Rest Day Review: Tour de France 2019.....a British perspective!

Hey!
So we are once again at that time of the year and the best cyclists in the world are pounding French roads for our entertainment.  And let's be fair, the first 9 days have been a veritable feast!  I don't know about you, but any pre-formed ideas I had about how the Tour would pan out this year have not come close to predicting the real life drama!

In fact, even before the race began it seemed to have been turned upside down.  The loss of @chrisfroome during a training ride at the Dauphine upset the apple cart before the fruit was even ripe on the tree!  Adam Yates getting sick and calling it a day rubbed salt into British wounds, which were then just beginning to heal when along came G's crash at the Tour de Suisse which firmly kicked the disabled cart down the bank and into touch!  It seemed that the God's of Cycling Chaos were laughing at us; taunting us Brits into believing that 2019 was to be the end of the British grand tour domination!

The outrageous form of Julian Alaphilippe, the phenomenal rise of Wout van Aert, a wonderfully resurgent Thibaut Pinot and a second Dauphine triumph for the dominant Jakob Fugulsang all seemed to be sending the message loud and clear.

Britain.....this ain't gonna be your year!

But we're made of stern stuff in ol' Blighty and are not likely to be shoved aside so easily!

And so.....here we are!  First rest day after 9 days of incredible racing and, whilst it may be the width of the Rhone Valley away from where I thought we'd be at this time, the GC has rather a familiar look to it; one that I never expected it to have to be sure, but one that I am, as a proud (slow!) cycling Brit and chest thumping patriot, am very pleased about.

G is on the rise and sits 2nd; Adam Yates is up to 8th and Froomey is out of hospital!  My confidence of yet another G success...or should it be 'a G up?'..... is once more high!  If Yatesy can attack successfully in the coming mountain stages as well we may well be looking at a two Brit podium once again!  Which would be wholly unexpected but very, very welcome, I must say!  I just hope that the crash when Mike Woods brought G down is the extent of his mishaps this year otherwise I may well be eating some serious humble pie in 2 weeks time!

That said I must tip my chapeau to some amazing non-British performers thus far.  The stand out performance in my opinion has been that of Julian Alaphilippe, who has proven himself by far the best all round road cyclist in the world and must surely now be considered a serious threat for overall victory!  There would be no more popular winner I'm sure and I wish him all the very best for the days to come.

Alaphilippe, in the yellow jersey, follows Nairo Quintana & Geraint Thomas with Thibaut Pinot in the foreground.

Next, the amazing, up and coming talent of Wout van Aert who is surely the natural successor to the whirlwind that is Peter Sagan.  And finally, a huge tip of the hat to the guy who has picked the baton of the Tour's iron man from the now retired Jens Voigt and that is Thomas de Gendt, who doesn't know the meaning of the term 'to have an easy day!'

But without each and every rider we would have no race and without the race what's the point of having the Summer!!!  So thank you one and all.....ride hard, stay safe and keep doing what you're doing.

