Contador on the attackNever a shrinking violet, AlbertoContador has said that he is pre-pared to risk his current placing inthe GC in a bid for all-out glory in the Alps. With team-mate andsuper-domestique Roman Kreuzigeralso in the top five, any failed audac-ity from Saxo-Tinkoff may givewily teams a chance to profit fromkamikaze attacks and push theirriders up the GC. Movistar, Belkin,and Astana take note.

Rain Jackets to the ready at theRapha pop-upere’s bad weather forecast in theAlps, and ursday in particularmay see party-goers get very wet onthe Alpe. If you’re caught without theright clothes, there is a Rapha pop-up shop in Alpe d’Huez. e riders,however, will have to grin and bearit. Who’s got the grinta to profit fromothers’ discomfort?

Europcar savedWith Cyril Gautier and Pierre Rol-land spending barely a second out ofthe breaks or attacking up mountains,it’s good to see Europcar extend itssponsorship of the Vendée-based team.It’s also home to this race’s best mous-tache – thanks to Jérôme Cousin, averitable Magnum on two wheels.

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 17th July 2013

rapha.ccissue 16

wheelie-ing up mont ventoux is #prost y le

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21SATURDAY

— Tour de France S14SUNDAY

— Tour de France S15MONDAY

— Rest dayTUESDAY

— Tour de France S16WEDNESDAY

— Tour de France S17THURSDAY

— Tour de France S18FRIDAY

— Tour de France S19SATURDAY

— Tour de France S20SUNDAY

— Tour de France S21

the view from gap

Testing, Testing, Ventoux

ldn cycle club newsDuring the Annecy-Semnoz stage(20th July) any Étapiste coming tothe Rapha Cycle Club in London to spectate will,upon presenta-tion of their racenumber, be re-warded with afree beer.

e peloton made their way gently uphill today, fromVaison-la-Romaine still in the shadow of Mont Ven-toux to Gap, in the shadow of the high Alps, the hal-lowed grounds of France’s greatest race. Movistar’sRui Costa made his winning move from the break onthe steep slopes of the Col de Manse and, in the chas-ing group, Alberto Contador attacked Chris Froome,signalling his intentions for the final week. And whilethere were no big dramas on the descent, where JosebaBeloki fell and Lance Armstrong famously rode acrossthe field-both the race favourites wobbled on the treach-erous turns. Froome will know that even if he survivedVentoux in style, both he and Team Sky still have manymountains to climb before Paris. It is one of the most testing third weeks in memory,topped off, in the fans’ imaginations at least, by a dou-ble ascent of Alpe d’Huez. Actually, this year’s highestpoint was on the Port de Pailhères, and ursday’s Alpestage is only one of a triple whammy of mountain teststhat will make sure that whoever wears the yellow jer-sey in Paris truly deserves it.Saxo-Tinkoff ’s Alberto Contador, lying in third be-hind Bauke Mollema (Belkin) , is 4mins 25secs behindFroome and is probably the Briton’s only crediblechallenger. If the Spaniard has looked personally vul-nerable – in the Pyrenees and on Ventoux – then he hashad great support from his team, snatching the initia-tive on Stage 13 to Saint-Amand-Montrond and tak-ing back a minute from Froome. Never mind thatFroome responded with a tremendous performanceon Ventoux, blowing Contador, Nairo Quintana and allother opposition away with devastating accelerations;Froome’s team has been depleted somewhat with theloss of Vasil Kiryienka and Edvald Boasson Hagen,but he remains strong and will take some catching.Outside the race for the yellow jersey, Peter Sagan hasrun away with the green jersey. His position is nowimpregnable and barring upsets he will make it two ina row by Paris. And the polka dots? Froome said afterVentoux that stage wins from now on are not his tar-get, so there may be room for someone – Pierre Rol-land or Quintana – to wrest that from him. If thelittle Colombian does win, he’ll add it to the whitejersey for best young rider.

