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SISTERON, France (VN) — Navigating the Tour de France is never easy. But after all these years, you’d think we’d have it figured out.
Monday’s third stage was a preview of what the 2020 Tour de France will be throwing at us in this COVID-19 edition. Road blocks, both literally and figuratively, were impeding our frantic daily start-to-finish quest that typically chews up a large part of any hack’s day on the Tour.
It started off badly enough, getting lost driving out of the nest of alleyways in Nice’s Vieux-Port. Then came a comical arrival at the Nice football stadium, where ASO underlings had journalists lost in a maze of stairwells, fencing, barriers, security checks, hand-sanitizing stations, and finger-wagging security guards. The morning’s refrain? You can’t there from here.
Almost as soon as we finally “got there,” we heard the pre-stage bell — kind of a like a bell lap in a critérium race — except instead of racing for primes, you need to move your butt. Then came a panic moment of trying to find the car in the dungeon-like underground parking garage in the bowels of the soccer stadium (remember, kids, to always take note of the parking spot if they’re numbered).
If you get stuck behind the Tour de France race caravan, the line of cars goes on and on for miles. Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
Once out on the racecourse — whew! — things returned to normal. Fans lined the road, the villages above Nice glittered in the late-summer sun. We stopped in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, chatted with some fans, hit a boulangerie, snapped some shots, and watched the peloton roll past. It almost seemed like the Tour de France, except everyone was wearing face masks.
We tucked in behind the broom wagon just as the heavens opened up. With heightened security and health measures, police were telling us there was no way we could jump off course. And without limited-access press credentials, there was no way we can pass the peloton.
We were stuck behind the peloton, the absolute worst place to be in a bike race.
In simpler times — before world pandemics and terrorist attacks — photographers and scribes could leap-frog ahead of the course each stage, using back roads and a keen sense of direction to catch the peloton two to three times, and still arrive for the finish in time for a tidy sprint.
Not anymore. We snapped our photographs early, in the opening 25km, but it was still down to the wire for us to arrive in Sisteron.
After some creative cajoling and pleading with a local police officer got us through the barriers, we plunged back down to the Riviera, just in time for what turned out to be two big “bouchons” — a special kind of French traffic jam — on the main toll road.
Luckily for us, the peloton was on slow-go mode, and we arrived in Sisteron some 30 minutes before the pack. Tout va bien.
A Tour like no other
Thierry Gouvenou said the 2020 Tour de France is unlike any other in history. Photo: James Startt
The above line has been the refrain so far of the 2020 Tour. Exceptional conditions require exceptional measures.
Everyone will see that play out in Tuesday’s first mountaintop finale. According to Tour race director Thierry Gouvenou, cars and campers will not be allowed on 27 summits and climbs throughout this year’s edition.
That will mean the climbs in this year’s Tour could be all but denuded of some of the most colorful and dynamic aspects of what makes the Tour so unique in the world of sport.
Cycling fans’ ability to get so close to their sporting heroes — too close in some cases — is an essential part of the Tour’s story. With the coronavirus threatening the Tour, race organizers felt like they had no other option.
The last thing anyone wants is that the Tour becomes a spreader event of COVID-19, and the rationale is if there are fewer people on the usually packed summits, the lower the risk.
Insiders tell us that it’s been a gut-wrenching decision for ASO to cut off access to fans on the Tour’s most famous climbs. Fans are the lifeblood of a sport that does not charge admission and does not have stadium seating.
It’s important to point out the climbs are not off-limits entirely — fans can still go up by foot or on bikes.
Cheering on the peloton’s stars will simply require some more sweat energy this year.
Time to plug in that e-bike.
Tuesday’s stage to thin the herd
Hood is picking Pogačar (left) to win Tuesday’s summit finish. Photo: UAE-Team Emirates
The final climb isn’t that hard by WorldTour standards — 7.1km at 6.7 percent — but the fact that it comes so early in this Tour in a truncated season where everyone’s form is all over the map, well, how can we predict what will happen?
One thing that will happen is that a few GC hopes will be torpedoed. We’ve already seen a couple of big names cede time. Tuesday should see a few more.
It’s the classic “you-can’t-win-the-Tour-but-you-can-lose-it” kind of climb.
I expect a few things: first, Jumbo-Visma will try to bludgeon Ineos Grenadiers again. The Dutch team is coming strong out of the gate, so let’s see if they keep piling on the pressure. This Tour is so long and hard, however, I wonder if that could backfire later in the race. Egan Bernal has played it cool so far, so I expect Ineos’s DS’s to keep whispering in his ear not to rise to the bait.