The Return of the Baby-Faced Assassin

Hola amigos!
Finally the board of directors at Manchester United grew a pair and got shot of Jose Mourinho!  It's not that I think he's a poor manager, it's just that he's a poor manager, that's all!  Nothing personal Jose!
And in Jose's stead we have a United old boy from the wonder days; Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is back, albeit on an interim basis to begin with!  And after his first half in charge ManU are 3-1 up at Cardiff and looking good for the win! 
I said the other day that, in fairness to Jose Sourpuss, that the United players need to shoulder a large part of the blame for this horrible start to the season.  United has the largest payroll in the Premier League, their players earning on average half a mill more than their nearest rivals (pay wise) per annum!  I dunno 'bout you, but for me that's a whole lotta wonga, and as such United fans should be well within their rights to expect, nay demand, a level of committment commensurate with that sort of dinero! And the frank and disappointing truth is, that this season, that committment to the shirt has just not been apparent on the pitch!
To me a large part of todays modern manager's role is instilling confidence in his players.  At the top level I would suggest that there is not much difference in the quality of players and that those who perform consistently well do so largely as a result of supreme levels of self confidence.  And it's infectious!  It can spread through a team like a contagion, in much the same way as a lack of confidence can bring even the best teams to their knees for no apparent reason at all.  Witness Germany at the last World Cup! And Jose Mourinho, for whatever reason, has lost that ability to inspire his men. In the past I would argue he had it, but during his last year at (his second spell at) Chelsea and since being at United that ability to inspire, to get the best out of his teams, has eluded him.  Maybe it's just a dry spell; time will tell!
But at United, I would suggest that it was much more than just a dry spell. He was a bad fit from the outset.  Mourinho's teams have never played expansive, attractive, attacking football and a leopard cannot change his tactical spots no matter how many millions you pump into his bank account! 
Again nothing personal mate, but....good riddance!
So what of Solskjaer?  It is, we are told, an interim appointment; the hot favourite to get the job a permenant basis being current Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino who, I think, would be a cracking choice!  He sets his teams up to play the right kind of footabll, has a history of encouraging youth and would, I'm sure, be the right man to encourage a few big names to join a brand new Red revolution (possibly even a certain Mr H. Kane!  Wish, wish!).  The big fly in the ointment being that I cannot see him leaving Spurs!  Why would he?  But I keep my fingers crossed that it all works out!
Whilst I have been writing this and listening on BBC radio 5live to the match, Lingard has knocked in a 4th and the boys seem to be kicking it out of the park!
Come on United!!
Okay, now it's 5-1...a Lingard brace brings on, what will be United's biggest win of the year!
Go go United!
 

Sports Personality of the Year n' all that jazz!

Hiya!
As usual for us UK sports fans the end of the year highlight is always the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year awards.  A slightly different format from Auntie this year saw Geraint Thomas win the major award ahead of his rivals on the night, Lewis Hamilton, Harry Kane, Dina Asher-Smith, Jimmy Anderson and Lizzie Yarnold!  For me there were several highlights during the programme including Geraint's faltering but charming speech that saw him tell how 'he'd worked under Dave B (Brailsford) for many years' before immediately saying, 'oh, that sounds a bit dodgy, dun'it?' and the Helen Rollason award winner Billy Monger whose courage, determination and positivity in the face of extreme adversity is nothing less than mind blowing!

All in all I thought it was a lovely evening and it's inspired me to rattle off my own (slightly more limited) sporting highlights of 2018.

So, here we go......first up Cycling

British tour cycling had literally the perfect year!  Three Grand Tours saw three British winners!  It doesn't get any better than that, and as a mega cycling fan and horribly wobbly cyclist myself I truly appreciate the dedication, bravery, stamina and sheer bloody mindedness it must take to win any grand tour!  My best bits begin at the Giro, perhaps in British eyes the lesser of the three tours simply by virtue of a distinct lack of TV coverage on mainstream channels (Hint!  Hint!  Wake up ITV!), but the reality is surely very different!  I think the Giro is always the least predictable of the tours so perhaps it was inevitable that it would throw up its usual glut of surprises.  Simon Yates stormed into the lead and until the final few days looked every inch the runaway winner with the big pre-race favourite, Chris Froome, seeming to struggle in his wake.  That was until stage 19 which saw Froomey turn the race completely on its head with (I think) the single best sporting performance of the year, bar none, when he went balls deep with a solo breakaway some 70kms and 3 mountain climbs from the finish that saw him break the entire field, Simon Yates included, to go from 5th to 1st in a monumental day that I will never, ever forget!  Chapeau Froomey!  More of the same next year please!

At the Tour, as we know, Cardiff boy Geraint took the honours winning several stages along the way including the monster - 'Whoa!  Alpe D'Huez, man' - with an overall performance of supreme consistency that saw him crowned Tour Champion for the first time!  Fantastic performance boyo!

And finally at the Vuelta a Espagna Simon Yates, well rested and wiser by a country mile after his efforts at the Giro, came out on top and was, for my money, head and shoulders above than all his rivals and never looked seriously troubled at any point!

And all this British success has left me salivating at the prospects for next years tours where surely more British champs beckon.  But who?  And where will they clash?  Throwing Tom Dumoulin, a hopefully fully fit Thibaut Pineau and Primoz Roglic into the mix, along with the explosive talents of Julian Alaphilippe and Peter Sagan, I think 2019 could well be a year to savour!