rest day chat

motoman

Give Me a Brakeis week, our intrepid hero makes it to Brittany andback, sees David Millar honour a British legend and re-flects on Dan (Martin) and the art of moto repair.And now I know ‘Mont Ventoux’ are not just prettysounding words. e mountain was hot and not ascrowded as many thought it would be, but bonkers allthe same. I spent the whole stage at Tom Simpson’smemorial, taking pictures of people paying their re-spects. Of the pros there was only David Millar, whodidn’t stop but took off his cap and gave it to thespectators to lay up there for him. Or put on eBay,possibly. I thought it was going to be English corner,but it wasn’t really.Going up Ventoux I wore my horn out beeping at thecrowds, and that’s not the only part of the moto that’sbeen feeling the strain. Up north, I went cross-coun-try on the time-trial stage from Mont-Saint-Michel,up and down some tracks and across fields. After-wards, I realised I’d torn the brake hose to the frontwheel and all the fluid had leaked out, so I rode all theway to Tours with only a back brake, where I’d arrangedwith my Parisian fixer to get the replacement part de-livered. I had a good chat with the mechanic and hetweaked a few more things, and now the bike’s run-ning brilliantly.My favourite moment of those flat stages came inBrittany, when Argos-Shimano and Sky were pound-ing along, organising two rival sprint trains on a reallynarrow road. And then David Millar powers up alonebetween them, Dan Martin on his wheel… the twotrains break up, and Ian Stannard just looks over in disbelief.Bugger me, if we didn’t go all the way up north just tocome back south again, though. It was a long ride. Now,I’m leaving my campsite full of tattoed Belgians, andpointing the moto uphill towards the Alps. Next weekI will mostly be photographing a DS doing his tacti-cal planning and I’ll be spending anight getting drunk on theAlpe. See you on theother side.

COKES TO THE GRUPETTO

NIGHTS ON A MOUNTAIN

KM DRIVEN ON TOUR

COFFEES DRUNK BY DRIVER

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 17th July 2013

wheelie-ing up mont ventoux is #prost y le

anatomy of a stage

Stage 18, 172.5kmGap – Alpe d’Huez

What better way to celebrate the world’s greatestcycle race than an excursion up Alpe d’Huez? Howabout two?e 21 hairpins up the Alpe have become part of cy-cling history, yet it was a relative latecomer to theparty. It wasn’t until 1952 that a few hoteliers, keen topromote the fledgling resort above Bourg d’Oisans,tempted chief commissaire Élie Wermelinger to sendthe race their way. at year Fausto Coppi became thefirst victor on Alpe d’Huez. It was also the firstmountaintop finish and the first year the race was tel-evised: the Alpe’s place in cycling legend was made.Any cyclist who has sweated up to the top at 1,850m(or the Tour usual finish line at 1,764m) will know theopening gradients are the fiercest, and that each num-bered switchback is named after one of the greats –Coppi, Hinault, Herrera, Pantani and, yes, Armstrong.Even in a normal year, hundreds of thousands of fanscrowd on to the slopes, led by the Dutch in a partythat lasts several days either side of the riders’ passageto the summit. With the riders passing twice this willundoubtedly be a bumper year for spectators.Contrary to popular belief, the route from Bourgd’Oisans is not the only way up. ere is also the Bal-con, a narrow scenic road that twists around the side ofthe mountain and connects with the Col de Glandon.And then there is the Col de Sarenne, until this year anunpaved track that ascends almost to 2,000m behindthe Alpe and then swoops down to La Ferrière. 2013 isthe first time this col has been used, and when the propeloton tried out the freshly tarmacced descent, inthis year’s Critérium du Dauphiné, some complainedthat it was too technical, dizzying and dangerous.It may be that a concerted attack by Contador, say,could really ignite the race here. If not, then Froomeand his lieutenants will be several thousand metres’climbing closer to glory in Paris.

team skymobilesupportersclub

GAP871m

ALPE-D’HUEZ1850mAlpe-d’Huez

1765m

Rampe du Motty982m

Col de Manse1268m

Col d’Omon1371m

172.5km13km 34km 95km 122.5km

FIND US AT:Alpe d’Huez, S19beneath turn 6Paris, S21 location TBC