As the 2016 Tour de France unfolded over the past three weeks, a group of former champions successfully defending their titles in the various classifications and the same names popping up at the front of each breakaway, the race felt almost preordained at times. It isn't true, of course -- but with a slew of anticipated results...
For all but the sprinters in the peloton, the final Sunday ride into Paris is ceremonial more than competitive. The yellow jersey sips a little Champagne for the cameras, cyclists can ease up and joke around, and three weeks of strenuous effort conclude in celebration on the Champs-Elysees. But first the 175 remaining riders (of the...
Just as the same few sprinters tend to sweep up the flat stages in a give Tour de France, so too is it common to see the same names breaking away on hillier stages day after day. The first day in the Alps proved surprisingly similar to the ride through the Jura Mountains, as the same trio ended up contesting the finish off the front and...
With two stages left before the ceremonial procession into Paris, time was running out for riders who wished to alter their fundamental position in the general classification. Two more days in the Alps provided the backdrop for audacious moves to form, for cyclists with ambitions to take a chance against the field. And the first of those...
Chris Froome had already won a stage of the 2016 Tour de France, legitimizing what has become a nearly-guaranteed yellow jersey on his shoulders in Paris by making an audacious descent in the Pyrenees. He didn't necessarily need to win an individual time trial to secure his third Tour de France title. Yet there he was on Stage 18,...
The second weekend of the 2016 Tour de France is in the books, and as the 183 remaining riders settle in for a well-deserved rest day in Switzerland it is the perfect time to look back on the second weekend of this year's race. Only five stages remain after the rest day, with four straight Alpine stages leading into the race finale on...
After yet another tragic terrorist attack in France, cycling was the furthest thing from the minds of a cycling-mad country. But the Tour de France rolled on nonetheless, mindful of the somber mood in which it operated, and eschewed its podium presentations in favor of a moment of silence for the 84 dead and hundreds injured in Nice...
For a Tour de France that has been relatively free of conflict, Stage 12 ended all that in the time it took for Chris Froome to get caught up in a crash caused by crowds and a motorbike on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. The stage had already been shortened due to heavy winds on the scarred landscape of the weather-beaten climb, and the...
On a windy day in southern France the sprinters were once again foiled, missing out on yet another of a waning number of opportunities for a stage win. Instead it was Chris Froome and Peter Sagan who worked together in the closing kilometers, as the yellow and green jerseys stamped out any potential challenges from their respective...
On a day when the race for the yellow jersey was expected to take a backseat to the other classification battles, Stage 10 from Escaldes Engordany to Revel met every expectation. Chris Froome remained 16 seconds ahead of Adam Yates and 19 seconds ahead of Dan Martin as the race began its trek across southern France toward the Alps. A...
