Unfortunately @majkaformal will not start stage 17 of the #TDF2022 today.
👨⚕️ Dr. Adrian Rotunno (Medical Director): "Majka sustained a strain injury to his thigh after some mechanical trouble on stage 16 when his chain broke. pic.twitter.com/kiNomp9wUG
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) July 20, 2022
Tadej Pogačar’s bid to win the Tour de France has been dealt a further blow after his key mountain lieutenant, Polish climber Rafał Majka, was forced to abandon the race after sustaining muscle damage on the final climb of yesterday’s stage.
As he set the pace for Pogačar on the Mur de Péguère, Majka’s chain snapped, lurching his sideways and tearing his right quadricep.
“Majka sustained a strain injury to his thigh after some mechanical trouble on stage 16 when his chain broke,” said UAE Team Emirates’ doctor Adrian Rotunno.
“This resulted in a high-grade partial thickness tear of his right quadriceps muscle, and unfortunately due to the muscle damage is unable to ride.”
Majka’s withdrawal compounds UAE’s misery at this year’s Tour and leaves Pogačar with only three teammates – Mikkel Bjerg, Brandon McNulty and Marc Hirschi – ahead of two decisive days in the Pyrenees.
Vegard Stake Laengen and George Bennett were forced to abandon after testing positive for Covid earlier in the race, while an ill Marc Soler finished outside the time limit yesterday after vomiting and riding just ahead of the broom wagon for most of the stage to Foix.
Deep down, we all knew it wouldn’t be long until three-time world champion Peter Sagan joined the blockchain with his own personal NFT collection.
After all, this is a man who has spent years trying to flog ski goggles to cycling fans.
So it was no surprise when Project Fuerza – the brainchild of cycling coach Hunter Allen, currently selling non-fungible power files from the likes of Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas – announced earlier this week that the Slovakian star would be the latest pro cyclist to ignore the cycling community’s general antipathy towards the environmentally damaging effects of the blockchain by becoming the latest face of the group’s “power and biometric data-inspired NFT art programme”.
Apparently, these digital images will incorporate both Sagan’s power data from key moments in his career and a number of styles, including pop-art and modern impressionism, as well as Batman-style graphics (“Pow!”). I wouldn’t expect anything less, really.
“I love how my Fuerza NFTs have each been able to capture not only some of my passions outside of cycling, but also blow me away with the creativity of taking my power data and turning it into art,” says Sagan of the pieces, the originals of which start from around $5,000.
“So many of my pieces are just so beautiful and I am excited to share these with my fans.”
While Sagan’s foray into NFTs is a no-brainer, Bernard Hinault’s venture into the crypto world is more of a head scratcher.
Nevertheless, the Badger – undoubtedly an expert in all things blockchain – has launched his own NFT collection based on his five Tour de France victories, designed by his friend and mononym artist Greg (presumably not LeMond, though it would be interesting to imagine what the American – who famously defecated in a box of postcards featuring Hinault’s face at the 1986 Tour – could do with the Badger’s NFTs…).
But the famously taciturn Hinault isn’t just selling cool drawings of his younger self – the lucky/well-heeled/foolish [delete as appropriate] fan who forks out £10,000 for the 1982 edition NFT also gets to spend a day with the feisty Breton, including a spin on the bike with one of the greatest cyclists of all time (you’ll have to make it to his house yourself, but that’s another matter).
The 1978 NFT gets you 15 minutes of Le Blaireau’s valuable time on Zoom, while 1979 comes with an autograph, for the princely sum of £600. Bargain.
It’s almost enough to make you ride headfirst into a line of striking shipyard workers and start throwing wild punches…
Could the @UCI_cycling please agree that every rider using the expressions "day by day" or "still a long way to Paris" should be handed a 20 points penalty? @LeTour#TDF2022
— Francois Thomazeau (@sauveurmerlan) July 20, 2022
If those were the rules, the Yates twins would never see Paris…
The real Tour begins tomorrow Francois because the Tour is the Tour
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) July 20, 2022
🚨🚨🚨🚨CUIDADO!!!