At the World Champs success eluded the Brits with the road race going to 38 year old Alejandro Valverde - maybe its just me, but I've never warmed to the guy despite many bravura performances over the years largely because (and alright yes, I know cycling has had its fair share of problems on the drugs front, including some Brits!) he has never really shown any remorse for being caught out!  That said at 38 to win the Worlds is something else!

The TT saw Aussie Rohan Denis take the rainbow jersey and well deserved too!

On the track there were too many highlights too mention but for me the return of Laura Kenny and husband Jason after having their first child was right up there!

The saddest note of the year was the horrific injury suffered by German sprinter extraordinaire Kristina Vogel when she was left paralysed following a collision with a car whilst out training.  Once again the courage and fortitude she demonstrated in interviews afterwards was astounding and I wish her all the very best as she continues to recover.

In Formula One the plaudits go to Lewis Hamilton after yet another stand out year.  He was the best of the top drivers once again despite being in what was not the best car!  Five World Championships and his desire and competitive edge seem as sharp and as honed now as it was when he won his first title in 2008!  Here's to number 6 Lewis!

My enjoyment of the tennis year was blunted slightly by Andy Murray's hip injury which I hope is a thing of the past now as we look forward to seeing him back in action in January down under!  As a little aside I had a dream the other night where I was walking into the stadium in Melbourne with Andy - we were best buds or something! - for the final of the Aussie Open!!  Do I have prescient tendencies?  We shall see soon enough!  But I like to think so!

However, it was an absolute joy to the oldies swinging back into action again as Rog, Rafa and Novak once again dominated!  But the next generation are arriving like a high speed train so I think they'll all need to be looking over their shoulders in 2019!

In the womens game it was another unpredictable, topsy turvy year that saw no one woman (in Serena's absence) dominating which made it for me one of the most exciting in a long time!  To top that next year I would just love to see our Jo Konta stepping up again and playing with much more consistency and confidence to get herself back in the top 10 again! The key to Jo's success is her wicked serve which, when it's operating well, is a fearsome weapon.  This year it has been largely unused and as her serve stuttered to threaten the rest of her game dropped in its intensity and her ranking plumetted as a result!  We need you back at your awesome best Jo!  You can do it!  We believe in you!

As a Man United fan the football year has had its highs and its lows!  The highest being without doubt England's wonderful World Cup journey which reunited the fans with the national team in a way that (as a very old man) I can never recall!  It was momentous, staggering, stupendous.....and I want more!!!  Gareth Southgate is a magician!  I am just too young to remember 1966 (I was only 5) and so for me this is the first time I have seen an England team playing to the best of their ability and not wilting beneath the weight of pulling on an England shirt!!  And that I believe is a wholly a consequence of Southgate's positivity and meticulous planning!  Judging by results since the World Cup things are only going to get better as well!  I just hope and pray that one day soon (and before I hear the final whistle!) that I witness an England team winning a tournament!  That's not too much to ask, is it?

But at United things go from average to below average and then down once again!  Sorry guys, but Jose was never the right man for the job and he must go before United join the realms of the also rans and see their great heritage disappear off down the street never to be seen again!  The board need to be more adventurous in their choice of manager - my choice was Unai Emery but that was before Jose and before Arsenal - and really push the boat out to bring the good times back!  It's dismal to see Alex Ferguson's thrilling legacy being squandered by Mourinho who has clearly past his sell by date and by players who seem happy to take the money without fully committing to the shirt!  Come on United!  Sort it out!

The swimming year was a relatively quiet one and more a stepping stone on the road to Tokyo!  That said, there were still many amazing performances at the Euros with, as always, the stand out being a world record by a (below par??) Adam Peaty!  My word, that guy is a world beater and no mistake!  Looking forward to the next corner stone in their Olympic preparations being cemented into place at next years Worlds!  Come on team GB!!!

And finally in athletics it was also a quiet-ish year as well.  The highlights being Mo Farah's debut marathon win at Boston in a UK record and lovely Dina's wins at the Euros!  She is infectious in her enthusiasm for her running and, after some bad injury problems, its wonderful to see her develop into the world class sprinter we've always known she could be!

