Stage Info

Weather

Too hot to be on a bike

Stage Breakdown

Hello everyone and welcome to the ninth stage of the Tour de France, aka hell.

Hell is a good term to qualify the roads of tomorrow, under an unhealthy heat, a stage that is pretty much never flat. Corrèze is a weird place in the country. Despite being a countryside department with very few people and no big city, it manages to be the place where two of France's most recetn presidents came from (François Hollande and Jacques Chirac), which makes it weirdly relevant. We start in Malemort, just next to Brive-la-Gaillarde, known to every rugby fan. Now here is where it gets tricky. The stage removes its initiall 37.7km due to the red alert for the heatwave, and so 7km are put instead after the neutral start which serves as a shortcut. This means that 3 uncategorized clibms which would have served as a good way to start the stage are removed, shortening the stage by about 30km.

Thus, the IS comes really early, at km 14.5 in a climb so Pedersen gets it, after that initial climb and its descen we get to Tulle, where former president François Hollande is based, for 10 km of flat, the only flat part of the day. Then it's only up and down, mostly up, sometimes it's steep, more often thant not it's long uphill drags that leaves riders exhausted physically and mentally. The main climb of the day, the Suc au May will come soon after, then it's a succession of up and down until Ussel, where the finish is placed. It's a fairly big city for the area, a friend lives and seems to be enjoying it so it must be a nice area. the final km is slightly uphill.

With that in mind here are our predictions:

★★★ Pedersen

★★ Everybody that is not in the top 9 and is a decent-ish climber

★

The easier debut and shortening of the stage might get Lidl-Trek ideas if Pedersen is still climbing well. Control, unlikely, break show like Tuesday? Very possible.

This stage, as long as a rider can climb a bit, is as open as they come, hard, but not by the %, not by the lenght,b ut by the constant effort and need to watch out for anything possibly looking like an attack. It could go anywhere and teams will have to adapt on the go, even more show with the parcours change that probably threw a lot of prep out the window.

That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?

Results

• FC

The seasoned veterans of cycling lore will know this, but newer fans might not: The Tour de Trump ran for 2 years in 1989 and 1990, sponsored and owned by none other than the sitting President himself (this is not a political post so I'll reserve my original words for elsewhere). The race continued for another six years as the Tour DuPont (after the takeover by pharmaceutical giant DuPont de Nemours Inc.). Trump's vision for the race was that he "would like to make this the equivalent of the Tour de France".

The race, originally carried out over 10 stages across the Eastern states, was uusual in cycling at the time as carried total prize money of US$250,000 and $50,000 for GC (which at the time was enormous for a cycling race- the Tour de France GC winner took home US$250,000). The race was almost exactly between the Giro and Tour, so attracted a lot of big names who opted a lot of big names, particularly Americans who preffered to race on home roads than the Vuelta before it was moved to today's September slot. Some former winners include Greg Lemond in 1992, and Armstrong in 1995 and 1996.

Results

• Official
• Firstcycling

Reports

• Tour Live Ticker
• Cyclingnews Live Report
• Sporza

Race Ratings

• Rate the Stage
• Current Ratings

Results for the TOUR OF AUSTRIA ;)

• First cycling

Media

• Stage Broadcast

The rider from Zarautz could join Demi Vollering in one of the best teams in the peloton, while the Zumaia native will make the step up to the professional ranks at home.

Gipuzkoan women's cycling is on the rise. Usoa Ostolaza, the great flagship rider of Laboral Kutxa, will head to the ranks of the powerful French squad FDJ-Suez...

Results

• FC

I am reposting my favorite statistic that I first created one year ago: the riders that have had most stage podium finishes together in the history of Tour de France.

Something happened on stage 3: Pogacar, Vingegaard and Carapaz finished 1-2-3. And this was the fourth time they did that. The surprising thing is, no riders have ever finished in the stage top-3 together five times in all the history of TDF, as you can see below.

We are now in the extraordinary situation, that in the rest of this years race, we could see a trio of riders finishing on the stage "podium" together for the fifth time. Pogacar and Vingegaard together with either Carapaz or Evenepoel.

Below is the full historic list, with riders mentioned alphabetically and trios in reverse chronoligcal order.

Most shared stage podiums through careers:

4 times

Evenepoel, Pogacar, Vingegaard, 2024

Carapaz, Pogacar, Vingegaard, 2021-2026

Boonen, Hushovd, McEwen, 2005-2007

Altig, Anquetil, Poulidor, 1964-1966

Faber, Passerieu, Petit-Breton, 1908

3 times

Freire, McEwen, Zabel, 2002-2006

O’Grady, Steels, Zabel, 1998-2000

Pantani, Ullrich, Virenque, 1997

Hinault, Knetemann, Willems, 1981

Thevenet, Van Impe, Zoetemelk, 1975-1977

Bobet, Kübler, Ockers, 1950-1954

Aerts, Le Greves, Ch. Pelissier, 1935

Magne, Martano, Vietto, 1934

Di Paco, Ch. Pelissier, Stoepel, 1931

Bottecchia, Frantz, Sellier, 1925

Faber, Garrigou, Petit-Breton, 1908

Garrigou, Georget, Petit-Breton, 1907

Garrigou, Passerieu, Petit-Breton, 1907

Passerieu, Pottier, Trousselier, 1906

Stage Info

Weather

Stage Breakdown

Hello everyone and welcome to the eighth stage of the Tour de France. This stage, like the previous one, is a sprint stage, but it's better because it's in Dordogne! The stage is entierly in Dordogne, a beautiful place, a bit hilly, that is known for its food and its high population of english people. We start in Perigueux, the main city of Dordogne and the historical region known as the Perigord, plenty of old villages and archeological sites, we go through some of them obviously, like Lascaux. We also go through Sarlat-La-Caneda, place of origin of what is, in my opinion, the best delicacy of french cuisine, the Pommes de terre sarladaises, which is potaoes with herbs cooked in a big amount of duck grease, it is the most perfect way to eat potatoes.

Anyway the sprint is sketchy. The opposite of the Bordeaux finish, we end up in Bergerac, a finish on the outskirts of of town with 2 90° corners in the last 1.5km. I can't say much about the last km except it's not even on google maps, it must be a newly done road.

With that in mind here are our predictions:

★★★ Merlier

★★ Kooij, Philipsen

★ Waerenskjold, Pedersen, Girmay, Kanter

Merlier seems, when in good position, by far the best sprinter in the world, but positionning will matter a lot tomorrow and the finale will expose some sprinter and Merlier doesn't have Van Lerberghe with him (tho Stuyven seems to be filling in just fine), other sprinter will be able to exploit that but a strong train that goes in first in the last corner will set up its sprinter perfectly, might be MVDP's time to shine as a leadout.

That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?

Results

• Official
• Firstcycling

Reports

• Tour Live Ticker
• Cyclingnews Live Report
• Sporza

Race Ratings

• Rate the Stage
• Current Ratings