Latest news with #JulianAlaphilippe
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Tour de France - Favourites to battle in the Massif Central on stage 10
Update: Date: 160km to go Title: Post Content: Julian Alaphilippe zips away from the front. He would be a very popular winner of this stage. Update: Date: 163km to go Title: Post Content: Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) immediately accelerates from the flag drop as does Matej Mohoric and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious). Nobody can quite get away yet mind. Update: Date: 165.3km to go Title: Post Content: Racing is under way. Update: Date: 12:26 BST Title: Stage 10 profile Content: Normally, this would almost certainly be a rest day but it is Bastille Day so a big day of climbing is incoming instead. The 4,400m of elevation gain across seven category-two climbs and a category-three ascent is likely to put the sprinters in trouble almost from the start on a stage that looks made for the breakaway specialists. There will likely be a strong posse of home riders trying to get in any group heading up the road with the objective of becoming the first French stage winner on the national holiday since Warren Barguil in 2017. The first trip into the mountains should provide a decent shake up of the GC standings although it unlikely to cause any of the main favourites issues. Update: Date: 12:24 BST Title: Post Content: The roll out is under way and a huge chunk of riders look primed behind the race director's car waiting for the flag drop and a chance to zip off up the road. Update: Date: 12:20 BST Title: Bonjour Content: Welcome to our coverage of stage 10 of the Tour de France as the race heads 165.3 km from Ennezat to Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy. It's Bastille Day, we're in the mountains, it should be the first big showdown in the battle for the yellow jersey and a breakaway will try to get up the road. What's not to like? This should be a cracker.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: stage six from Bayeux to Vire Normandie
Update: Date: 2025-07-10T10:29:59.000Z Title: Stage six: Bayeux to Vire, 201km Content: Here's a look at today's stage, Thursday 10 July: Bayeux to Vire, 201.5km, with William Fotheringham's preview: The Suisse Normande isn't widely known among cyclists now, but back in the day local amateurs spoke in awe of races over this area's leg-breaking climbs. The fun starts in the final 70km, with three third-category climbs, before a final little brute, the Côte de Vaudry, 4km from the finish. French fans will be hoping Julian Alaphilippe can throw back the years as this would have been made for him in his pomp. 🚲 Stage 6 / Étape 6 🚲🚩 @BayeuxOfficiel 🏁 Vire Normandie📏 201.5 km⏰ 12:35 CEST > 17:26 CEST⛰ 5x3️⃣, 1x4️⃣💚 km 22,2#TDF2025🔎 More details and stage description on our official website Update: Date: 2025-07-10T10:25:15.000Z Title: Preamble Content: At 201.5km, today's stage six from Bayeux to Vire Normandie is the second longest stage of this year's Tour. It's also a punchy stage with a total elevation gain of 3,550m – that's greater than the third week stage that ends with a climb of Mont Ventoux. There are six categories climbs on the route today; all category three except the final Cote de Vaudry. And the finish is steep, averaging just over 10% for 700 metres. The peloton are scheduled to rollout at 12.35pm CEST (11.35am BST) and the finish is estimated to be at about 5.14pm CEST (4.14pm BST). So how might today look? A stage like this could be one for a good breakaway. Of course, where there's a climb, Tadej Pogacar won't be far away. It'll be interesting to see how Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo Visma-Lease a Bike play today after yesterday's disappointing time trial result. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is one to watch having grown up in Normandy; he knows the terrain and climbs well. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin‑Deceuninck) is a favourite too among pundits. As always I'd love to hear your predictions so please email me your thoughts, questions and guesses. While we wait for the live TV coverage to kick off, here's Jeremy Whittle's stage five race report:
New York Times
08-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How has France's relationship with the Tour de France changed after 40 years without overall victory?