Again there were many outstanding performances at the Euros, such as Laura Muir, but the real test for Dina and the rest will come at next years Worlds and I can't wait!

So, there you have it!  In brief, a little run through of my sporting highlights!  Bring on 2019 because I've got a feeling.........!

The Sadness of being a British Cycling fan....

Victoria Pendleton said her 'heart sank' when she read the Parliamentary report latest revelations about goings on at Team Sky .  I understand exactly how she feels.  I am an enthusiastic cyclist myself and a huge fan of the sport, and have been for more than 30 years now.  I think professional cyclists are the hardiest bunch of sports people out there, especially the Tour riders and the Classics specialists.  Their bravery is only matched by their incredible resilience and I have the utmost respect for them all.  The grand tours are spectacles unlike anything else in world sport and I still desperately want to believe in what I'm seeing.

The thing about most sports fans is that we can put up with an awful lot and my love for cycling will carry on undiminished; of that I have no doubt, and that is because I have to, I must believe that the majority of the peleton is not living in the grey, murky areas frequented by those that would destroy the sport.  I need to continue to believe in the dignity of cycling, that there is still honour in the peleton because without that belief it all comes crashing down.

That said, it is precisely that respect I have for these amazing men and women, that makes this whole episode hurt so much.  I am a Brit and the past decade of cycling excellence on both the roads and the track have filled me with pride.  When I'm out on my bike, suffering on a mountain or being blown to a standstill in the face of a biting head wind, my thoughts invariably turn to my heroes for inspiration and if those heroes happen to be Brits then it is oh! so much better!  With renewed energy and vigor, my cleats straining as I depress my pedals, inspired by thoughts of 'if they can do it, then so can I,' I fight on, work through the pain and it feels good.  It feels right.

However, in dark times like these my thoughts and feelings return to the halcyon days of Lance Armstrong, a previous hero of mine; a majorly flawed hero as it turned out, and I remember how I defended him, almost unto the last; 'it cannot be true!  This is Lance Armstrong!'  And then I recall how I felt, as if I'd been kicked in the nuts when the house of cards Lance built came tumbling down.  I can only describe it as 'mourning.'  I was in mourning for the loss of someone who had been with me through so much, even though I'd never met the man, he'd been with me, egging me on, telling me to fight and persist on so many occasions that when it all fell apart I felt as if I'd lost a training partner.  I was sad, for myself, for all the others who felt like me, sad for the sport, and sad for him that he felt the need to lie and cheat above that of telling the truth and winning (or losing) with honour.

Then came our Brad, a man who I have written about on my blog here, describing him as, in my opinion, the greatest British sportsman ever.  His achievements are unparalleled across so many disciplines in cycling that I felt we should never see his like again.  So many of his later successes gained, in part, through the guidance and leadership of Dave Brailsford, the cycling guru who revived British cycling, breathing new life into it's comatose form.  And these successes, under the flag of Team Sky's sponsorship, were achieved in the wake of the Armstrong debacle and after much fanfare about the teams high minded ethics and clean, drug free competition that it championed, were a revelation.  My heroes were reborn, this time under a cloud free sky, and what was more, they were British.

As Brad's time ended, the Froome era began.  A period of unrivalled success in the Tour and then last year in the Vuelta.  I was on cloud 9.  Then came the adverse test results, the samples taken as it happens, two days after Froome and the Vuelta had passed through the village in Spain where I live!  I still had my Team Sky, 'Come on Froomey' banner flying in my garden when it all came to light!

And now, after the jiffy bag scandal, comes the latest bad news about Wiggins, Brailsford and Team Sky.

I was watching Paris-Nice yesterday and it felt like I was once again watching a funeral cortege pass me by.  I was numb.  There was no enjoyment to be had.

Okay, I understand that the cases against Froome, Wiggins, Team Sky and Brailsford are , as yet, unproven, but really, is that the point?  The sense of being let-down by my cycling heroes, yet again, is palpable.  Right or wrong, for me the point is that they have risked so much.  Their reputations.  The reputations of their team mates, their friends, their families.  The reputation of British cycling and British sport as a whole.  It wouldn't feel so bad if they hadn't held held themselves up as paragons of drug-free virtue.  But they did!  And because of that they should have made sure that, in a sport as tainted as cycling is by its history, they were spotless all the way down the line.  Did they really think that just because they said they were clean that the doping agencies would go look elsewhere?  No, their high idealistic stance invited close scrutiny and they should have been cleaner than clean as a consequence.

