Month: October 2019

Packed with mountains the 2020 Tour de France is aimed to leave the peloton shaken and stirred.

The route of the 2020 Tour de France was unveiled today in Paris in front of a packed auditorium at the Palais des Congrés.

With the usual rumours doing the rounds the course was expected to be designed to further create uncertainty and disrupt the dominance of the GC teams. The presentation certainly proved that was exactly what the organisers had in mind – starting on the French Riviera in Nice it includes 3470km, 29 cols, bookended with mountain stages, the latter an altitude finish TT.

Stages of the Tour de France 2020

Date	Etape	Km
27/06	1. Nice Moyen Pays – Nice	156
28/06	2. Nice Haut Pays – Nice	187
29/06	3. Nice-Sisteron	198
30/06	4. Sisteron – Orcières-Merlette	157
01/07	5. Gap-Privas	183
02/07	6. Le Teil – Mont Aigoual	191
03/07	7. Millau-Lavaur	168
04/07	8. Cazères-sur-Garonne – Loudenvielle	140
05/07	9. Pau-Laruns	154
06/07	Charente-Maritimes (jour de repos)
07/07	10. Le Château d’Oléron – Saint-Martin-de-Ré	170
08/07	11. Châtelaillon-Plage – Poitiers	167
09/07	12. Chauvigny-Sarran	218
10/07	13. Châtel-Guyon – Puy-Mary	191
11/07	14. Clermont-Ferrand – Lyon	197
12/07	15. Lyon – Grand Colombier	175
13/07	Isère (jour de repos)
14/07	16. La Tour-du-Pin – Villard-de-Lans	164
15/07	17. Grenoble-Col de la Loze	168
16/07	18. Méribel – La-Roche-sur-Foron	168
17/07	19. Bourg-en-Bresse – Champagnole	160
18/07	20. Lure – La Planche des belles filles (clm)	36
19/07	21. Mantes-la-Jolie – Paris	122

Mads Pedersen wins the elite men’s World Championships road race

With torrential rain and winds returning to Yorkshire it was going to be day that pushed the best cyclists in the world to their limits. The strongest proved to be Mads Pedersen who survived the ultimate test to give Denmark its first male winner at the UCI World Championship.

At the end of a cold, wet and unbelievable grueling 262 kilometers, Pedersen showed he was the strongest, beating Matteo Trentin (Italy/Mitchelton-Scott) and Stefan Küng Switzerland/Groupama – FDJ.

“It’s unbelievable. I didn’t expect this when we started this morning. It was an unbelievable day,” said Pedersen struggling to comprehend his feat.

“The team plan was to get me out in the early final (laps) and then (teammates) Valgren and Fuglsang would come from behind. But in the end, they didn’t follow van der Poel and Trentin when they came to my group. From there on it was just survive, survive, survive and then hope for the best in the sprint,” he explained.

The days cold wet conditions saw many of the strongest riders struggling, and a relentless process of attrition saw the peloton started splitting into fragments with many long given up any ambition greater than making it home upright.

The Danish rider had worked his way into an elite group in the last 50km and was one of only three riders still in contention on the very last drag up Parliament Street, Trentin and van der Poel . Van der Poel despite being a strong favourite faltered and t was Trentin who kicked off the sprint for victory. Pederesen had reserves of power and proved the fastest finisher passing the Italian before throwing his arms aloft in triumph to take the rainbow stripes. Tenacious Trentin meanwhile, clung on for second place on the podium with Switzerland’s Stefan Kung crossing the line two seconds back in third.

“I just hoped that when I saw the finish line, all the pain would be gone, and I could do a good sprint. It’s six and a half hours on the bike so everyone is on the limit and so anything could happen in that sprint,” said Pedersen.

“You had to be focused all day and stay in the front all the time. But it’s one of the last races of the season, so it’s all about keeping that focus for six and a half hours and don’t have any bad luck and hope for the best. This is every rider’s dream to wear this jersey – for me to do it now? It’s unbelievable.”

Men’s Elite Road Race Results: