19 July 2011

Watching the Tour de France - Stage 16

Week three of the TDF

Down 28 riders after 2 weeks of racing, the 2011 Tour de France continues into week three with 170 riders racing towards Italy (first!) and then into the French Alps and on to Paris. List of Riders and Withdrawals. Vino has emotionally retired from cycling. The remaining riders are rested and ready, but quite wet after the heavy rain this morning. There is much talk about bad weather in the Alps, and how that could affect the race. Yesterday there was snow on the Galibier (and a rescue of cyclists). Anything could happen this week in the Tour de France.
Live link online to watch Stage 16 Tour de France on Eurosport (x out both ads, no need to download).
Watching the time gaps Gaps on LeTour website and live report CyclingNews live reports.

Where are we?
Remaining Stages (enjoy it while you can): click on the red arrow to transfer to stage information
16  Medium mountains Tuesday 19 July Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Gap 162.5 km
17 High Mountains Wednesday 20 July Gap > Pinerolo 179 km
18 High Mountains Thursday 21 July Pinerolo > Galibier Serre-Chevalier 200.5 km
19 High Mountains Friday 22 July Modane Valfréjus > Alpe-d’Huez 109.5 km
20 Individual time-trial Saturday 23 July Grenoble > Grenoble 42.5 km
21 En ligne Sunday 24 July Créteil > Paris Champs-Élysées 95 km
It was fun reading about yesterday's rest day through the tweets of the riders at the Tour de France. The major themes of their day off in Département de la Drôme were good hotels, great food and better wine. Makes me want to go to France! I especially enjoy following @laurendtendam, @Mark_Renashaw, and the Fabianese at @F_Cancellara, also @MattRabin and so many of the others at the TDF this year. 

If you have missed any of the stage entries or photography by O''Nev Ciclismo Fotografia definitely go back and read his blog as he travels along with the Tour de France this year. Also Tobe's Blog, Toby is an Australian Physiotherapist on the Garmin-Cervelo staff. Worth a look over Cycling Tips blog recent TDF posts. And of course Hardly Serious with Jens Voigt. Breakfast with Bernie, and reread Paddy Sweeney's take on Mark Cavendish climbing, I don’t go so well uphill but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it.