It seems they were not.

Regardless of how things turn out now, I can never feel the same about any of them.  In my head, as in everyone else's I'm sure, there will always be the questions if they go onto further success.  Once again I'm burying my heroes down deep and my ride today will be all the lonelier for that.  And I'm sad it has come this.  I know how you feel Vickie Pendleton.  I understand completely.

My Vuelta banner has now been cremated and another happy memory has become ash.


PS.  The UCI must, I believe share a portion of the blame.  As to how much...it is not for me to say.  They need to set and enforce a much stricter set of rules, such as, basic medical standards and record keeping for all team riders.  These should be, within reason, made available to us, the fans, who can then scrutinise and pick apart the way cyclists do the amazing things they do.  Transparency is surely the only way to go.  Cut out the grey areas, tighten the rules, cut off the rough edges and let's take cycling forward in a clean, honest and moral way.  If that mens that standards suffer for a perios, then so be it, it is a price worth paying.

Cycling must change if it is to survive as an international sport.  Every sport is nothing without the fans and the fans will be leaving cycling in droves if the negative revelations continue.

Chris Froome does an historic double!

I have been watching Grand Tour cycling for more than 30 years now and over that time my appreciation of just how hard any of the three tours (the Giro d’Italia, le Tour de France & la Vuelta a Espana) might be has grown and grown.  Just to complete a tour is an achievement in itself; to win one takes something very special indeed, which is why I never thought I would see the day when one rider could possibly win two of them in one year.  And then we have Chris Froome.

Okay, okay, so I had always considered it possible for an exceptional rider with a proven pedigree to pull it out of the bag and maybe do the Giro, Vuelta double, given that the Giro is in May and the Vuelta at the end of August.  Maybe, just maybe, a rider ‘par excellence’ could peak twice in one season and do that double, but if truth be told the more I watched the tours the less likely this seemed to become.  And of course that particular double might be considered (by cycling purists) to be the lesser of any of the possible double combos, since ‘le Tour’ is still considered by most to be the epitome of the grand tours, la creme de la creme, if you will, thus a double without ‘le tour’ is, thereby, a lesser achievement (?).

                                           Chris Froome winning this year Tour!

Whilst I have rarely heard it said out loud, la Vuelta was, until recently anyway, considered to be the poor relative of the grand tours; the least prestigious of the three perhaps.  Then in 2014 it was taken over by the team that also run ‘le Tour’, namely the Amaury Sport Organisation, who have transformed the impoverished Vuelta into perhaps the most exciting grand tour of them all to watch from a spectators point of view.  The race now attracts many of the sports top names with Froomey being perhaps the biggest draw of all.

Of course ‘le Tour de France’ retains its’ position as the most prestigious cycling crown of all and is still the one that most professionals yearn to be a part of more than any other, but ‘le Tour’ certainly lost some its’ lustre during the Lance Armstrong scandal and the subsequent years of Tour winners who were proven latterly to be cheats.

For me personally, as an avid and daily cyclist, if not a very talented one, and as a long time fan of the sport, the first decade of this century were the dark years; the forgotten years, and even though the sport as whole was to blame for the excessive drug culture that ran riot through the peleton during the Armstrong years and probably for sometime before that, the largest scandals always seemed to resonate around ‘le Tour’ even if the race itself was not to blame.

