Latest news with #ColduTourmalet
News.com.au
7 hours ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Bizarre moment Tour de France rider snatches cardboard sign off stunned fan
This is the baffling moment a cyclist snatched a cardboard sign off a stunned fan during the Tour de France. In one of the highlights of an unremarkable Stage 14, Julian Alaphillippe was forced to take decisive action on Sunday (AEST). But Alaphilippe, 33, had a brilliant reason for grabbing it, The Sun reports. The home hero stole the cardboard to keep himself warm in the brutal conditions on the savage slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. The spectator, who had scribbled words of encouragement to his rival Wout van Aret, had reached for a cheeky handshake. But it was the sign that Alaphilippe was after, with the cardboard tearing in half as the Frenchman disappeared up the rainy road. You can watch the bizarre incident in the video above He calmly placed the placard across his handlebars, ripped it into two smaller pieces, while tossing the scraps away. Alaphilippe was then spotted unzipping his Tudor Pro cycling trisuit, before stuffing the sign inside, in a last-ditch attempt to preserve body heat. Former stage winner Zdenek Stybar said: 'Julian is really suffering from the cold'. The Tourmalet, the first of four brutal climbs, was living up to its fearsome reputation over the weekend. And around 30km later, after the worst of the conditions had passed, Alaphilippe flagged down the camera motorbike. He appeared to issue a roadside apology, before handing over the soggy remains of the sign. It has since been revealed that Alaphilippe apologised to the fan later while meeting her and offering her a gift. The two-time world champion Frenchman said: 'In the end the story ended well, I apologised to the woman whom I took it from. 'I gave her a bib, and she took a picture with Wout. In the end, thanks to this, she had a better time compared to what she would have experienced at the top of the Tourmalet.' It was a rare moment of drama on an otherwise savage day in the mountains, where Remco Evenepoel abandoned the race on the first climb. Alaphilippe ultimately finished in 50th place, way behind maiden stage winner Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), who held off Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). Reigning champ Pogacar, who finished the stage second, marginally extended his commanding overall lead over Jonas Vingegaard. Meanwhile, Alaphilippe was among a group of riders to receive medical attention after being caught up in a big crash on Stage 15 on Sunday. Wellens wins stage as Pogacar maintains Tour de France stranglehold Tim Wellens of Team UAE won a baking and hilly stage 15 of the Tour de France at Carcassonne on Monday morning (AEST) after a 45km solo rampage towards the walled citadel. Overall leader Tadej Pogacar held on to the overall lead with a 4min 13sec advantage on Jonas Vingegaard, who had to fight to catch up when caught behind an early mass fall. Wellens had been part of an early break which only really got away once the fall sent a shockwave though the race. It was a large and mixed group that was whittled down to five before the Belgian champion suddenly accelerated and caught the others napping. This was a fifth win for Team UAE with Pogacar previously having won four stages on a thoroughly dominant Tour for the team. Wellens was so far ahead at the finish line he had time to high five dozens of Belgian fans on the run in on the eve of Belgium's national holiday. 'This makes me happier than winning a stage myself,' said Pogacar. 'He helps me keep this thing every day,' he said pointing to the jersey. Having previously won stages on the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana this triumph completes the set of stage wins on the three big tours for Wellens. 'Everybody wants to win a stage at the Tour de France, this is the special one,' said Wellens. 'I knew I was going to complete the trilogy and was enjoying the home straight with the fans. I'd been planning to lift the bike in the air, but I was so happy I forgot to do it' The remaining 167 of 184 riders embarked towards Carcassonne on yet another nervy stage. After a mass fall early on with Florian Lipowitz and Vingegaard involved, the Pogacar group raced on, leaving two-time winner Vingegaard and a pack of 30 riders to exhaust themselves catching up. There was embarrassment for Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, who celebrated at the line thinking he had won when in fact he was third. Sprinting for third place long after Wellens and Victor Campenaerts took the top two spots, Alaphilippe pipped Wout van Aert at the line. Poor Alaphilippe hung his head when his horrified compatriots told him. He had been part of the early fall, losing his race radio, and had no idea the stage had already been won, he explained. Pogacar entered the Pyrenees on Thursday trailing in second behind surprise yellow jersey Ben Healy but emerged with two more stage wins and a four-minute advantage at the top of the overall standings in his bid for a fourth Tour de France title. The defending champion said he had been ill. 'Half the peloton is coughing,' said Pogacar. 'I've got this red nose. It's because of all the ice packs and air conditioning I think, but I'm better now.' Monday is the final rest day before the 2025 edition soars into the Alps on Tuesday's stage 16 with the 15.8km ascent of Mont Ventoux at 7.9 percent gradient to its 1901m high summit. 'Mont Ventoux is for after the day off, so I don't want to talk about it now,' Pogacar said after the podium ceremony at Carcassonne. 'All I know is that Jonas will be attacking, I just don't want to think about it.'
The Sun
15 hours ago
- Sport
- The Sun
Bizarre moment Tour de France rider snatches cardboard sign off stunned fan… but had brilliant reason for doing it
THIS is the baffling moment a cyclist snatched a cardboard sign off a stunned fan during the Tour de France. In one of the highlights of an unremarkable Stage 14, Julian Alaphillippe was forced to take decisive action on Saturday. But Alaphilippe, 33, had a brilliant reason for grabbing it. The home hero nicked it to keep himself warm in the brutal conditions on the savage slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. The spectator, who had scribbled of encouragement to his rival Wout van Aret, had reached for a cheeky handshake. But it was the sign that Alaphilippe was after, with the cardboard tearing in half as the Frenchman disappeared up the rainy road. He calmly placed the placard across his handlebars, ripped it into two smaller pieces, while tossing the scraps away. Alaphilippe was then spotted unzipping his Tudor Pro cycling trisuit, before stuffing the sign inside, in a last ditch attempt to preserve body heat. Former stage winner Zdenek Stybar said: "Julian is really suffering from the cold". The Tourmalet, the first of four brutal climbs, was living up to its fearsome reputation. And around 30km later, after the worst of the conditions had passed, Alaphilippe flagged down the camera motorbike. He appeared to issue a roadside apology, before handing over the soggy remains of the sign. It has since been revealed that Alaphilippe apologised to the fan later while meeting her and offering her a gift. The two-time world champion Frenchman said: "In the end the story ended well, I apologised to the woman whom I took it from. "I gave her a bib, and she took a picture with Wout. In the end, thanks to this, she had a better time compared to what she would have experienced at the top of the Tourmalet." 4 It was a rare moment of drama on an otherwise savage day in the mountains, where Remco Evenepoel abandoned the race on the first climb. Alaphilippe ultimately finished in 50th place, way behind maiden stage winner Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), who held off Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). who finished the stage second, marginally extended his commanding overall lead over Jonas Vingegaard. Meanwhile, Alaphilippe was among a group of riders to receive medical attention after being caught up in a big crash on Stage 15 on Sunday.
