Bike Ping
I'm finishing a busy week, but ready for the prologue. Let's light this candle.
Fabian Cancellara was hot in the classics winning Paris-Roubaix, but he's skipping the tour to concentrate on the Worlds - what the hell is up with that?
Logistics are the most daunting challenge posed by the Grand Start on Corsica. The key innovation is that both the press centre and the organisation's headquarters will be set up on one of Corsica Ferries' ships. The Mega Smeralda will first make port in Porto-Vecchio and then sail around the island to keep up with the riders.
Running from Saturday June 29th to Sunday July 21th 2013, the 100th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,479 kilometres (before ratification). These stages have the following profiles: 7 flat stages 5 hilly stages 6 mountain stages with 4 summit finishes 2 individual time trial stages 1 team time trial stage 2 rest days
10 new stage towns: Porto-Vecchio, Bastia, Ajaccio, Calvi, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, Givors, Chorges, Annecy-Semnoz
I'm looking forward to some good stuff sprint week from Cavendish and Sagan. I think Sagan may have a bit of an edge on pure speed, but Cavendish has more support.