Thus the organisers (of ‘le tour’) and those at the UCI deserve immense credit for the way the sport has been cleaned up and similarly for the way in which, despite its’ travails, ‘le Tour’ has retained it’s position at the pinnacle of the sport.   Just to be slightly controversial for a minute, I think a fairly large part of that credit and the way in which ‘le Tour’ has resurrected itself, must go down to Chris Froome himself.  Alright, in France he’s not the most popular rider by a long chalk, but then who is if they’re not French?  It’s a sad fact that it’s been a long time since the French have a genuine grand tour contender, the last two years withstanding (with Romain Bardet), and Chris Froome has borne the brunt of the French disenchantment with their chances during the last few years.  Let’s just agree that the French are poor sports if they’re not winning and leave it at that!  But outside of France I think Froome has been an amazing ambassador for cycling.  He is charming, intelligent, well spoken and more than a little bit shy (I would say).  He comes across as extremely humble, likeable and agreeable, but with an iron resolve that is quietly, but firmly stated and as sporting figureheads go I think there are none better at the moment, and perhaps even doubly so given cycling’s recent rocky history.  He is, as the man says, ‘just what the doctor ordered’!

However, the Vuelta is catching up fast and since its’ recent reinvention the race has gone from strength to strength.  This years race was not so much a grand tour as a ‘tour de force’!  Unlike some days at ‘le tour’ there were no ‘so called’ easy days where a breakaway (of riders out of contention for the overall GC win) is allowed to escape and accumulate huge time gaps with the peleton ambling along 10’s of minutes down.  Days such as this in ‘le tour’ seem to be, if not a common occurrence, certainly an expected one, and can make for a poor spectacle from a fans perspective.  But this years Vuelta was all crash, bang, wallop right from the first day to the last.  Even if a break away did manage to gain a significant advantage the peleton was always livened up at some point, more often as not, Alberto Contador, whose aggressive racing style will be sorely missed next season, or by another GC contender (Nibali, Zakarin, Chaves, one of the Yates’s, for example) attacking Froome’s lead.  It really was a great 21 days racing and one that will live long in the memory.  The mountain stages were hard, harsh and relentless providing a wide variety of finishes and giving ample opportunities for riders of all (physical) persuasions to ‘have a go’!

Whilst the 2017 Tour might have been closer, time wise, than the Vuelta, the level of excitement for watching fans was by far the better in the Vuelta.  And all Froome’s critics (yes, he does have them) and detractors who said he was all but finished after such a close Tour in July, are perhaps eating their words now.  Given that there were barely 4 weeks between the end of ‘le tour’ and the start of the Vuelta, it can now be seen that Froome’s preparation and timing was all but perfect.  It is impossible for any athlete in any sport to ‘peak’ twice in such a short time, thus I would suggest that for ‘le tour’ Froome and his team gauged his fitness level in such a way that he had just enough to win in France without really hitting the heights that he had perhaps done in years gone by.  And by doing so they left that extra bit of polish to be buffed up in time for the start of the Vuelta where (I would suggest) he probably hit a slightly higher physical peak than he had previously reached during the 3 weeks of ‘le tour’, thereby allowing him to make history and become the first man in modern times to do a grand tour double.  An absolutely stunning achievement by any measure and one that any cyclist will be hard pushed to equal in the future.

Froomey cementing his win at the Vuelta!

I hope this double win will go some way to cementing Froome’s popularity in the UK where his phenomenal achievements thus far have not (I believe) recieved the recognition they deserve.  He truly is a sporting giant and deserves every accolade no matter what he may go on to win the future.  For me Chris Froome is a true and valiant hero and I, for one, feel privileged to have witnessed this amazing sporting feat.

Cheers Chris!  Until next year.......!  

PS.  As a footnote I would like wish Alberto Contador all the best in whatever he does next and say that I will miss his punchy, agressive riding next year.

Re-runs of the Gilmore Girls! But can my head deal with it? Wow, I need a coffee.....!

"Hey, I've got a great idea!  Want to hear it?"

"I'm not sure, do I?"

"Of course you do!  You love my great ideas!"

"I wouldn't go that far.  Remember that time you suggested we go to the Stars Hollow Halloween Party as Christmas Elves?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay.  I agree, that one didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but who knew that Taylor would be coming as the front end of a donkey and that the back end would like elves so much?  Well okay, you love most of my great ideas then!  And this one's a real belter?"

"A belter, huh?  Okay, hit me with it, but I'm not making any promises!"

"Okay, well, I thought we could stay up, do an all-nighter, back to back episodes of the Gilmore Girls!  There!  Whaddya think?  Told you it was a great idea!"

"I have to admit that as your ideas go this is a real doozie!  But we've got tickets to see that Eagles tribute band in the square."

"I know, but it's a tribute band.  Don't know why they couldn't have booked the real thing!"

"Do they sing that song Hotel Arizona?"

"No, you're thinking of the Singing Sparrows!  Those guys could really chirrup!  The Eagles....nah, not so much!  Only thing is I've got work tomorrow at the Inn."

"In what?"

"The Inn!"

"In what?"

"No, at the Inn.  It's where I work.  The Stars Hollow Independence Inn.  It's like a hotel!"

"So why couldn't they call it the Stars Hollow Independence Hotel?"

"Because it's an Inn, not a hotel!"

"But you just said..."

"I know what I said!  So, we doing this or what?"

"Doing what?"

"The Gilmore Girls?  We're going to need coffee!"

"Lots of it!  Shall we call Luke?"

"Why?  Does he want to watch with us?"

"No, for the coffee!"

"Oh, silly me!  Tell him to bring the whole machine!"

Re-Runs of the Gilmore Girls on Five Star now!  I love it!

Le Tour de France: My Overall Conclusions

Well, the Tour is over for another year and once again the cream rose to the top.  Chris Froome won the GC battle with room to spare, a winning margin of over 4mins between himself and his nearest rival who came in the somewhat unexpected shape of French rider, Roman Bardet (AG2R Mondiale).  If Froome had been widely tipped to win his 3rd Tour prior to it's onset, then Bardet would have been equally unfancied to have been standing next to him on the podium in Paris!  Bardet had been rumoured to have been on the verge of hitting the 'big-time' for a few years now, but few would have predicted (before the Tour started) that he would finish ahead of all the other big names in the field, men like Quintana, Valverde, Porte and Aru, who many (me included) thought would be pushing Froome to ever greater heights in his pursuit of his 3rd Tour victory.  In the end all of the expected challengers fell by the wayside, either unwilling or unable to take the battle to Froome and his relentless Team Sky teammates, leaving the way clear for newcomers like Bardet and Adam Yates (Orica BikeExchange) to leave their stamp on the race.

Chris Froome & the unstoppable Team Sky train reach Paris

If Adam Yates was the new sensation of the Tour, then Bardet was surely the. man who came of age.  His amazing stage win in last years Tour had singled him out as (potentially) the next French Grand Tour challenger, but after so many years of waiting and so many disappointments and nearly men, perhaps we all expected that Bardet, like Rolland, Pinot, Jalabert and Virenque before him (the list goes on), would not fulfil his promise.  But we were wrong.  Unlike the many French nearly men of recent times, Bardet seems to have mastered the ability to ride consistently well.  His improvement has been gradual and regular (e.g. in the Criterium du Dauphine - the big pre-Tour event, won in each of his 3 Tour winning years by Froome - Bardet has finished 12th in 2013; 5th in 2014; 6th in 2015 and 2nd this year) exhibiting much more consistency than that of other French riders who can be brilliant on their day, but then lack the resilience to back it up with a consolidating ride the day after, and the day after that, as is needed if one is to make ones mark on a Grand Tour these days.  Even bad days have to be mastered and losses minimised (as Froome has shown so brilliantly in each of his wins) if one is to come out on top.  A bad day might mean digging deep and limiting ones losses to a couple of minutes, and no more, and Bardet seems to have got this straight in his head and does not leave so much of himself out on the course on one day so that on the next he cannot keep up his challenge.

So whilst not many would have expected Bardet to have finished the 2016 in 2nd place, it wasn't entirely a shock result either.  As to whether he can mount a more serious challenge to Froome next year we will have to wait and see.  With all due respect, I have to say that if it his his aim to win the Tour (and why wouldn't it be?) then remaining at AG2R is perhaps a no-no!

