The ‘glamorous’ life of a Tour de France cyclist: Horrible hotels, mouldy walls, foul smells, and peeing in bottles; Mark Cavendish “really upset and angry” with sprint relegation; Primož Roglič abandons Tour after heavy crash + more on the live blog

As I’m sure some of you know by now, Uno-X Mobility’s flamboyantly moustachioed stage hunter Magnus Cort – when he’s not racing his bike or inspiring Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar to showcase their own pitiful facial hair – moonlights as a hotel reviewer.

And since it’s July, that month when professional cyclists swan around France, sampling the country’s finest wines, food, and accommodation (or not), we’re in peak review season, with Cort helpfully giving us a glance into the glamorous life of a travelling pro cyclist over the last few weeks. Surely, it’s all luxury, just like for the footballers, right? Errr…

> Tour de France pro accuses organisers of favouring French teams... for hotels, says there was "no AC" and "didn't even have space to open my suitcase"

Despite what you may expect for elite athletes participating in one of the biggest sporting events in the world, it’s fair to say that the Tour’s traditional range of, shall we say interesting, hotels – booked by organisers ASO for all the teams – has hardly inspired confidence over the years.  

Last July, Intermarché’s sprinter Mike Teunissen complained about the cramped, humid accommodation his team had constantly been booked into during the Tour (“Tennis players at Wimbledon or soccer players in the Champions League: if they ever end up in these places, they’ll turn around immediately,” the Belgian grumbled), while Cort himself poked fun at the quality of the race’s hotels last month, as he joked about sleeping in his suitcase to prepare for Tour’s “rough” hotels.

> “A wild Magnus Cort appeared!”: Pro cyclist jokes about sleeping inside his suitcase to avoid “rough” French hotels at Tour de France

But nothing could have prepared the Danish star for the lodgings that awaited his Uno-X team in Le Lioran, ahead of yesterday’s stage from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot:

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Magnus Cort (@magnuscort)

Oh dear.

“One night in this room. It is one of the worst places I have stayed in many years,” the double Tour stage winner and niche trip advisor wrote on his Instagram/Tour hotel review page.

“I was welcomed by the long concrete corridor that smelled exactly like it looked, [an] old abandoned bunker. A smell that takes me back to my childhood exploring abandoned places, and any time you’re expecting some old angry man coming screaming at you that you’re not allowed to be here. But this time around we had to stay the night.”

Sounds promising.

Cort continued: “The room was no better, one that it was a whole apartment so me and Alex [Kristoff] had different bedrooms which was nice. It was in three floors with the bottom one smelling even worse than the corridor, it had probably a humidity on 100 per cent and a lot of mould on the walls.”

“It got a little better the higher you went. But still a very worn-down place. I slept on the top and with two sets of steep stairs I chose to pee in a bottle instead of going all the way down during the night.”

Now, I bet you won’t hear of Jude Bellingham having to do that before England’s Euros final on Sunday.

And the best bit is – Cort’s not even the first rider at this year’s Tour de France to relieve himself in a bottle, either. But unlike Victor Campenaerts, at least the Dane didn’t lob his urine-filled bottle to the side of the road for an unsuspecting fan to jubilantly pick up…

Cort continued: “There was no Wi-Fi and phone connection was very unstable. The view from a big terrace was however great. So that will get them one star.

“1 out of 7 stars. I couldn’t find the place to tack the location, maybe it is a deliberate choice from them to avoid a bad reputation.”

Now that’s what I call a glowing review. The glamorous life of a pro cyclist riding the Tour de France, eh?

But hey, at least the view of the Massif Central was typically spectacular:

Or maybe they were just trying to get away from the smell…

J.A.S.P.E.R 👑#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/xp1A8pxzjD

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2024

It was only fitting that a stage packed with chaos – as the peloton ripped itself apart constantly on the exposed plains south to Pau – culminated in an equally anarchic sprint, as Jasper Philipsen powered away from a reduced group to secure his second stage win of an at times frustrating Tour.

