It's a rest day at the Tour de France, the grupetto including Mark Cavendish and his Astana Qazaqstan teammates having earned the day off more than most. All in the hope of one more shot at stage victory on Tuesday's 16th stage, the final chance for the sprinters at this year's race, the fast men have battled through the Pyrenees this weekend, racing the time cut.
Mark Cavendish finishes inside the time cut with just under two minutes to spare. #TDF2024pic.twitter.com/iQfYNq15MA
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 14, 2024
Cavendish and three Astana teammates came home two minutes within the cut off that sees those who miss it sent packing from the race. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL's Bram Welten was less fortunate and is heading home having reached the top of Plateau de Beille four minutes too late.
The last man to finish within the time limit was Arnaud Démare, the Frenchman sneaking home with 45 seconds to spare, almost 53 minutes after Tadej Pogačar crossed the line.
Arnaud Demare arrived inside the time limit by just 30 seconds. Infernal stage.#TDF2024pic.twitter.com/T6WI8fChrW
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) July 14, 2024
The brutal reality of what it takes for the sprinters to make it through the mountains was once again laid bare over the weekend, Astana Qazaqstan sharing some behind-the-scenes footage of Cavendish's suffering and the moments after the line. Just wait for when he's told the bus is parked 16km away...
🇫🇷 VIDEO: @LeTour
Well, for us it was a day to survive and to bring our leader @MarkCavendish to the finish line atop Plateau de Beille inside the time cut. And we succeeded after a strong team effort! You are legends, guys!#TDF2024#AstanaQazaqstanTeampic.twitter.com/3esYQLTt61
— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) July 14, 2024
"Thank you so much guys, youse are legends. Absolute legends," a relieved Cavendish refuelled on ketones and water tells his teammates before the camaraderie of the grupetto is displayed yet again, a pat on the back from John Degenkolb as the backmarkers prepare to head back down the mountain to their respective buses and a well-earned day off.
Tomorrow they'll all be battling each other with elbows out sprint lead-outs, but for the weekend at least all those sprinters might as well have been teammates. A monumental effort from all. It'll be interesting to see how many stay on beyond Tuesday, after all the final week looks... (how shall I put this?)... challenging...
After Tuesday's expected sprint there are two medium mountain breakaway-style days, two brutal mountain days, and one hilly TT, no stage with less than 3,000m of climbing (except the TT which packs 700m of elevation into 34km). Fair play to any sprinter still around to tackle that.
Astana Qazaqstan used the Tour de France rest day to announce that "long-term investment for a period of at least five years and financing at the level of leading WorldTour teams" is coming, a deal that has been known about for some time and is expected to return the Kazakh WorldTour team to the sport's very top table.
Chinese company XDS is providing the funds, the CEO Yancong Tan asserting that the team will have the "strongest backup" and "very enough budget and the best technical support".
The team's General Manager Alexandr Vinokurov admitted there will be "significant changes", but added his belief that the deal would ensure the team can reach "a new level".
A Tour de France weekend that will go down in history, a tale that will be relived and revered for decades to come — the back-to-back stage victories of yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar that (all being well in week three) won the Slovenian superstar his third Tour title.
The data boffins are saying it may well me the greatest climbing performance the Tour de France has ever seen, his Plateau de Beille destruction close to seven watts per kilo for 40 minutes. Multiply your own bodyweight by seven and have a think about how long you could push that number of watts for. Then add in the context of it all coming at the end of two weeks of country-crossing elite road racing, in the final hour of a 200km mountain stage.
And while nobody except Pogačar and his UAE circle will know the watts per kilo numbers for sure, the time he conquered the HC summit finish (16km at eight per cent) was 39:44, faster than Marco Pantani's stage-winning performance en route to the Giro-Tour double in 1998, quicker than Lance Armstrong's stage win in 2002, and almost six minutes faster than the fastest times at the 2015 Tour...
