the race.

Richie Porte, Froome’s former team mate and a pre-race favorite, crashed out of the Tour on the Roubaix stage, changing the dynamic among the contenders for the remainder of the race.

Rigoberto Uran, another serious contender, crashed in the same stage and withdrew a few stages later due to the injuries he received.

Greg Van Avarmaet landed in the yellow jersey thanks to team BMC’s performance in the team time trial in stage 3, then stamped his authority on the race to hold onto yellow for eight days, through the hill stages.

Peter Sagan defended his points jersey and racked up three stage wins – more than any other rider this year. He will tie Erik Zabel’s record five Green Jersey wins when he completes the ride into Paris. After a nasty crash on a wet Pyrenean descent in stage 17 there were moments when it didn’t seem completely certain that he would make it.

Julian Alaphillipe put a strong hold on the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey from the second week on, and ranked well in the points competition also.

Pierre Latour prevailed in the hotly contested struggle for the white jersey, with a series of impressive performances.

Mark Cavendish set out to hunt down Mercx’s record 34 stage wins, but came up empty handed and fell behind the time limit in stage 11, along with other sprinters.

Chris Froome, the pre-race favorite, succumbed to fatigue in the Pyrenees, while Geraint Thomas, the team mate who had been in a support role, stepped into the yellow jersey mid-race and proved himself the stronger rider. Thomas consolidated his lead on the steeper ascents of the Pyrenees, and maintained control of the race through the third week.

Froome shows there’s a good reason so few riders have won both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year – they are just too close together, and his Giro win in June clearly cost him some endurance in the crucial third week.

Craziest moments of the 2018 tour de France

A protest by farmers led to the peloton being inadvertently sprayed with tear gas, team Sky and Froome in particular endured vocal abuse and physical violence throughout the race, and to cap that off an over-enthusiastic gendarme pulled Froome off his bike after a stage was over, breaking the frame and drawing out a very strongly worded response.

Most exciting stage of the 2018 tour de France?

Possibly the cobblestone stage to Roubaix, where the sheer spectacle of the toughest riding conditions and random luck came to the fore, particularly Porte’s crash and Sagan’s stage win.

Another strong contender: stage 12 in the Alps, when Thomas showed his strength on Alpe d’Huez, in a day of intense attacks and endless climbing.

But my vote is for stage 17 – the shortest stage in decades, designed to produce decisive action with several serious climbs in the Pyrenees. This was the day Thomas defended against many attacks and sealed the deal on the yellow jersey. Quintana had not won a stage since his debut Tour de France in 2013, but mounted a perfectly timed attack to claim an impressive win, jumping up in the rankings to be within potential reach of a podium finish.

The excitement lasted right up to the nail-biting last moments of the penultimate stage: Saturday’s individual time trial brought the expected showdown between the four top placed riders, all of whom have world class time trial credentials.

Thomas set the fastest splits of the day, but faded in the last third of the stage. It was still more than enough to retain his overall lead, so the day became a battle for the other podium positions.

Chris Froome had slipped from second to fourth in the overall standings, but pulled out a strong ride to gain a good margin over Primoz Roglic and make it back onto the podium. Froome and Tom Dumoulin were neck and neck through the stage’s splits, Dumoulin winning the stage by just one second to retain second place overall.

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Today we enjoy the fun of a sprint stage against the backdrop of the sights of Paris, while the winners enjoy champagne in the peloton.

And to celebrate, we have a stylish Parisian wrap up for you: Paris, wine and bikes, united on a fun and practical addition to your cycling wardrobe.

It won’t be easy, but seriously, here’s how you win the Tour de France.

It’s the rider who completes the course in the shortest time that will win the Tour de France, of course. Here’s how you could accomplish that, if you got the chance.

The first step is the easiest: Get yourself into the top ranks of the pro bike racing circuit. Sorry, but after that it’s all going to be uphill.

Tour de France riders are an inspiring bunch, remarkable for the talent and dedication it takes just to get to the starting line.

Many of these riders are very visible in the early stages, which tend to be flat, or only a little hilly, with dramatic sprint finishes, and lots of intermediate sprints offering points for the green jersey contenders.

The sprinters and more powerful riders tend to shine in these early stages, and it’s possible for them to accumulate a good time advantage over some of the pre-race favorites. However, these guys never actually win the Tour de France. Why is that?

In the second week of the race the hills become steeper and longer, with a few mountains thrown in for the polka dot jersey competition, but still lots of sprint points up for grabs.

