🟢 Stage 22: The comeback King
how much money will Tour de France winner make, future of Gravel, and what makes pros so special
Hi, how are you on this fine Tuesday?
Firstly, let me apologise for being a little late this week. My plan was to get this newsletter finished last night, but I was so tired from my training I spent all evening lying horizontally on my couch. Yesterday was the final session in a big training block for me, I did the ‘Three Nations loop which includes Andorra, Spain, and France. This 145 km ride included 2,500 m of climbing across five hours.
There’s not much on my plan today. As I just mentioned, I’m absolutely dead! Today is a rest day, so I’ll just be catching up with off-the-bike chores. I’m staying in Andorra for one more week before heading back down to Girona. Two weeks today I have my first race back post-injury – Tour de Wallonie. I’m excited.
As per last week, Le Tour de France rules the cycling news again…
Thanks,
Joe
📖 Read
#TourdeFrance
Wow. A LOT has happened in Le Tour since the last newsletter. Two of the favorites, Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas are out of the battle for the yellow jersey after untimely crashes. It’s young Slovenian, Tadej Pogacar who taken a commanding lead at the front. The stories from the Tour have been incredible too, with more tears than ever before, and a familiar face back to winning. Cycling, what a wonderful sport. The race kicks back off today with another sprint stage, but check out the first-week summary here.
6-minute read
#womenscycling
The women’s Giro d’Italia kicked off this week. As I write this, it’s the morning of Stage 5 and Anna van der Breggen is well and truly in control of the race. The Dutchwoman won yesterday’s TT by over a minute, in fact, she was so fast that she eliminated 12-riders from the race thanks to the time limit.
5-minute read
#gravel #adventure
I mentioned The Migration Gravel Race in last week’s newsletter. The dust has finally settled over the Maasai Mara of Kenya. The event organiser’s vision wasn’t simply to challenge cyclists with a race. It was to bring bike racing to a part of the world where athletes aren’t given many opportunities to compete and to bring with it a field of talented riders from across the globe. The gallery is spectacular.
4-minute read
#road #training
Have you ever wondered how the world’s top pros train? Mathieu van der Poel is the current world cyclocross champion, he wore the yellow jersey in Le Tour de France and he’s going to the Olympics for MTB. But what makes him so different? Here’s an insight from his coach, spoiler alert, he’s good at everything.
5-minute read
#procycling #TourDeFrance #money
After racing around France for three weeks in the biggest bike race in the world, you'd expect some decent prize money, right? Well, kind of. The Tour de France’s prize pool is around €2.25 million, a fair chunk of cash, yet nothing in comparison to something like Wimbledon that has a €40 million pit. Take a look here at the breakdown of the TDF prize list.
4-minute read
#graveltech
There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a puncture in the middle of nowhere. ‘Plugging’ a puncture is becoming all the more popular, especially for gravel riders. Dynaplug has now announced a road equivalent. The Air Road kit has redesigned the gravel kit for the road rider. I might buy a kit myself actually…
4-minute read
📱Tweet of the week
Le Tour de France is special. It’s small gestures of kindness like this from the yellow jersey which sprinkle some more magic on the race. I’m not crying, you are.
🎧 Listen
Nathan Haas’ Gravelog podcast is back this week. The Australian World Tour rider sits down with Tyler Williams of L39ION of Los Angeles. Two of the coolest guys in cycling sitting down to talk about gravel, what’s not to like? Williams talks about the future of multi-discipline riding, and what it means at the top of the sport.
51-minute listen
👀 Watch
The 1349 km ride from Lands End to John o’ Groats is one of the biggest cycling challenges in the UK. In this challenge, GCN teamed up with legendary ultra-cyclist Mark Beaumont for the ultimate challenge. One hour on, one hour off, for 39 hours. I’m exhausted just watching it.
30-minute watch