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Holland's Thymen Arensman wins Tour de France's toughest stage after grueling solo effort
He went solo with 37 kilometers (23 miles) left from a breakaway, and quickly opened a comfortable lead. He started the final ascent to Superbagnères, which is more than 12 kilometers long, on his own and resisted the return of the main contenders. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It was Arensman's second Grand Tour stage win, having previously won a stage at the 2022 Spanish Vuelta. Advertisement As Arensman posed no threat to the overall standings, Pogačar and his teammates controlled the race from the back, with the yellow jersey holder and his main challenger, Jonas Vingegaard, trailing by around three minutes with eight kilometers remaining. Vingegaard tried a move with four kilometers left and Pogačar responded with ease. The two rivals then watched each other closely and Arensman crossed first at the summit, more than one minute ahead of the duo. Having won the previous two stages in the Pyrenees, Pogačar settled for second place. He accelerated in the final section to gain more time on Vingegaard, who completed the stage podium. Advertisement 'We can be happy and satisfied with the Pyrenees,' Pogačar said. 'Today we did a super stage, riding at our own pace all day long.' Overall, Pogačar increased his lead over Vingegaard to four minutes, 13 seconds, with Florian Lipowitz in third place, 7:53 off the pace after Remco Evenepoel abandoned. Evenepoel, who was third overall, struggled early on as the peloton faced another day of suffering on climbs that are part of the Tour's lore such as the Col du Tourmalet, the Col d'Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, and Superbagnères. The Olympic champion was dropped on the ascent of the Tourmalet. Evenepoel won the opening time trial but suffered in the Pyrenees. After struggling during Friday's uphill race against the clock to Peyragudes, he managed to keep his third place in the general classification, more than seven minutes behind Pogačar. In Sunday's 15th stage, riders will exit high mountains during a 169-kilometer ride from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne. Although the route could favor sprinters, the Côte de Saint-Ferréol and then the Pas du Sant, a 2.9-kilometer climb at 10 percent, could provide opportunities for bold challengers seeking a breakaway. The race finishes next weekend in Paris.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Evenepoel abandons Tour de France
BAGNERES-DE-LUCHON, France, July 19 (Reuters) - Belgian Remco Evenepoel has abandoned the Tour de France during the 14th stage, a 182.6-km mountain trek from Pau to Superbagneres on Saturday. The Soudal-Quick Step rider, who was third overall, stepped off his bike and entered his team car midway through the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, the first of four climbs on the day's menu.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: stage 14 sets blockbuster mountain test in Pyrenees
Update: Date: 2025-07-19T09:30:17.000Z Title: Here's the official', 'Tour de France', 'map of today's stage 14. Content: Here's the official Tour de France map of today's stage 14. Update: Date: 2025-07-19T09:30:17.000Z Title: Some Col du Tourmalet data via Strava: Content: Key details Distance: 18.83 km Elevation Gain: +1,398 m Average Gradient: 7.65% KOM (fastest time) Belongs to Thibault Pinot at 51:13 min. This was set on 20th July 2019, and you can view the activity here. Pro v amateur comparison It takes an average amateur 1 hour and 51 minutes to complete this segment, while the average pro takes around 1 hour and 8 minutes. Update: Date: 2025-07-19T09:30:17.000Z Title: Jeremy Whittle on Friday's time-trial triumph. Content: The second time trial in the 2025 Tour was expected to further confirm Pogacar's supremacy over the peloton and so it proved, as the defending champion extended his lead to over four minutes with his fourth stage win in this year's race and the 21st Tour stage of his career. Riding a standard road bike instead of a time trial setup, he was the fastest at every time check on the 10.9km climb, in many ways a carbon copy of Thursday's ascent to Hautacam, where he also triumphed. Update: Date: 2025-07-19T09:30:17.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Le Tour is Pogacar's. That much we know, as Tadej, as his good lady wife calls him, has been devastating as soon as the race reached the mountains, previous rivals unable to live with him. This, let us recall, is a rider who has also competed for the Classics all year; this isn't supposed to happen in the modern age. Though Pogacar is rewriting history and collecting stages at a rate that must have Mark Cavendish twitching. The gap is over four minutes, just a crack on a mountain pass away but can Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel rely on that? Today, the middle Saturday, is another journey into the heart of the Pyrenees. Time for a breakaway? The truth is nobody is strong enough to break away from Pogacar. And as he said himself: 'it's the Tour, you cannot just back off if there's the opportunity for a stage win. You never know when it's your last day on the Tour.' William Fotheringham's verdict is thus: A mountain classic: Cols de Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde, plus the pull up to the ski station, where winners include Federico Bahamontes, Greg LeMond, Hinault and Robert Millar, now known as Philippa York. Four big passes make this a decisive day in the mountains prize with a ton of points on offer; the stage winner will probably be a climber who's not figuring overall. Enric Mas of Spain might fit that bill, or the Austrian Felix Gall.
