A guide to the Tour de France

[Speicher]

Last year I had the guide from the relevant issue of CycleSport, but have since cancelled my subscription. I have looked on-line and in their July issue, out soon I presume, (but the web site does not say when), there is no mention of a Tour Guide.

Does anyone know if they are still doing one? or are they not doing it for some reason? Or can you suggest a site to get the same amount of detail for each stage? When does it come out? (Am I asking too many questions?)

I like to have a good guide to the stages so that I know which ones will be worth recording, ie the Mountain stages. Thank you if you can offer some help on this.

 

[Dayvo]

There's bound to be a supplement in ProCycling.

 

[oxbob]

http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co....535&id=30052&custid=22@06@200973697@167902491

 

[oxbob]

http://www.letour.fr/indexus.html

 

[Speicher]

Thank you Oxbob. I had been searching for Procycling, as Dayvo also suggested, but only found the general annual subscription sites. I might try to find out how long it would take to reach me by post.

 

[oxbob]

Whsmith are stocking it

 

[Speicher]

I think I will have to ring the largest Whsmiths round here and ask them if they have one in stock. The subscriptions department, which I rang just now, say it takes seven to ten days at least to be sent out. Must have some very slow computers in their department.

 

[Skip Madness]

Last year I had the guide from the relevant issue of CycleSport, but have since cancelled my subscription. I have looked on-line and in their July issue, out soon I presume, (but the web site does not say when), there is no mention of a Tour Guide.

The guide is inclusive within this month's edition of Cycle Sport - it isn't supplementary. It is roughly the usual - not as in depth as I would like but satisfactory.

I like to have a good guide to the stages so that I know which ones will be worth recording, ie the Mountain stages. Thank you if you can offer some help on this.

The key stages are the following, and ones you should definitely record are in bold:

Stage 01 - Individual time trial in and around Monaco over 15.5km, lumpy parcours and long enough to be significant on GC.

Stage 04 - Team time trial over 39km starting and finishing in Montpellier - significant for GC but not the most riveting viewing.

Stage 07 - Mountain-top finish at Arcalís. Not the best summit finish around but challenging enough to provide some shakes. Maybe.

Stages 08 - Contains major mountains but they come a long way from the finish, so big classification shifts are unlikely.

Stage 09 - Very similar to stage 08.

Stage 13 - Tricky climbs towards the back end could see a spicy finish, but not up there with the big mountain stages.

Stage 15 - Mountain-top finish at Verbier. Similar to the Arcalís stage but coming two weeks in, it will probably see more attacks and better racing as some will be lasting the distance better than others.

Stage 16 - Two huge climbs and a finish at the bottom of the descent of the second. This stage will be made by whether or not the riders want it - the climbs are there for a serious attack but we could see conservative, dull riding as in the similar stage of last year's Tour which went over the Lombarda and Bonette.

Stage 17 - The queen stage. Five major climbs, the last two acting as a brutal combination. At the top of the last climb there remain 15km of descending. We should see huge attacks here.

Stage 18 - Scenic 40.5km, mostly flat individual time trial around lake Annecy. Will be very important in the sort-out before Ventoux. Although you won't want to record it if you find watching time trials boring, obviously.

Stage 19 - There is a reasonable climb which tops out 20km from the finish, but moves on GC are unlikely.

Stage 20 - Mountain-top finish at Mont Ventoux. Further description not really required.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Stage 20[/B] - Mountain-top finish at Mont Ventoux. Further description not really required.

Indeed! This is potentially the most exciting Tour for a long time and everything could change on this stage (depending on how close things still are).

 

[Speicher]

Thank you Skip Madness. When I was in Tecso's yesterday they had no Cycle Sport issues left. Has the latest one (that you have) just come out? IIRC it comes out about the 22nd.

I used to get CycleSport each month, but it was a casualty of economic cutbacks for me.

Thank you ever so for putting that list up for me. I like the climbs and perhaps more so, the downhill sections, if the motorbike can keep up with a small group of descenders.

 

[Skip Madness]

When I was in Tecso's yesterday they had no Cycle Sport issues left. Has the latest one (that you have) just come out? IIRC it comes out about the 22nd.

I've had it for a couple of weeks, I presume it is just the regular issue since the cover price is the same and it features a small amount of non-Tour stuff at the start, although their website isn't updated so I don't know. It says on the cover, "Off sale July 7."

It looks like this anyway:

 

[User269]

http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co....535&id=30052&custid=22@06@200973697@167902491

N'oubliez pas.....je suis desole, I've just got back from a long trip to France (pretentious, moi?), ......Don't forget, all the bike magazines do TdF guides, but as oxbob points out, there's only one official guide. All the guides are full of out of date nonsense (eg; how will Tom Boonen do? Not knowing he's just been banned). The official guide is generally imho the best, but for accurate up to date info (ie; who's actually riding and in what team etc.) you have to look in Cycling Weekly the thursday after the tour starts. Or just go (as oxbob also pointed out) to the TdF website. The only trouble is you can't read it in the bath or WC (not safely anyway).
oxbob for PM I say!

 

[oxbob]

Steady on lad!

 

[dmoan]

I used to get CycleSport each month, but it was a casualty of economic cutbacks for me.

Thank you ever so for putting that list up for me. I like the climbs and perhaps more so, the downhill sections, if the motorbike can keep up with a small group of descenders.

Speicher

I have the TDF 2009 supplements provided by CyclingPlus (rubbish) and Procycling (not bad), as well as the offical TDF programme. I will be in Spain for the first week and will catch the stage finish in Barcelona and the grande depart the next morning, so I have more guides to this year's race than anyone reasonably requires!

You are welcome to either supplement (or both). If you are interested, PM me your address and I will pop them in the post today. I am home sick with man-flu, but the nearest postbox is within reasonable staggering distance...

 

[Speicher]

Thanks to all who replied to this thread, and especially to Dmoan for his very kind offer.

I asked Procycling to send me their Guide in the post, which should arrive the weekend the Tour starts.

I am, of-course, waiting for the Fantasy Tour de France website to start up, Velogames. So that I can scrutinise the form of riders choose my favourites (except Alejandro Valverde ) and achieve a place higher than Dayvo or Aperitif not be last.