Philipsen burst clear of Wout van Aert, who was arguably left in No Man’s Land by his Visma lead-out rider Christophe Laporte, with 200m to go on Pau’s long, famous finishing straight, moments after a wince-inducing crash in the barriers saw Arnaud De Lie held up after his Lotto-Dstny teammate Maxim Van Gils attempted to barge his way through a non-existent gap at the barriers, taking down an Arkéa-B&B Hotels rider and causing a pile-up.

That further split in the bunch – the final one of a stage characterised by gaps in the crosswinds – led to a tetchy, cautious final few hundred metres, but Philipsen, devoid of his usual Alpecin support, bided his time well and took the win comfortably, with Van Aert again having to settle for second, while Pascal Ackermann took his third third-place of the race and boxed-in man of the moment Biniam Girmay finished fourth.

🚀 A pefect leadout for @WoutvanAert, but Jasper the Master strikes again for #TDF2024 stage win No.2 ! Relive the final KM here ⤵️

🚀 Un lancement parfait pour @WoutvanAert mais c'est Jasper the Master qui l'emporte une deuxième fois sur ce #TDF2024! Revivez le dernier KM ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/AMuqoDQr3q

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2024

That frenetic finale followed what was, as is proving typical for this Tour, a frenetic stage fuelled by a dangerous cross-tailwind – one that resulted in a blistering average speed of 48.821kph for the stage’s 165km, one of the top ten fastest road stages in Tour history.

The composition of the 22-strong supergroup that winched itself clear at the beginning – most notably the presence of UAE’s Adam Yates – prompted a 100km-long pursuit match, which finally ceased with 60km to go only for the race to rip apart again in the crosswinds, as a fairly ordinary transition stage gave way to a full-blown GC battle (when is this Tour not a GC battle?), as Pogačar, Evenepoel, and Vingegaard all popped up at the front to drive their fluctuating group.

As the wind finally abated in the foothills of the Pyrenees around Pau, sprinters like Mark Cavendish and Dylan Groenewegen dispatched in the echelons, a series of attacks, including a handful from the dogged Jasper Stuyven, followed, before the sprint in Pau inevitably ended a day that was anything but inevitable.

That unpredictability was underlined by the presence of a certain Tadej Pogačar in ninth place on a stage won by Jasper Philipsen, and in a top ten dominated by the fastest men in the world.

But it’s the 2024 Tour – seemingly anything goes.

Strava has unveiled its latest shared subscription offer this week, the Family Plan, a sibling of the company’s Student Plan and designed to offer a “new, inclusive subscription option for athletes to share with anyone they’d like” – as long as all members live within the same country and are not current subscribers, of course.

According to Stava’s research, half of their users say they’re motivated by friends and family members who also train, and 77 per cent say they feel “more connected” when they see friends and family member’s activities on Strava.

Available in 32 countries, customers can share a Family Plan with up to three other people, as long as they are not existing Strava subscribers and live in the same country. Strava says the annual Family Plan offers up to 50 per cent savings on average compared to an individual annual subscription when shared among four people.

Each member of the Family Plan has access to Strava subscription features such as Goals, Workout Insights, Group Challenges, and Routes.

“The magic of Strava lies in the motivation that’s found in our global community,” Zipporah Allen, chief business officer at Strava, said announcing the plan.

“Our belief is that people keep people active and the new Family Plan makes it even easier to make a fitness commitment together. It’s about more than just setting shared goals; it’s about embracing shared passions and celebrating collective progress.”

The Covid protocols that emerged in order to keep cycling’s travelling circus rolling on back in 2020 may be long gone, but the virus continues to wreak havoc on the Tour de France.

Michael Mørkøv’s Covid-related withdrawal yesterday followed his Astana teammate Mark Cavendish revealing that there are number of riders who’ve tested positive for the virus still in the bunch.

And on today’s stage, Juan Ayuso was the latest big name to suffer with Covid, pulling out of the race just as a group containing his UAE Team Emirates leader Tadej Pogačar was brought back by the bunch, after struggling at the back all day.

😢 ¡No puede seguir!

Juan Ayuso abandona el Tour de Francia tras descolgarse en la 13ª etapa#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/HIDwNeBgxM

— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) July 12, 2024

Meanwhile, Het Nieuwsblad have reported today that the Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas and Tom Pidcock have been spotted wearing face masks and being transported separately to each day’s stage start.

