What We Learnt At Tour de France 2016
Wow what a race!
A few days on and the dust has settled. We have got our collective breath back and the riders have rediscovered what their families and friends look like. It seems some [French] people said this years tour was dull. Jealousy is such an ugly emotion. I thought I would take this opportunity to recap on just why this was the best tour ever
Disclaimer - I cannot definitively say it was the best tour ever. I do not know where one would even begin to quantify such things. It's just hyperbole. But it was quite good wasn't it?!
The first thing we learnt is that Christian Prudhomme is a creature of habit. He loves his flat bunch sprint stages to start and does not like prologues. Also Marcel Kittel, like most sprinters, is not a pleasant man when he is losing. It was all about Cav, then Sagan, then Cav again. Cavendish has now moved himself past Bernard Hinault and into second place in the all time list of stage winners. Barring injury, old age, loss of form, German sprinters or a third world war he looks certain to overtake Eddy at some point in the future. A summary of sprinters cannot be complete without mentioning Dan Mcclay. Competing in his maiden tour he started with a top 10 finish on his first stage. He backed that up with numerous other top 10's and finished in Paris. He is fast, gutsy and learning all the time. Keep your eye on him.
The sprint teams bemoaned the GC teams mixing it up at the front on the sprint stages. Apparently they get in the way and it is dangerous. The reply came that they have to do this in order to prevent time gaps and also that this was the first tour with no abandons in the opening sprint stages (despite some nasty looking crashes). Lots of hot air about rule changes but lacking any sensible suggestions followed.
Soon, however, it was time for the lumpy stuff and the GC teams quickly dropped the sprinters and would have been relieved to hear their moaning drift off behind them in the distance. Everyone waited with baited breath for Sky to drill it on the front then Quintana et al to attack and wear them out. In fairness everyone is still waiting..... and waiting. Turns out Team Sky had other ideas!
Chris Froome is awesome. I mean that in every possible sense of the word. Last year he endured fans throwing urine at him and the hatred of the entire French nation to take his second win. However people still said he is dull and one dimensional and nowhere near the complete rider. Yeah well this year he took his critics words and shoved them emphatically where the sun don't shine. He is on current form the best climber in the world. No question. He won the mountain time trial with consummate ease. He attacked on a descent using some weird new crossbar riding kamikaze position that I am sure took months to perfect in the secret Sky lab. Then he attacked on the flat and mixed it up in a sprint with Sagan. He rode supremely well never breaking a sweat and if THAT wasn't enough the man ran up Mount Ventoux!!! Seriously what else can he possibly do to endear himself to the French public. Short of becoming a turncoat domestique and dragging Romain Bardet to a stage win on Bastille Day I have no clue.
I could go on to talk about disappointing GC campaigns from Quintana, Porte, Mollema etc but really there is only one man I am interested in mentioning further.
ADAM YATES
What a man, what a rider, what a fantastic future winner of the Tour (yes that's right you read it here first). What's the betting he is snapped up by Team Sky and takes over the mantle when Froomey is ready to hang up his running shoes. For so long it looked like he was going to capture a glorious podium. In the end 4th place and the white jersey seemed like a bit of an anti climax. It shouldn't. This ride was incredible. He made all but the very best GC riders look ordinary (they may well have been ordinary at this tour) but he showed maturity and resilience far beyond his years. He has the temperament and dedication to do it all, and best of all, he is British! He was the highlight of the tour for me and even managed to cope with a collapsing banner stealing a chance to wear the yellow jersey. That shows class and maturity right there.
Oh Flamme Rouge, you let yourself down, you let the race down.................
It's a whole year now to recover and look forward to a Froome and Yates one - two in 2017. Will Mcclay by challenging Cav for the sprints too...... the future is bright, the future is British.