There goes Thomas Voeckler on the Col du Galibier in 2011, his tongue waggling from side to side as he battles to save the yellow jersey. Andy Schleck would take it from him. What about Jean-Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet, battling against the might of Team Sky in 2014? The British team was too strong. Advertisement Now here's Julian Alaphilippe, improbably winning the 2019 time trial with his rainbow wheels, extending his GC advantage. The same year, Thibaut Pinot underscored his own credentials after winning atop of the Tourmalet. Just a few days later, their challenges would end after a mudslide and freak knee injury respectively. These are just some of the French names who have come close to winning the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault was the last French winner in 1985. Go back further, and you can add the names of Jean-Francois Bernard, ambushed while leading in 1987; Laurent Fignon, beaten by just eight seconds by Greg LeMond in 1989; and Richard Virenque, ejected in disgrace as one of the favourites in 1998. It has been 40 years since a French winner, half a good, long lifetime. In terms of domestic success in a national institution, the best comparison is the 77-year wait for a British men's singles winner at Wimbledon before Andy Murray ended the drought in 2013. There is a tradition at the Tour de France that, on the Wednesday before the race, children turn journalists to ask riders questions. This year, there were four French riders — Lenny Martinez, Benjamin Thomas, Anthony Turgis, and Alaphilippe. It was a mark of time that the fathers of those cyclists were just children when the nation celebrated their last victory. It is sometimes taken as a given that France's lack of success has inhibited the nation's enthusiasm for the Tour de France. Not a bit of it. At the team presentation in Lille, thousands chant three letters — FDJ — the red, white and blue-clad squad who serve as the de facto national team. One day later, fans climb onto roofs to catch a glimpse of Alaphilippe, a veteran now at Tudor Racing, but still a national star. His name is enunciated into three syllables too — 'JU-LI-AN.' Advertisement On Stage Two, Boulogne-sur-Mer is just across the Channel from England, but what is striking is the cycling culture, a cross-section of French society, small children to grandmothers, arms reaching towards the sky to catch items from that day's caravan. Even amidst the deluge of that day's start, the small town of Lauwin-Planque is overrun by pac-a-macs and polka-dot umbrellas at the race start. Rain cannot permeate part of the national psyche. 'When it started, they would close the factories so that local workers could cycle to watch the race,' explains Pierre Carrey, Tour de France expert and cycling correspondent for French newspaper Le Temps. 'It was the same for families — because it was July, it clearly meant it was the holidays. 'People do not even necessarily care about the riders — they care about being together. And their tales always start the same: 'It began when I was a child with my grandfather…' So the Tour de France is a transmission, a passing on of tradition.' Another tradition? The notion that the French public has a soft spot for a loser, more so than a winner, dating back to the 1960s when the metronomic Jacques Anquetil raced for the maillot jaune against Raymond Poulidor, a farmer's son from rural France. Poulidor, affectionately nicknamed 'PouPou' was by far the more popular. But the record? Anquetil retired with five Tour de France wins. Poulidor had none. He soon developed another nickname 'The Eternal Second' after finishing on the podium on eight of the 13 Tours he entered without winning. 'I think the public don't like it when one rider is too strong,' says EF-Education First's Cedrine Kerbaol. Last summer, she became the first Frenchwoman to win a stage of the Tour de France Femmes. The 24-year-old has the talent to one day be an overall winner. 'I think they like it when it's authentic, when the break wins, when it's fun. I have the impression that people don't always prefer the winner, but the person in second or third, you know?' While French riders have had success in Monuments and the World Championships, stage races and Grand Tours have been a whole different proposition. Last year, there was no French rider in the top 10 of the Tour, whilst it is now seven years since the nation won a bunch sprint at the Tour, with Arnaud Demare in Pau back in 2018. Advertisement And when Kevin Vauquelin was overhauled in the final time-trial of June's Tour de Suisse by Joao Almeida, it confirmed that there had still been no French winner of a World Tour stage race since Christophe Moreau in the 2007 Dauphine. This