According to the Belgian paper, the British duo are not currently stepping foot on the team bus and are instead getting dressed for the stage in the team car.

Hmmm… With the virus clearly making its way around the Tour peloton, Ineos’ ‘better safe than sorry’ approach could pay dividends in the final week of the race.

The top three on GC pulling in a small chasing group with 135km left on a supposedly flat stage? This proper bike racing:

Pov : the leading teams "We don't care, we're doing our own thing" #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/yAl4XKJeEj

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2024

I think I’ll need a lie down after simply watching all this… 

London’s Santander Cycles is getting a boost this summer, as Transport for London announced today that it will more than triple the number of bikes available to hire in the capital over the next two months.

900 new e-bikes have been made available this week, as part of plans to bring the scheme’s e-bike fleet to 2,000 by the end of the summer.

According to TfL, over a million e-bike hires have been made since they were introduced in 2022, and are now being hired at around twice the rate of a classic Santander bike. 27 June also saw the highest volume of e-bike users to date, with 3,584 hires.

“Our Santander e-bikes are proving extremely popular with Londoners and so I’m delighted we’re tripling our e-bike fleet this summer,” London mayor Sadiq Khan, announcing the new fleet today, said.

“These additional bikes will enable even more people to cycle for shorter journeys, helping build a better, fairer and greener London for everyone.”

no way the speaker confused tadej for jonas it’s a long tour for everyone 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ts32cbHIMN

— Laura 🇸🇮 (@ImCalledPikachu) July 11, 2024

Oops!

I’m sure Pogačar is hoping that’s the last time he hears the name ‘Jonas’ on the podium at this year’s Tour.

Although to be fair to the announcer, he’s been so used to seeing Jonas Abrahamsen in the climber’s jersey over the last few weeks that calling his name must be second nature by now.

Not that Pogi looked too pleased, of course…

Poor Primož Roglič just can’t seem to catch a break at the Tour de France, can he?

Since his last-gasp defeat to Tadej Pogačar at the 2020 Tour, the Slovenian grand tour racer has failed to finish every Tour he’s started due to crashes, a shockingly unfortunate run that has continued this morning, with the news that Roglič will not start today’s 13th stage from Agen to Pau, as he recovers from the injuries sustained in yesterday’s high-speed spill 12km from the finish in Villeneuve-sur-Lot.

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider, whose history of untimely crashes at the 2021 and 2022 Tours has seemingly migrated from Visma to his new team, hit the deck hard in the mass crash that took place after an Astana rider clipped a low, barely visible traffic island, causing a serious pile-up.

Primoz Roglic, grand perdant du jour ! Une chute à 12 kilomètres de l'arrivée et le Slovène, touché à l'épaule droite, a perdu 2'27'' sur les favoris du Tour... #TDF2024 #LesRP pic.twitter.com/MLC4pYKS7t

— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) July 11, 2024

While it was initially unclear whether Roglič had gone down in the crash, the forlorn, defeated demeanour of his team’s ride – it could barely be described as a chase – to the finish appeared ominous, and his second fall in as many days (after sliding out on the brief descent to Le Lioran) was soon confirmed by images of the Slovenian’s ripped jersey, scuffed helmet, and bloodied shoulder, as he crossed the line 4.42 behind his GC rivals.

And this morning, Red Bull-Bora confirmed that the triple Vuelta winner, who started yesterday 2.15 down on Pogačar in fourth, would record his third straight DNF at the Tour.

🇫🇷 #TDF2024

Primož Roglič underwent careful examination by our medical team after yesterday’s stage and again this morning. The decision has been taken that he will not start today, to focus on upcoming goals.

We wish you a speedy recovery Primož 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/YDUEtHOjQM

— Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (@RBH_ProCycling) July 12, 2024

“Primož Roglič underwent careful examination by our medical team after yesterday’s stage and again this morning,” the team said, announcing the 2023 Giro winner’s withdrawal.

“The decision has been taken that he will not start today, to focus on upcoming goals. We wish you a speedy recovery Primož.”