Froome and Team Sky have moved the sport on in the last few years, revolutionising the way things are done in terms of preparation, tactics, planning and professionalism, facts that are beginning to be acknowledged and taken note of within the peleton and team management of their rivals.  Sure Sky have the largest budget, but it's more than that; it's about getting things done in the correct way.  It's about eating right, warming down properly after a long day in the saddle, surveying routes (all of them) and riding them beforehand so there are no surprises en route, and it's about being single-minded in the pursuit of the team's goals (whatever they may be) and making sure everyone in the team (from dietitians, therapist, domestiques and team leaders) is on the same page, working towards the same ends with same dedication and drive as the man who will eventually gain most of the plaudits, and these things are not about money, they are about how much you want it and how much everyone about you wants it.  And perhaps AG2R are still stuck in the glory days of Hinault and all that heady French success to be able to push Bardet to surmount that final step.

I think to mount a serious challenge to Froome, Bardet will have to move to a bigger team, one that is also on an upward trend like himself, and who is looking to emulate Team Sky, but in their own way, by making their own mark.  The more established teams I think will struggle to make the necessary changes in a quick and efficient manner, just because they have been in the mire for longer, and so I believe Bardet should look to one of the newer teams (like Orica or even a Team DiData) who are perhaps a bit more open to shaking things up in order that he can take that next step and give the French what they have waited so long for, a French grand tour winner.

As for Adam Yates, he rode a truly remarkable Tour and, as a fellow Brit, I have to hope that it is not a flash in the pan and we have another British grand tour contender in the making.  I love his attitude; the way he took it all his stride with dignity, a smile and that steely determination that only a few possess.  I do believe that Adam, and perhaps his brother Simon too, will go onto win grand tours because, like Bardet, his rise has been steady, consistent and constantly on an up, and at the age of 23 one has to think there is much, much more to come since most tour winners don't start to reach their physical peaks until their mid- to late 20's.  If he can stay (relatively) injury free, keep progressing and maintain the positive outlook then I have every hope that he will go on to make his mark like Wiggins and Froome before him, as British tour winners.

Other 2016 Tour successes are undoubtedly Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, Tom Dumoulin, Greg van Avermaet, Jarlinson Pantano and Thomas de Gendt, whilst my big Tour disappointments are Nairo Quintana, Fabio Aru and Thibaut Pinot.

Sagan was unstoppable in so many ways; 3 stage wins, his 5th green jersey, his 1st yellow jersey, countless breakaways and relentless domestique on occasions, he is arguably the most complete cyclist of his (and perhaps any) generation and deserves all the plaudits he receives.  Cav came storming back to take a truly amazing 4 stage wins taking him to 2nd on the all time list of Tour stage winners, confirming himself as the top sprinter in this years race and letting everyone, me included, know that he is far from finished.

Tom Dumoulin, with 2 stage wins including the first long TT, once again singled himself out as the man to beat in any TT (now that Tony Martin and Fabian have had their days) as well as in any one off races, be they a classic or otherwise.  As to whether he can convert himself into a grand tour contender we still don't know, but nevertheless he is an exciting and unpredictable rider who adds a great deal to any race.

van Avermaet (BMC) I have included not only because of his stage victory (S5) but because of the fight and panache he showed to keep the yellow jersey once he'd got hold of it!  Jarlinson Pantano and Thomas de Gendt were both unbelievably aggressive riders throughout, both winning stages and, like Sagan, appearing in countless breakaways demonstrating breathtaking resilience and fight whenever challenged.  In this regard Julien Alaphilippe also deserves an honourable mention but didn't quite manage to get himself that all important stage win.

And finally there was Quintana, Aru and Pinot, all of whom had specifically targeted this years Tour as the race for them, and all of whom, for whatever reason, were found wanting.  In the end there are no excuses and none of them performed to their best on any single occasion and as such, left the door open for others to lead the challenge to Froome's dominance.  Maybe next year guys.....!

Overall, it was a great Tour de France, if not in terms of the yellow jersey race, which to be honest Froome never looked losing once he got hold of it, but in the quality and excitement of each of the days racing which seems to become of a higher quality each passing year!  In 2017 can Froome come back to do it again?  Well, you wouldn't bet your house on him not doing it!  He now heads off to Rio and then to the Vuelta (where incidentally he'll be racing quite close by to me for a couple of days....can't wait!) at the end of August and one wouldn't get long odds on him winning both of those either!  But it's already been a long season for Froomey and the Vuelta, like before, might prove to be a step too far!

But here's hoping.....!  Come on Froomey!!