drought is even more staggering than the 40-year wait for a yellow jersey in Paris. In the interim, riders from Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland have won eight stage races between them. Part of this story is a decline of traditional cycling superpowers as the peloton has globalised. It has been 11 years since a Spanish rider won the Vuelta a Espana (Alberto Contador), and nine years since an Italian won the Giro (Vincenzo Nibali). Belgium, a country which, per capita at least, is more cycling-obsessed than France, has not had a Tour winner since Lucien van Impe in 1976. But given the length of time, the race's place in the French psyche, and the nation's huge size — almost 70 million — France's wait for yellow feels worse. 'It's a terrible observation to make, but it's one you can't avoid,' France's last champion, Hinault, told L'Equipe before this year's Tour. 'There are no grand champions in France capable of winning. We don't have that big, 1000cc motorbike that can make a difference, just the 750cc model. 'We have lost the habit of seeing ourselves as possible winners, we've passed on the torch to others. It's an anomaly in the history of our sport.' Why? It is undeniable that the country's amateur scene has begun to dry up — with changes in France's rural society, highlighted by depopulation in what was traditionally the working-class sport of the countryside, one factor. But another factor is the pressure that is placed on the riders who do emerge. Romain Bardet has come as close as any rider to winning the race — finishing second and third respectively in 2016 and 2017. On retiring earlier this season, he spoke about having had 'the feeling of having lived in a tunnel for 14 years'. Former team-mate Warren Barguil is competing in his 11th consecutive Tour. Tagged as a possible French winner during his junior career, and the winner of both the mountains jersey and two individual stages in 2017, he empathises with Bardet. 'My life is different to Romain,' he says. 'But I was really impressed how he handled it. And I understand why he stopped, not soon, but earlier than me. He was really giving 110 per cent. I totally understand what he means by the tunnel. I hope he will enjoy retirement now.' Advertisement But possibly the greatest pressure was borne by Pinot, at FDJ his entire career, who came of age as a 21-year-old in 2012 with a win over the Col de la Croix. Over the next 11 years, his form fluctuated like a mountain stage profile — from riding like the world's best climber, to blowing up and losing 30 minutes. In many ways, France didn't care. Pinot was loved regardless — an open character whose vulnerabilities were visible, he was an ordinary boy from the countryside who grew up in front of a nation. He kept goats for pleasure, and refused to move to Switzerland for tax reasons, citing his willingness to contribute towards public services. But the question of the Tour dogged his entire career. The front page of L'Equipe one day after his 2012 breakthrough? 'But can he win the Tour?' 'Pinot's first team was AC Bisontine, which was funded by Jean de Gribaldy,' says Carrey, 'His motto was, 'We play football, but we ride our bikes. We don't play cycling.' It was this suffer-fest, the idea you had to suffer to win. But (Tadej) Pogacar doesn't speak about suffering, he speaks about having fun — and this culture can only come from outside France.' Pinot's suffering was etched on the lines of his face, win or lose. There is a saying in France, 'Lécher, Lâcher, Lyncher' — to lick (to build up), to let go, to lynch. Pinot's fortunes in the press, as Tour after Tour were ruined by crashes, injuries or form, embodied it. 'Already with all that weighing on me, I don't dare think what would have happened if I had won the Tour,' Pinot told Le Temps in 2023, just before retirement. 'Overall people are respectful, but sometimes it only takes one person to ruin everything. Every time I go to a restaurant, someone asks me for a selfie, and I feel people's gazes. 'It's not much but I think I hate being the centre of attention. As time goes by, I become wilder and wilder. I'm like an animal that's been scared once and stays outside forever.' The Athletic's request to speak to Pinot was declined, citing his desire to remain out of the limelight. This season, the form of 18-year-old Lyonnais Paul Seixas, eighth in the Criterium du Dauphine, has led to rabid excitement in France. A good time-triallist, a precocious climber, he is a clear successor to something, but to what exactly? Hinault's glory or Pinot's mantle? 'He's going to have a lot of pressure to be the next Bernard Hinault,' says Barguil. 