Refresh
Simply 1km till the beginning! This will likely be far more thrilling than earlier days, when no one tried to get into the break – we promise.
Some riders are dropping again to take away among the rain gear they’d had on in the beginning. They’re anticipating warming up in a short time as soon as the racing will get going.
Nonetheless 5km to go till the official. It’s an extended neutralised zone immediately. The riders have to be itching to get on with it and heat up.
They could be chilly now, within the 16 levels temperatures, however will not be for lengthy. With an honest likelihood of the breakaway succeeding immediately, we will anticipate an enormous struggle from the flag to get in it – and so some fairly intense racing to heat up with.
They’ve set off from the beginning line, and await the official begin.
A variety of grim faces as they wait on the neutralised begin. They won’t be trying ahead to using on this climate.
We’re about 5 minutes away from the neutralised begin.
It is a wet begin to immediately’s Tour de France stage in Semur-en-Auxois.Observe all of the motion in our dwell report: https://t.co/yrIh8invLi📸 @LVCKV pic.twitter.com/6xsLKtNqx7July 6, 2024
As for immediately’s stage, it’s miles from an easy sprinter’s day. Not like the times which have led to bunch sprints to this point, there may be far more climbing, with the highway undulating all through, amounting to over 2,000m elevation acquire. And echelons are a chance to, if the wind blows in the correct path.
Some of the heart-warming sights of the Tour to this point got here through the time trial yesterday when Julian Bernard stopped briefly to greet his household and associates. Exasperatingly, the jobsworths on the UCI fined him for it, however fortunately Bernard himself wasn’t too bothered, describing it as a “dream second.”
And certainly, the Tour’s dwell broadcast of race sign-on paints a wet picture of the riders.
We’re round one hour away from the stage begin in Semur-en-Auxois, with Cyclingnews’ on-the-ground crew reporting a wet welcome to the beginning village.
In the meantime, the drama surrounding Jasper Philipsen’s relegation on stage 6 continues because the Belgian rider spoke defensively about his dash techniques in his column Het Belang van Limburg.
“After what occurred on Thursday, I do really feel focused. A lot worse issues have occurred previously,” he mentioned.
The crew revealed that the Dane had been struggling by stage 6 and seven, however “it was in Mads’ finest curiosity to cease racing so as to endure extra detailed examinations to evaluate his accidents additional and provides him the correct relaxation and restoration wanted to deal with his remaining objectives this summer season and the ultimate a part of the season.”
Learn our full story right here.
It is all drama already on the Tour, as second-place inexperienced jersey contener Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) has been pressured to depart the race due to accidents sustained from his stage 5 crash.
Howdy and welcome to Cyclingnews dwell protection of stage 8 of the 2024 Tour de France!