A real disaster for the 34-year-old, who was in imperious form at the Critérium du Dauphiné last month but just seems to be plagued by horrendous bad luck, and the spectre of hay bales and invisible road furniture, in July.

Though, I’m sure the odds on a joint-record fourth Vuelta win for Roglič have plummeted this morning…

Like so many of the ‘flat’, sprinters’ stages at this year’s Tour de France, yesterday’s jaunt to Villeneuve-sur-Lot switched from a run-of-the-mill, if startlingly fast, day for the fast men to one of the more dramatic, consequential, and controversial legs of the whole race in the space of 15km.

After a late high-speed crash seemingly scuppered Primož Roglič’s yellow jersey hopes (more on that later), Biniam Girmay won a strange, stop-start sprint for his third victory of this year’s Tour.

Behind the rampant Eritrean, Arnaud Démare finished an encouraging third and Mark Cavendish crossed the line in fifth, his best result since that record-breaking triumph in Saint-Vulbas.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Well, those were the results for a few minutes anyway. As we reported yesterday on the live blog, Cavendish and Démare were soon relegated by the commissaires to the back of the bunch for ‘irregular sprinting’ – in this case, Cav’s sharp movement to the left as the sprint launched, and the French rider’s drift towards the barriers, which forced Wout van Aert to stop pedalling.

However, even with 35 wins under his belt at the Tour, the relegation nevertheless left Cavendish “really upset and angry”, according to his Astana DS and former lead-out man Mark Renshaw, who blamed the Manx Missile’s sudden jump on Arkéa–B&B Hotels lead-out man Dan McLay’s decision to stop pedalling after dropping Démare off with 200m to go.

“We are obviously very disappointed in that sprint, because we think it was a solid, earned fifth place from Cavendish today,” Renshaw told ITV4 after the stage.

“There were two decisions in the final that the commissaires’ panel that was taken. One of them affects us, and Cavendish is really upset with this decision, as I am, as the team, because we thought it was a hard-fought place, and there are many reasons why for that sprint.

“If we really analyse this move and break down this 50 metres, we can see that McLay is leading out [Arnaud] Démare. If you stack it up against the white line, you can see that he is parallel about .8 of a metre to the right of the white line. He finishes his lead-out, and he moves to the left. My estimate is about 1.5 metres, he moves to the left and stops pedalling.”

Van Aert ?
Démare ?
No! BINIIII 🏆#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/8M5Yxlkal1

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 11, 2024

He continued: “I’m sure [Tour organiser and course designer] Thierry Gouvenou said in the first meeting of the day that if you’re a lead-out man and you stop pedalling, please keep pedalling.

“So, I think this move by McLay, who completely stops pedalling, probably deserves more of a sanction than what Mark Cavendish deserves. Especially I as a lead-out man know, that if you stop pedalling in a sprint like this, there will be a reaction. And the reaction to that move by McLay stopping pedalling was Cav deviating to the left, also with [Bryan] Coquard hard on the wheel.

“I think with both riders, Cav and Coquard, had committed to jumping to the left. So, you've got a rider like McLay, who stops pedalling at 70kph, Cav in the same moment has already committed to jumping to the left, and that’s the reaction from that action.

“Look, he’s really upset and angry about the decision because he believes it was unfair, and that was an action from McLay coming back.”

Despite Renshaw’s take on the sprint, British rider McLay wasn’t too happy with the criticism being hurled in his direction, judging by his post on social media last night:

Armchair experts out in force today…

— Dan McLAY (@McLAYDan) July 11, 2024

In any case, Renshaw believed, with one, maybe two, opportunities remaining at this year’s Tour for Cavendish to nab win No. 36, that Astana could take heart by their performance yesterday, even with key lead-out man Michael Mørkøv failing to start the stage after testing positive for Covid.

“It wasn’t perfect – we had a really difficult day with Mørkøv going home, and Yevgeniy Fedorov [who finished outside the time limit on the stage] was not good at all, and dropped early, and Lutsenko crashed with 15km to go,” Renshaw concluded.

“So all in all, to finish fifth on the stage with all that happened, I think the team did exceptionally well.”