Plateau de Beille (15,74km; 7,94%; 1250m)
2024 | 39'44 | T.Pogacar - RECORD
2015 | 45'31 | 9 riders
2011 | 46'20 | Vanendert
2007 | 44'07 | Contador, Rasmussen
2004 | 45'31 | Armstrong, Basso
2002 | 45'55 | Armstrong
1998 | 43'28 | PantaniGreatest performance ever. pic.twitter.com/uqXHJYWPBy
— MF Na1chaca (@NaichacaCycling) July 14, 2024
Jonas Vingegaard confirmed to Danish TV cameras that it was his "best performance" ever too, a statement presumably informed by his power numbers.
"I have improved. Yesterday, I was better than I have ever been before. So must Pogačar be too," he told TV2. It's hard to argue with that final sentence. Something tells me we'll be watching clips of that summit finish for years to come, history being made before our eyes.
How will the third week play out? Will UAE ride more defensively now they've got a gap? Can Visma-Lease a Bike and Vingegaard do anything to overhaul the yellow jersey? Could the Alps' longer climbs and high altitude cause Pogačar problems at the end of a monumental block of Grand Tour racing through the early summer? We've got some week in store...
When Dutch e-bike brand VanMoof was declared bankrupt last year, some customers who had ordered bikes that had not yet arrived were left out of pocket and with no bicycle to show for it. Now, with the company reborn, the brand is offering a "gesture" to those customers by... *checks notes*... telling them they can have £850 off, if they buy another bike.
The company is offering a €1000 / $1000 / £850 discount code off a VanMoof S5, A5 or future product to riders affected, prompting many to ask how exactly asking customers to pay even more money to the brand is the answer.
"From conversations we've had with our community, we hear how frustrating the situation has been for customers who didn't receive the bikes they ordered from the old VanMoof," co-CEO Eliott Wertheimer said. "While we're aware that our gesture does not constitute a full resolution on its own, we hope it makes a difference."
The communication continues: "VanMoof's gesture does not replace the existing claims process: affected customers still have the opportunity to receive compensation through their claims process with the bankruptcy trustees – and are encouraged to do so. Pre-bankruptcy customers may be eligible for the €1000 discount if they couldn't claim back their money from their bank or payment provider and meet the requirements."
When's the Olympics start? Guess were gonna have to settle for fucking cycling coming home.
— Jamie H (@JamieHComedy) July 14, 2024
Shout-out to the little onion and Steve K for the heads up in the comments about this social media post from the new Transport Secretary Louise Haigh...
Haigh told followers: "A spot of Sunday reading in between my Ministerial briefs. Really eye-opening and instructive."
Laura has written loads of news and features for road.cc over the years, so it's pretty cool to see her book catching the attention of the new Transport Secretary. Obviously we had to get Laura on the podcast to talk all things National Cycle Network and all the details about 'Potholes and Pavements: A Bumpy Ride on Britain's National Cycle Network' can be found here.
Holy mother of...
31.2mph (50.2km/h) for a little over THREE HOURS, a monster ride from John Archibald to win the RTTC National 100 Mile Championship up in the Lake District this weekend, unsurprisingly also setting a competition record in the process. Mind boggling.
Having won the opening time trial in Brescia, Elisa Longo Borghini was then never out of pink for the rest of the Giro d'Italia, securing a first GC victory at her home Grand Tour on the final stage to L'Aquila as Mauritian rider Kim Le Court won the day.
10/10 for Trek's pink paint job too...
Longo Borghini's lead had just been a single second heading into the final stage, setting up a potential showdown for the ages with Lotte Kopecky, the home favourite extending her advantage on the mountainous roads of Abruzzo.
Elsewhere in the world of cycling this weekend...
Drunk Tour de France spectator who threw bag of crisps at Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard arrested for aggravated assault, with riders' union set to take legal action "with pleasure"
Fancy owning 'the world's lightest e-road bike'? That'll be £16,800... plus Columbus makes custom bikes cable-tidy, new Cipollini endurance road bike + more
Councillor suggests mandatory number plates and penalty points for cyclists — so that bikes are on "level playing field with lorries, vans and cars"
Tour de France reintroduces mask mandate as Carlos Rodriguez describes Covid as "invisible rival" after teammates Tom Pidcock and Geraint Thomas test positive