by Lionel Birnie
There’s something about the final few days of the Tour de France that makes it feel like everything is suddenly on fast-forward. Perhaps it’s because this year’s route was relatively compact, with few long transfers. There was also the slightly unsettling fact that stage 12 finished in Belleville-en-Beaujolais and exactly a week later stage 18 finished in Bourg-en-Bresse, a little over 40 kilometres away. For a while in the Alps it felt like the Tour was going round in circles.
But over the final couple of days, we covered a lot of ground. On Saturday morning, we woke up in Arbois in the Jura – Louis Pasteur’s home town – and by Sunday lunchtime we could see Paris on the horizon, having travelled almost 500 kilometres via Le Markstein in the meantime.
Paris always feels slightly disconnected from the rest of the Tour. While cycling fans pack the Rue de Rivoli to watch the action, a block away there’s little evidence that the world’s biggest bike race is in town. Tourists and Parisians weave their way along the pavements, the shops are bustling and the cafes busy.
Around the team buses, the staff treat themselves to a beer as they set up the post-race party for their guests, sponsors and the riders’ families. As the race nears its conclusion the soigneurs who’ve spent the past three weeks dispensing lunch in canvas musettes head to pizza shops and return with a stack of boxes.
And then it’s all over, the familiar podium music rings out for the final time and a strange emptiness starts to sink in. Suddenly, the fatigue that’s been kept at bay by adrenaline for three weeks settles in.
At least there’s the Tour de France Femmes to postpone the comedown for another week. Tune in to hear daily coverage of the women’s race from Rose Manley, Denny Gray and Lizzy Banks.
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We waited eagerly for Daniel’s wine glass rating and I agreed with his assessment that it was worth four wine glasses out of five. The first two weeks were close to meriting a five. While Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar were separated by just ten seconds – and seemingly so evenly matched – the Tour looked so finely balanced and that, in itself, lent tension to the whole thing.
But there was relatively little jeopardy. The yellow jersey, green jersey and white jersey didn’t change hands after stage six. The king of the mountains competition was close but the allocation of points is so lopsided these days it was always going to come down to just one or two hors catégorie climbs in the final week. Jasper Philipsen dominated the sprints and had the green jersey wrapped up, barring disaster, very early.
Having said that plenty of individual stages were very entertaining. There was the battle of the Yates brothers in Bilbao, Victor Lafay ending the 15-year wait for a Cofidis stage win – and then Ion Izagirre making it two. Jai Hindley’s stage win and day in yellow, Michael Woods catching Matteo Jorgenson to win at Le Puy de Dôme and the brilliance of Bahrain, especially Matej Mohorič, were captivating.
But Vingegaard’s onslaught in the time trial and Pogačar’s subsequent collapse meant the Tour deflated as dramatically and suddenly as Lion Birnie – my birthday balloon which popped at altitude on the Col de la Loze.
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I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped put The Cycling Podcast together over the past few weeks. François Thomazeau, Mitch Docker, Ian Boswell, Lizzy Banks and Richard Abraham all added something unique to our coverage and although they are all very different they all had something in common – whether it be experience, expertise, enthusiasm, energy and ideas – which meant that although our line-up changed through the race we retained a sense of continuity and consistency. Having the insight from Seb Piquet and Brian Nygaard to drop in every now and then was invaluable too. Thanks also to Laura Meseguer and Peter Cossins for their help with Kilometre 0.
The podcast wouldn’t make it to air without our fantastic team of producers. When we are on the road, The Cycling Podcast is patently not a studio-based show and so our producers are working quickly and sometimes with audio recorded in challenging circumstances. Background noise at busy bars and cafes, vehicles reversing or revving as they pass, Coldplay tribute bands, barking dogs, clanking cutlery and many other ambient sounds are part of the soundtrack of our July. A big thank you to all of them for the work they put in to get our episodes online as soon as possible after the stage and especially for the creativity they inject into our Kilometre 0 episodes. Jon Moonie has been with us since episode one back in 2013, and he’s been joined by Tom Whalley, Will Jones, Adam Bowie and Huw Owen.
Thank you also to our sponsors Science in Sport and MAAP, to our audio partners, Audioboom, and to David Luxton and Simon Gill.
But most importantly, to you – our listeners – for joining us on the journey.
Kilometre 0 at the Tour de France
This summer’s Kilometre 0 series is available on the Friends of the Podcast feed. Sign up at thecyclingpodcast.com. An annual subscription gives access to the full archive of more than 120 Friends of the Podcast episodes. There’s also access to a second feed containing the full back catalogue of Kilometre 0 episodes from the grand tours between 2015 and 2019. After subscribing both feeds can be added to your favourite podcast app in a few easy clicks. For the first time, you can subscribe on a monthly basis too, so if you’re unsure these episodes are your cup of cappuccino sign up for a month and have listen for yourself.
I was really pleased with how Kilometre 0 came together, particularly the two mini series – one about the 2013 Tour and the other a collection of François Thomazeau’s (almost unrepeatable) Tour tales.
Nominate a good cause
The money raised from the sale of Stacy Snyder’s Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes cups and bowls will be donated to a worthy cycling-related cause and we need your nominations. If you know of an organisation that would be able to put the money to good use to help cyclists, let us know at contact@thecyclingpodcast.com
Toast the Tour with Dvine Cellars
Raise a glass to the 2023 vintage with the collection of wines curated by Greg and the team at Dvine Cellars. The case of six bottles has again proved very popular but are still available if you’d like one. The collection traces the route of the 2023 Tour and include wines from the south-west, Bordeaux and Beaujolais.
I love all that you TCP team! As someone who had a very Scottish dad Richard’s sense of humour and obvious love of friends and people alike was and remains a tonic. One question is how do I get a link or more info on buying a couple of SS’s mugs and or TDF pottery? I seemed to have missed this (I did get the notice for her Giro mug) but not this time. I was really hoping to buy a couple for Christmas presents for my cycling buddies. Thanks again and keep doing all that you do with the care and humour that you so often do.
Sincerely
Peter Cameron
Lovely coverage as ever and great to hear Richard A in the final week, as well as FT, Mitch, Boz and Lizzy earlier. Thanks Lionel and the back room producers too - really enjoyed the tour this year and the pod made the perfect companion.