I also fully hope to see Tadej Pogačar to go on a flier. He’s only 17 seconds out of the yellow jersey, and he’s only 21 years old — of course he will attack! I just hope UAE-Emirates doesn’t try to hold him back. Youth exuberance only lasts so long. If he has the legs, let him run.
My pick: Pogačar for the win, and Julian Alaphilippe defends yellow by a whisker.
SINGAPORE (AP) — Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen gave only brief answers at a Saturday news conference in an apparent protest against series governing body the FIA for punishing him for swearing.
Verstappen appeared at the FIA’s news conference for the top three in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying — he finished second — but was reluctant to speak.
On Friday, Verstappen was ordered to “accomplish some work of public interest” at the FIA’s discretion for using an expletive to describe his car in another FIA news conference the day before.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has signaled he wants to cut down on swearing in F1, setting up the governing body’s latest disagreement with drivers.
After a brief statement that he was happy with second place in qualifying and thanked his Red Bull team, Verstappen kept his answers to a minimum and said he risked being fined if he said more.
What had the team changed on his car? “A lot.” Was he confident ahead of Sunday’s race? “Maybe.” What about starting alongside title rival Lando Norris on the grid? “I will find out tomorrow.”
As the event’s host struggled to get a response to his questions, the Dutch driver clarified: “This is not towards you, don’t worry. I don’t want to upset you.”
Verstappen’s silence was confined to the FIA news conference. He earlier answered questions on TV from the pit lane and invited reporters to question him outside of the news conference room.
Asked how long he’d refuse to give answers in FIA events, he said: “I’m answering, just not a lot. Problem with my voice.”
Verstappen was supported by Norris and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who has voiced his own concerns over Ben Sulayem’s stance.
After joking that Verstappen deserved his punishment for “foul language”, Norris said: “It’s pretty unfair. I don’t agree with any of it.”
Hamilton said: “It’s a bit of a joke, to be honest. This is the pinnacle of the sport. Mistakes are made.” Hamilton also seemed to suggest Verstappen should avoid the work mandated by the earlier ruling. “I certainly wouldn’t be doing it. And I hope Max doesn’t do it.”
Hamilton, F1’s only Black driver, earlier objected to Ben Sulayem’s statement that F1 should not resemble “rap music,” which the FIA president made while explaining his objections to swearing in an interview with the motorsport.com website this week. Hamilton said Ben Sulayem’s language was “stereotypical” and had a “racial element.”
PENTICTON, B.C. – Kiefer Sherwood spent several nights last spring chasing Quinn Hughes around the ice and generally pestering the Vancouver Canucks.
Now the former Nashville Predators winger is wearing a Canucks jersey.
After signing with Vancouver in free agency, Sherwood is at training camp in Penticton, B.C., lining up against the players he frustrated in the first round of the playoffs last season.
His former foes have welcomed him welcomed with open arms.
“I try to be hard to play against and try to hate the other team and play with that hate and that fire. But at the end of the day, it’s a business and it’s a game of respect,” Sherwood said. “You’re not going after guys if you don’t respect them, right? So now that we’re teammates, it’s just respect.”
The 29-year-old Sherwood’s path to Vancouver wasn’t linear.
A six-foot, 194-pound forward from Columbus, Ohio, he went undrafted before signing with the Anaheim Ducks as a free agent in March 2018, and played 50 games for the team during the 2018-19 campaign.
But Sherwood struggled to stick in the NHL, bouncing back and forth between the minors during stints with Anaheim, Nashville and the Colorado Avalanche.
Eventually, he realized that to cement his spot, he needed to find what made him special — and he landed on speed.
“It’s definitely something that I had to learn and kind of ingrain in myself and train. I think the saying is adapt or die,” Sherwood said. “At the end of the day, you can light up the minors all you want, but you want to be here in this league.”
To hone his speed, Sherwood added more dynamic movement to his training regime, looking to create a new level of explosiveness in his skating.
That explosiveness is the key to winning puck battles, he said.
“I want to hunt. I want to get in on the forecheck, I want to create time and space for my linemates,” he said. “And ultimately, it’s a possession game too. So I want the puck on our tape and to get it to guys that can make plays. We value the puck, we value possession, we value plays. And if we’re dumping it in or forechecking, I want to get it back.”
When he can’t get the puck back, Sherwood wants to wear down the other team.
“It’s kind of the game within the game,” he said. “And it’s that fire that I’m really focused on bringing every night.”