En el comienzo de bajada desde Aubisque hacia Soulor, llena de clavos!!!Todos esos clavos recogidos desde la bici hasta mi posición @pedrodelgadoweb@teledeporte@amantes_cycling@lasgafasdesolda#TDF2022#TourRTVE20Jpic.twitter.com/LNNY1Mvq8e
— Iban (@I_Sanmar) July 20, 2022
Carpet tacks have been discovered near the summit of the Col d’Aubisque, set to be climbed by the Tour de France peloton tomorrow, in what appears to be an attempt to sabotage the race.
The tacks were discovered by Spanish cycling fan Iban at the beginning of the descent from the Aubisque, one of the Tour’s legendary climbs, to the Col du Soulor.
A number of spectators, camping out on the climb before tomorrow’s stage, have since attempted to remove all of the tacks from the road.
This latest attempt to sabotage the race comes 10 years after tacks were strewn across the road on the descent of the Mur de Péguère, which was climbed during yesterday’s stage to Foix.
Bradley Wiggins, who went on to win the 2012 Tour a week later, and defending champion Cadel Evans were among the 30 riders from a GC group of 50 who suffered punctures thanks to the tacks.
Others came off much worse – Astana's Robert Kiserloviski broke his collarbone after crashing during the confusion, while Levi Leipheimer was treated for road rash after hitting the deck at the same point.
Sky’s then-manager Dave Brailsford said at the time that the attempted sabotage “smacks of cowardice.”
He continued: “If you want to say something, fair enough. Hold your hand up, stick your head up and say what you want to say, no problem at all. Everybody’s entitled to an opinion. It’s a free world, isn’t it? If people want to speak their mind, that’s fine. But why put people’s lives at risk?”
Popcorn at the ready, as it’s Highway Code time again, folks!
With the revisions approaching their six-month anniversary – time flies when you’re a vulnerable road user, eh? – we felt it was only right to check in and see how they’re getting on.
Judging by this video, filmed last week in Fallowfield, Manchester, it’s not great…
As you can see in the clip, the road.cc reader who sent us the footage was riding along in the cycle lane, when a van driver (rather belatedly) indicates to turn left, before driving straight into the path of the cyclist, knocking him off his bike.
According to Rule H3 of the Highway Code, drivers and motorcyclists “should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse drawn vehicles going ahead when you are turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane, just as you would not turn across the path of another motor vehicle.
“This applies whether they are using a cycle lane, a cycle track, or riding ahead on the road and you should give way to them.
“Do not turn at a junction if to do so would cause the cyclist, horse rider or horse drawn vehicle going straight ahead to stop or swerve.
“You should stop and wait for a safe gap in the flow of cyclists if necessary. This includes when cyclists are: approaching, passing or moving off from a junction, moving past or waiting alongside stationary or slow-moving traffic, or travelling around a roundabout.”
The cyclist, a paramedic who rides 15 miles to work every day, suffered cuts and bruises in the collision, as well as a buckled wheel and broken mirror.
The van driver also gave our reader a lift home after the incident, so he could then make it into work. The cyclist says that the motorist explained that “he was rushing to pick up his pregnant wife, so I feel bad for him.”
@LeTour, @Peyragudes, après la canicule, ce matin montage dans le brouillard et 12 degrés... pic.twitter.com/uJYROlQdZ1
— Stephane Boury (@StphaneBoury) July 20, 2022
After well over a week of sweltering, stifling conditions on the roads of France (and for those of us watching in the UK and Ireland), things have finally cooled down at the Tour.
This morning, those responsible for setting up the race infrastructure at the finish line at Peyragudes, the ski resort just beyond the Col de Peyresourde, were greeted by a healthy smattering of fog and a refreshing 12 degrees Celsius. Ahhh, bliss.
With temperatures unlikely to exceed the mid-20s, even in the foothills, the news bodes well for well-known lover of all things cold and damp, Tadej Pogačar. The Slovenian appeared to suffer in the oven-like heat of the Col du Granon last week, his yellow jersey flapping forlornly open as it was wrested from his shoulders by Jonas Vingegaard.
Perhaps today’s relative cool down will prove the catalyst for some red-hot action on the Peyresourde? (That’s the last of the temperature-based puns, I promise.)