Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Tag: Le Tour de France 2008

Le Tour de France – Day 9: Stage 21, Etampes to Paris

Salle de Presse, Meridien Hotel, Paris, 18.55 Sunday July 27th. We were in Etampes, and we just watched Steegmans demonstrate how to sprint, he's a much better sprinter than he is a time triallist. Sastre won his, and CSC's first Grand Tour without drama, there was the usual show boating-'Carlos with glass of champagne', it says here on this script.

Le Tour de France – Day 8: Stage 20, Cerilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond

The Salle de Presse in Saint-Amand-Montrond, 17.30 Saturday 26th July and Carlos Sastre has just won the Tour de France, it won't be official until tomorrow after the big show on the Champs Elysee, but it's won. Personally I'm happy with the result; at least Sastre took the race by the scruff of the neck on L'Alpe D'Huez, an 'exploit.' Evans strategy of following may have been dictated by the weakness of his team, but it would have been hard to be enthusiastic about him as a Tour winner.

Le Tour de France – Day 7: Stage 19, Roanne to Montlucon, an day with Emma Davies Jones

Bonjour 08.30 we're just getting ready to roll. This is our second F1 hotel of the trip, Grenoble two nights ago and here, last night, basic but clean and the beds work fine - 33 euros for the two of us, so musn't grumble. It's another beautiful day in France, more that can be said for St. Etienne, which seems to be re-inventing itself as a 'Techno Town.' The old part of town is fine though, we had an excellent pizza in a little restaurant last night. Motorbikes and Emma Davies Jones!

Le Tour de France – Day 6: Stage 18, Bourg D’Oisans to Saint-Etienne

Guten dag! We honoured Carlos yesterday, so we best pay tribute to Big Marcus today. It's been a great Tour for Columbia - and it's not over yet. We had to be flexible today, the plot was to do a bike feature - the top GC riders plus points and mountains leaders - but the start at Bourg-D'Oisans was so tight for space, with team buses in the village streets that there was no room for the team trucks. These went directly to the hotels at the finish in St. Etienne, so it wasn't the best day to bike skek.

Le Tour de France – Day 5: Stage 17, Embrun to L’Alpe D’Huez

Ola! Wee bit Spanish there in honour of Carlos, a great ride-one that puts him up with the legends. But?... Is it enough to win him the 2008 Tour de France? We'll find out on Saturday, in the chrono; Cadel has to be the favourite though. It's 9.00 pm and we're still in the Salle de Presse on L'Alpe D'Huez, another long one, but they all are. We spent the night in Pra Loup, a word of advice, do not visit the Club du Soleil les Bergers hotel, it's not the answer!

Le Tour de France – Day 4: Stage 16, Cuneo to Jausiers

Ah! The glamour of the Tour, sat in the toilet of the hotel room in Jausiers, word processing at 06.30 am. I'm in here so as not to disturb Martin, who needs his sleep to get us up to l'Alpe D'Huez in a couple of hours. The BlackBerry lost it's ability to send emails last night, so instead of my usual tapping away on the tiny key pad, here I am on a full size job-albeit one that's perched on the edge of the shower tray as I sit on the you-know-what. But let's talk about yesterday-is that a song title?

Le Tour de France 2008 – Day 3: Rest Day

Ciao! It was gone midnight when we hit the hay, last night. There was no thought of food, just sleep, it seemed to take an age to get off the mountain at Pratto and get to our digs at Racconigi - maybe it was just because we were so tired. Breakfast was chronic, stale bread, no cheese, no ham and everything else in polythene wrappers. First mission of the day was to meet Stuey O'Grady at the CSC press conference. He's a buddy of Martin's pal, Pete Jacques.

Le Tour de France – Day 2: Stage 15, Embrun to Prato Nevoso

Follow the road until further instructed... Hurray, the satnav is working again! Ahh ! pardon, bonjour mes amis en Ecosse, bienvenu au 15eme etape de la Tour de France avec l'equipe VeloVeritas a Prato Nevoso.

Le Tour de France 2008 – Day 1: Stage 14, Nîmes to Digne-Les-Bains

Le Tour de France 2008, Digne-les-Bains, Saturday afternoon, 38 degrees and U2 are telling us it's a "Beautiful Day" - that Bono, he knows everything. We were supposed to meet up with American reader, John Larsen in Forcalquier, watch the race and sample the local fare with a BBQ, however Jet2.com kept us sat on the tar at Turnhouse for an hour before take off, scuppering our chances of catching the race.

At Random

Cadel Evans – A Grand Victory?

Cadel Evans is going to win the Tour de France in 2011. Hahahaha! I'm going to say that again, just because I can. Cadel Evans is going to win the Tour de France in 2011. What a nice sentence to read and write! The time trial last night was expected to be a shootout between the world's best time triallist, Fabian Cancellara, and the next big thing, Tony Martin.

Alan Thomson – Scottish 50 Mile TT Champion 2015

VeloVeritas didn't make it to the National '50' but we did pick up the phone and ring the winner, Alan Thomson. We asked if it was a tough shift up there in the North East; "Nuts! The course rolls and there were spells of brutal headwind where I was down to 19 mph then you were back up to 30 mph and sections you thought would be fast were slow. It was a day where you really had to concentrate and think about what you were doing."

Jonny Wale – “It’s time for us to shine”

Yes, Scotland has two Olympic champions on the Commonwealth Games squad for The Gold Coast; Katie Archibald and Callum Skinner. We also have double European U23 champion, Mark Stewart and World Cup gold medallist, Neah Evans. But there’s another name which isn’t so obvious, that of 26 year-old Jonny Wale – born and raised in Scotland, British team pursuit champion and author of a 1:01.1 kilometre. We caught up with Jonny recently to get his story. He’s recovering from a training crash which resulted in a broken collarbone but hasn’t kept him out of the gym or off the turbo – the man wants to get to the Gold Coast, real bad!

Traksel takes Kuurne Brussels Kuurne 2010 – Best Belge in 8th Place

Kuurne Brussels Kuurne 2010... "Opgave door storm" says the headline, of Tom Boonen - 'gave up during the storm'; I don't ever remember seeing that headline about Eddy Merckx. For the last four years, Kuurne Brussels Kuurne is where QuickStep have pulled the fat out of the fire on the Sunday, after a disastrous Het Volk on the Saturday.

Katie Archibald – “You’ve got to learn to be a leader”

This 23 year-old is a force of nature and has to be one of our best medal hopes at the Commonwealth Games; she’s been rampant recently in the European Championships and World Cups; Ms. Katie Archibald recently kindly took time to speak to VeloVeritas about her autumn adventures and her future ambitions:

“Pre” – Giro Catch Up

Back! Just a quickie before the Giro starts (well, only three days after the Giro started, but near enough). March and April saw a nice turnaround in the fortunes of the team: only two fractured collarbones and two major concussions! MUCH less hectic! We also put in some very good results, popping up with wins in both individual stages and overall races (on one memorable day we won three times: two stages and an overall race. Very nice!). We also had some very strong showings in some of the biggest one day races on the calendar. Very nice indeed! March also saw a grand turnaround in the life of Tobias, with the arrival of Mands to sunny Girona. Good times!