'It's the same whenever anyone has a good path of results — Hinault. But he's doing really well so far. Let's see what he will bring. I hope he will be the next French winner of the Tour.' Speaking to The Athletic after last month's Dauphine, Seixas touched on the expectations which others had set upon him. 'I keep my distance from what people say,' he says. 'I just take pleasure on my bike. I know I have no pressure at the moment, as in, I don't put pressure on myself. It's just about keeping the passion of cycling, because it means so much to me. I know what everyone says, of course, but it doesn't touch me. Advertisement 'I know also that it's good people believe in me. Of course, this will change, it's not going to stay forever.' Seixas has already spoken to Bardet about dealing with the pressure of when he podiumed at the Tour — 'I'm not at his level, but it makes me think about how I can apply it even to my young career' — but says the most useful advice came from his directeur sportif. 'He told me to keep the serenity in me that I always have. You need to stay calm in every situation, because you lose so much energy if you start to panic. It works on everything, outside of cycling too. You will just make better decisions.' Seixas has a chance of becoming France's next national hero. Potential, undoubtedly, but still just a chance, given the pitfalls he will need to navigate. And plus, anyway, doesn't France love second place more than they love winners? Carrey is not so sure. 'People in France love Zinedine Zidane,' he argues. 'Is Zidane a loser? They love Leon Marchand. Marchand won the Olympics. They love Antoine Dupont, the rugby player. Are they losers? No, they're not. It's a story we love to tell ourselves.' For Kerbaol, it is less about winning and losing, and more about how an athlete makes the French feel. A rider who wins with panache is better than a rider who doesn't, but if you aren't going to win, better to lose with panache than with nothing at all. 'We don't like invisible people,' she says. 'We like human people. We don't like robots, but people that show emotion, who make them think about themselves.' And this is the root of it. Pinot was loved not because he lost — and he won lots too — but was loved because he was Pinot. He was like Poulidor because he was an open-hearted man of the rural people, not because he became second. France does love winners. They just don't have one yet.
Times
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
Oscar Onley: Before some Tour stages I thought I'd be lucky to stay in race
About half way up the rough concrete slopes of the Castaneda in the Swiss Alps near Italy, Oscar Onley looked behind and saw that João Almeida was at the back of the group. 'This is sometimes normal for him but the way he was riding recently, he's been quite dominant,' Onley tells The Times, 'so I sensed that maybe he wasn't on his best day.' The 22-year-old from Kelso increased his pace and forced the Portuguese rider to chase. No one in the select group could hold Onley's wheel except the two-times road world champion Julian Alaphilippe who soon dropped back into the pack. Almeida had to attack out of the group in order to bridge across — a stage win of the Tour de Suisse was up for grabs. 'When he caught me I just focused first on keeping up with him and then just trying to save a little bit for the sprint at the end,' Onley says. And it worked. With about 200m to go to the line, the Scotsman launched and Almeida, having been forced to exert himself in the chase, could not quite answer. Onley had won stage five ahead of one of the top riders in the world and a key lieutenant of Tadej Pogacar for the Tour de France — he had played it perfectly. 'I'm always quite consistent but now I felt like I made that next step up,' Onley, speaking from Andorra days before heading to Lille for the start of his second Tour de France on Saturday, says. 'I know Almeida's level quite well so it was good to be a bit closer to him this time. That gave me confidence that I was getting closer to these top guys.' Onley finished the race in third place overall, 1min 58sec down on Almeida, and, as well as his stage win, took four further podiums. A good omen, then, before the Tour, where he will lead his team, Picnic PostNL, and a sign that perhaps a new British stage-racing talent has arrived. Like so many others, it was the Tour de France that got Onley into riding. His mother would watch it every year on TV and when he was old enough Onley wanted to take part in the ten-mile time trials hosted by local cycling club Kelso Wheelers, conveniently starting practically outside his house. Having made friends at the races he began to ride at weekends before competing around Scotland at under-12 to under-16 level before taking his racing national. 