In these stages the “puncheurs” come to the fore. These riders can maintain speed on the flats and through multiple short steep hills along the route, and still have energy for an uphill sprint at the end. Slovakian rider Peter Sagan is a great example. He dominated the points competition for five previous Tours, and now a sixth.

We saw Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet wearing yellow for more than a week this year, through this phase of the race. He’s a good example of the strong, gutsy riders who do well in these conditions. They can battle all day in breakaways, and still win a sprint or open a gap on a category 2 or 3 mountain finish. Unfortunately for Van Avermaet, he faded once the race reached the Alps.

The mountains are the key to the big stage races like the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta d’Espana, and many others. Since it all depends on finding opportunities to open time gaps on the other riders, and being able to defend your advantage, riders who excel at the kind of bike riding that allows larger time advantages are always the ones to win the Tour de France.

That would be the “grimpeurs,” the mountain climbing specialists.

Let’s look at how a grand tour stage race works.
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How to Win the Tour de France – Sprint stages: spectacular finishes for points and glory

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In the early sprint stages, the pure sprinters finish at the front of the race, bursting out from a massive peloton of riders at the very end. This year we saw young Columbian rider Fernando Gaviria snatch two convincing sprint stage victories. Sagan and Dutch rider Dylan Groenevegen also grabbed a couple of stages each. They rarely cleared the other riders by more than a few seconds. Most times the G.C. riders (contenders to win the Tour de France General Classification) will be somewhere in the peloton, having been paced along by their team mates.

Because it’s impossible to determine individual finish times when there are a hundred or more all crossing the line in a big bunch, everyone in the peloton is given the same time as the rider at the front. So, as a future winner of the Tour de France, your job for those early sprint stages is simple – be in the peloton.

How to Win the Tour de France – Hill stages: breakaways and surprises

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On the rolling and hilly stages in the middle of the race, it’s common for a breakaway group to contest the finish. They may clear the peloton by a couple of minutes or so.

If the breakaway includes only riders who are not considered G.C. threats, the peloton won’t waste energy trying to catch them and they may open a considerable time gap, but it won’t matter later on.

Again, your mission is to stay safe in the peloton.

How to Win the Tour de France – Mountain stages: dramatic scenery, decisive moves

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Once in the mountains, the G.C. riders dominate the racing. They can finish several minutes clear of their rivals and 15 or 30 minutes in front of the main field.

On a stage crossing several summits, a few climbing specialist team mates will pace and assist the team leader to keep him strategically placed and conserve his energy. When the moment is right, maybe on the last climb, or earlier if key opponents seem weak, or some strategic opportunity appears, the leader may attack and put everything into opening a gap that rivals can’t bridge.

The Sky team supporting Britain’s Chris Froome has done this consistently through all the Tours since 2012. In the key mountain stages Froome has been ever present, dueling with other contenders, smacking the hammer down, or grimly hanging on to limit losses – always with team members giving it their all to keep him in the right place.

Froome has had the support of Australian Richie Porte and Welshman Geraint Thomas for a few seasons. As we see in this year’s Tour, Thomas is in yellow himself and is a strong contender in his own right. Porte crashed out in the tough Roubaix stage, but was on the short list of race favorites for his new team.

Over the course of several mountain stages the strongest climbers can open up serious time gaps. Even if they gain only a few seconds per stage, it might add up to a minute or two cumulatively, and at the top level that becomes extremely hard to overcome.

That makes it clear: to win the Tour de France you have to be a climber, no way around it.

And you have to have a great team. No way around that either.

One more skill that will help you win the Tour de France: time trials

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This is another type of racing where a specialist can create a significant margin. This type of racing calls for power and discipline together. Sometimes TTs are mountainous, which of course favors the climbers, sometimes they’re quite flat. Either way, it’s not unusual for someone like Chris Froome, who excels at both climbing and time trials, to open a crucial gap, or cement his leading position on a time trial stage.

This year may deliver an exciting showdown with the individual time trial on the penultimate day. As of stage 12, the top three G.C. riders are Chris Froome, Holland’s Tom Dumoulin, who is even better at time trials and is a strong climber, and Geraint Thomas, who is already in yellow, is also a time trial champion, and is proving himself a more than worthy climber in this tour.

So, if you want to win the Tour de France, here’s your checklist:

Best of luck if you try!

Myself, I think I’ll compete for the couch potato classification as I follow the Tour, and maybe enjoy a TDF party.

Let’s watch the last week of the 2018 Tour de France unfold and celebrate the amazing riders who can tick all those boxes.

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Related: Tour de France Jersey Colors Explained – with Fun Facts.