Yesterday the 103rd Tour (Tour de France) got under way in France; its count begins in 1903.
Unfortunately, for various subjective and objective reasons, we were unable to finish covering the Italian tour or to publish a preview of the French one, which we very much regret, and we hope such problems won’t happen again. Now, though, let’s follow the twists and turns of what is undoubtedly the cycling world’s foremost stage race.
This year’s race began in a special way, because the first stage was planned as a sprint stage, giving the specialists the chance to pull on the leader’s yellow jersey along with the stage win — albeit for just one day. Why? The nature of the second stage made it impossible for a sprinter not to lose time; but even one day in yellow is highly valued among riders.
All the specialists — a whole constellation of whom are in this year’s Tour peloton — were named as favorites, but one who stood out among them was the legendary Briton Mark Cavendish.
2 July 2016
103rd Tour de France
Stage 01 : Mont-Saint-Michel – Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
1st : CAVENDISH Mark (GBR) Dimension Data, with his daughter Delilah
Photo : Yuzuru SUNADA
Listing Mark’s achievements would take us too far; here we’ll only note that the former world champion had 44 wins across all three Grand Tours until now, and has won the points classification at all three Grand Tours, but until yesterday he had worn the leader’s jersey only at the Giro and the Vuelta. This was an extra motivator for him. In an interview before the Tour he named the yellow jersey of the Tour de France and Olympic gold as his unfulfilled dreams.
2 July 2016
103rd Tour de France
Stage 01 : Mont-Saint-Michel – Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
1st : CAVENDISH Mark (GBR) Dimension Data
Photo : Yuzuru SUNADA
The race was nervous, but the final sprint did take place: Mark won the biggest showdown in recent times, and his dream came true. Notably, in the finishing straight Mark beat his fiercest rivals, the Germans André Greipel and Marcel Kittel, claimed his 27th Tour stage and pulled on yellow too.
2 July 2016
103rd Tour de France
Stage 01 : Mont-Saint-Michel – Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
CAVENDISH Mark (GBR) Dimension Data, Maillot Jaune
Photo : Yuzuru SUNADA
One of the main GC favorites, the legendary Alberto Contador, had a very difficult start: El Pistolero crashed and crossed the line with serious injuries. Had the peloton not decided to slow down and let the favorite catch up, Alberto would have lost a lot of time. Today’s events made his situation even more complicated, but more on that later.
2 July 2016
103rd Tour de France
Stage 01 : Mont-Saint-Michel – Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
CONTADOR Alberto (ESP) Tinkoff
Photo : Yuzuru SUNADA
Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com
Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com
Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.
Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.
In history, only three riders have won all five Monuments: [...]
April 15, 2019