'I was never very good when I was a youth,' Onley says. 'When I turned junior and started going to Belgium and France is when I first started to get more results.' This was something the 5ft 8in Onley put down to his size. 'Obviously I'm still quite small now,' he says, 'but I was a lot smaller than some of the other guys when I was younger. There weren't many courses that suited me.' But someone of his size was made for climbing and as a junior Onley would find success in the lower levels before stepping up to Development Team DSM in 2021. Just two years later he was in the elite version of the squad now known as Team Picnic PostNL and in 2024, perhaps only a decade after watching the Tour de France on TV and deciding to try a time-trial, Onley lined up in Florence for the start of his first Tour. There had been glimmers of performance throughout that season, including a stage win at the Tour Down Under and several top-ten finishes, but injuries had plagued him throughout and he would ultimately finish the Tour in 39th place, but with a strong fifth-place finish on a mountainous stage 17. 'The process of racing for three weeks was quite different to a one-week race,' Onley says. 'You're never going to feel good, that's what I realised last year. There were some days I woke up and I thought I'd be lucky just to make it through the stage, but then what you don't realise is everyone is thinking the same and as soon as you get on the bike suddenly you're out the front trying to get in the break and you can be competitive even if you feel minutes away from pulling out.' This year he has had a cleaner run without injury getting in the way of racing or training. His form at the Tour de Suisse was not a surprise to him; he knew if he had better luck then he would be in excellent shape. 'I'm more confident but I know how much bigger and just how much harder the Tour is compared to the Tour de Suisse or any other race you do in the year really,' Onley says. 'I'm not going in expecting to be fighting for top five on the general classification [GC]. I'm quite realistic. I'm confident in the shape that I have now and everything I've done so far this year.' So, then, the young Scot will be hunting for stages. However that is something easier said than done in the modern age of cycling. Not so long ago, the peloton was less interested in stage victories, GC was all that mattered and so breakaways took more wins than they do now. But with the all-out, full-speed racing style ushered in by the likes of Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel since 2020, fewer and fewer breakaways make the distance. If a peloton is moving at full speed, how can anyone get away from it? 'You're not really in control of which days the breakaways are allowed to win,' Onley says. 'That's what I realised last year. There were days [UAE Team Emirates-XRG] decided that the break could win and that's how it went. You've just got to go all out, every day and hope it sticks at some point.' But if a rider goes all out, every day, there is no guarantee when they make it into a breakaway they will have the energy to fight for victory. Onley says sometimes you often have to go on days that do not suit you and you also have to sit days out — a gamble but a necessary one. 'If I'm realistic there's 21 stages and 170-odd riders all trying to go for stage wins so obviously that is a goal,' he says. 'But if I can say at the end of the tour that I gave it everything and still come away without a stage win . . . I won't be happy but I won't be disappointed.' Onley has a lot of time to consider what sort of rider he will be, but his early career suggests an excellent climber and a rider who races intelligently. Working out that Almeida was on a bad day is part of what it takes to be a great stage racer, so is being brave enough to strike at that point. The path for Onley is perhaps an obvious one, then, from watching the Tour de France with his mum, Sharon, to attempting to win it — but he is in no rush. 'At some point for sure I'll give it a go in a grand tour,' Onley says. 'I'll probably start with the Giro d'Italia or Vuelta a España first. To try it in the Tour is a big step but there's time to figure it out.' In the meantime, there are two riders who reign supreme over the Tour de France and look set to do so again this year: Pogacar and Vingegaard, winners for the past five editions. 'The way Pogacar's looking, it's going to be hard for anyone to beat him,' Onley says. 'But Vingegaard is also on a very high level. I don't think the other races in the season reflect his level. When he comes to the Tour de France, he always manages to step up. But a lot can happen in three weeks so it's never over, especially before it's started.' Starts SaturdayTV ITV4, 11.45am