Last season marked a career-best campaign for Sherwood, who put up 10 goals and 17 assists in 68 regular-season appearances for Nashville.
He also appeared in all six of the Predators post-season games and contributed a goal before the team was eliminated by the Canucks.
“I’ve had to look inward a little bit and try to figure out what it’s going to take, and dig deep,” Sherwood said of his career. “And then from there, just keep refining and growing the identity that I need to play with night in and night out.”
His speed and tenacity hasn’t gone unnoticed at his first Canucks training camp.
“Even the forecheck drills, always he’s moving his feet. His effort’s high,” said head coach Rick Tocchet.
“I thought some of the one-on-one drills, he made some nice moves with the puck. That’s the stuff I want to see. But he’s high-energy, big-motor guy. Guys like that, they’re all over the forecheck.”
Playing against Sherwood in last spring’s playoffs, Canucks captain Hughes learned that Sherwood’s playing style means opponents need to always be aware of when the winger’s on the ice.
“He’s a really good player.” Hughes said. “I think he’s got more game than people give him credit for. I’m not the coach, but I think he can play anywhere in the lineup. And I think he’s just a great addition.”
Tocchet also believes Sherwood could have more offensive upside to his game, noting that the Canucks coaching staff has identified some places they want the new addition to work on his game.
“There’s sometimes when he has (the puck), he can slow it down a bit to make a play,” the coach said. “But … I’d rather him have the motor going, and we’ll worry about the other stuff. And he’s a guy you can bounce around on different lines too. So it’s a luxury.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2024.
CALGARY – Trevor Harris had a rushing touchdown and threw a TD pass to Kian Schaffer-Baker to lead the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a 37-29 win over the Calgary Stampeders on Friday night.
Backup quarterback Shea Patterson ran for a pair of touchdowns for the Roughriders (6-7-1), who ended a seven-game winless streak.
Brett Lauther kicked three field goals for Saskatchewan, while newly acquired running back Ryquell Armstead had an impressive debut with 207 yards rushing on 25 carries.
Clark Barnes and Jalen Philpot caught touchdown passes from quarterback Jake Maier for the Stampeders (4-9-1), who are 0-5-1 in their past six games.
Tommy Stevens and Dedrick Mills had rushing touchdowns for Calgary, while Rene Paredes kicked a field goal.
The Stamps had a strong start as Stevens ran for a 69-yard touchdown at 1:38 of the first quarter. Paredes missed the convert, so Calgary had to settle for an early 6-0 lead.
Harris then led the Riders on an eight-play, 63-yard drive that Patterson completed by scrambling across the goal line for a one-yard touchdown.
Following a 33-yard field goal by Lauther at 10:15, Paredes answered with a 41-yarder with just 33 seconds left in the first quarter.
While Maier and the Calgary offence struggled in the second quarter, the same couldn’t be said for Harris and his Saskatchewan squad.
After Harris led the Riders down to Calgary’s two-yard line, Patterson ran for his second score of the game at 12:58 to cap an impressive eight-play, 99-yard drive.
Harris then punctuated a seven-play, 92-yard drive by running for a one-yard score with just one second left in the first half to give the Riders a 24-9 lead.
Barnes caught an eight-yard TD pass from Maier at 4:15 of the third quarter to pull the Stamps back within eight points.
Shaffer-Baker made an acrobatic catch just shy of the goal line and remained on his feet despite taking a pair of hits from Calgary’s Branden Dozier and Kobe Williams. He then ran into the end zone for a 25-yard score at 10:01 of the third.
Philpot hauled in an eight-yard TD catch at 1:01 of the fourth quarter before Louther kicked a 32-yard field goal at 3:44 to put the Riders up 34-23.
After Mills ran for a two-yard TD at 8:39 of the final quarter, the Stamps weren’t able to score a two-point convert as Maier was sacked by Saskatchewan’s C.J. Reavis.
It looked as though the Stamps were going to get the ball back after the Riders went two-and-out, but Tyler Richardson took a costly penalty for contacting punter Adam Korsak.
The Riders subsequently took a 37-29 lead after Lauther kicked a 40-yard field goal with 1:43 left on the clock.
Calgary had one more chance to extend the game, but former Stampeder Jameer Thurman picked off an errant pass by Maier to secure the victory for Saskatchewan.
UP NEXT
Roughriders: Host the Ottawa Redblacks (8-4-1) on Sept. 28.
Stampeders: Visit the B.C. Lions (7-7) on Oct. 4.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.
