Tim Merlier claimed victory on Stage 7 of the 2026 Tour de France, winning the expected bunch sprint in Bordeaux after 175.1 kilometres of racing. Soren Waerenskjold finished second, while Biniam Girmay completed the podium. Jasper Philipsen received an excellent lead-out from Alpecin-Premier Tech b...

Its also about wheelies and drunkards in inflatable pig suits

The game of music chairs continues behind the scenes in the sprinter guild. The word is already out that both Swiss ProTeams are on the lookout to freshen their options into bunch finishes. This opens up spots to fill out for their rival teams, in particular Alpecin-Premier Tech who are close to sig...

Those who have survived the mythical Col du Tourmalet could look forward to some sprinter action in Bordeaux on Friday. Ultimately, Tim Merlier prevailed in the city of wine, beating Soren Waerenskjold and Biniam Girmay convincingly. Meanwhile, his rival Jasper Philipsen had to settle for a mere fif...

Sprinters had their share of fun in Bordeaux, which meant only worries for the general classification contenders. It's calm days like these which often cause major shifts in the power, in particular due to crashes. But stage 7 has been calm even in that sense, allowing those who have gone all out on...

Stage 6 has so far been the decisive point of the 2026 Tour de France with Tadej Pogacar dealing a massive blow to his rivals. That includes Jonas Vingegaard who lost over two and a half minute. Former Giro d'Italia winner Tom Dumoulin had noticed that most of Vingegaard's loss actually came after t...

The race will go through Port-de-Couze near Lalinde as it speeds towards Bergerac. Its here that the greatest ever tragedy to afflict the Tour de France occurred.Stage 19 of the 1964 Tour de France went from Bordeaux to Brive. Along the way was Port-de-Couze, so-called for the canal and infrastructure used to make the Dordogne river navigable and sustain several factories in the valley.The road layout has changed since. Back then there was a tight bend with a bridge over the canal. On the day of the race a vehicle in the publicity caravan skidded on the bend. Seeing the danger, the waiting crowd were moved off the bridge and to the other side of the road by local police.After the caravan had passed a police tanker truck carrying kerosene to fuel a helicopter lost control on the same bend. Only this time it swerved to the other side of the road, hitting the crowd and falling into the canal, taking many people into the water with it.Embed from Getty ImagesPeople in the crowd spontaneously started a rescue mission, one spectator plunged into the water to rescue the truck driver and several lives were saved. The race itself reached the scene within a few minutes and the Tours medical staff worked to help the victims as stunned riders look on, grizzly reports tell of body parts floating. Nine or ten people died according to accounts, including four children, and many more sustained grave injuries.Shocked riders opted to ride on, at first in a slow procession. A few kilometres later a man beside the road who had been waiting for the delayed peloton and unaware of the tragedy heckled the riders for being lazy. One rider, Pierre Everaert, got off his bike to punch his lights out. It needed the police to pull him off.Today the Tour organisers fear an accident in the race convoy and publicity caravan as much as the peloton, for all the peloton safety talk the caravan is as important. A boy died in 2002 after he was struck by a publicity vehicle, a woman died in 2009 she was hit by a motorbike. Police on the race are not just there for the peloton, they also test anyone with Tour accreditation for alcohol levels and enforce the public speed limits when in past years the closed roads were treated the roads as a private track.There is a statue in memorial beside the road today with 24km to go. One thing to observe today is if anyone else mentions the tragedy. The 1964 Tour de France is held up as one of the best ever editions but the Port-de-Couze tragedy is a buried memory. The organisers have swept past before without stopping. As Swiss journalist Simon Meier wrote the winners get to write history.The post Postcard from Port-de-Couze first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The Tour de France's unique allure is beginning to fade.I dont mean the spirit of the racing, the extreme physical endeavour, the skills of the riders, the sheer brilliance of the racing or the scope of the race caravan. Thats all still in place and still as enthralling as it ever was and Id bet its what inspired most of us to get out on a road bike in the first place.The problem I have is that the Tour, and professional cycling more generally, now lacks the products to back up that initial spark of inspiration.When I was a kid (admittedly a long time ago), and right up until the turn of the century, all the major brands had an affordable, entry-level bike wrapped in team colours.Just as young football fans want to wear their favourite team, or national jersey, we as riders wanted to ride bikes that resembled those ridden by our heroes, even if they were nothing like the tech being ridden around France.The same as our heroes Bianchi was always great at giving its entry-level road bikes a 'team' colour scheme. Matthew Cole/BikeRadar The object of my affections was a Peugeot Carbolite with Robert Millars signature on the top tube.The Carbolite was as cheap a steel frame as Peugeot could make. I saved for months from my Saturday job to buy it, and was so proud when I got it home and started my road-riding journey.In the Armstrong era, Trek made an alloy bike adorned in the USPS colours. Giant had a Team Once paintjob for the affordable aluminium OCR. Then there was the legendary Raleigh Team Banana. Bianchi always managed to put out an alloy road bike in Pantanis Mercatone celeste and yellow finish.Abandoned by the big players The 2002 Trek KDR 1000 was a children's road bike in team colours. Trek The startermarket, where you can buy a new bikefor under 1,000 / $1,000, has been all but abandoned by the big players. Not only that, but weve seen the expansion of premium-only brands in the pro peloton. These two things have edged out the chances of buying an affordable team replica. Neither Pinarello, Colnago or Cervlo has any bikes for less than 3,000. Even the big players such as Specialized, Trek and Cannondales entry-level road bikes are priced over 1,000. Thats a lot of money for any kid looking to get into cycling. I'd love to see the entry-level Giant Contend available in team colours. Russell Burton / Our Media Giant has the Contend for less than 1,000 and Id love to see a Team Jayco-AlUla colour-coded Giant Contend. Decathlon has moved its Van Rysel brand upmarket, but surely a Team Decathlon CMA CGM branded entry-level bike wouldnt be out of the question?More elitist than ever Tadej Pogaar's Colnago Y1Rs for the 2026 Tour de France is the most expensive bike in the Tour at 14,549 / $18,500 / 16,900. Simon von Bromley / Our Media Road cycling has become more elitist than ever. Top-end bike prices are astronomical. A pair of bib shorts can cost several hundred pounds. The best road cycling shoes are a rip-off. None of this encourages youngsters and their cash-strapped parents to get into the sport. The average age of road cyclists is getting older, too. In the 1980s, British road-cycling enthusiasts were in their 20s and 30s. The latest data from apps such as Ride with GPS and Strava shows the sport is dominated by riders in their late 40s and 50s. Recent surveys by advocacy organisation Cycling UK and the Department for Transport backs up that data.People aged 40-49 make the most cycling journeys per year, according to the DfT, whereas in 1986 TfL reports the average age was from 20-26.It seems obvious when you consider that these older riders have more disposable income.I can see why brands have chased the premium end of the market why sell 20 bikes at 500, when you can sell one at 10,000?But I worry that, as a sport and an industry, we are pricing out a lot of potential lifetime cyclists. The sport will no longer be the gateway to adventure and exploration it was for me in my early teen years and have stuck with ever since. More on the 2026 Tour de France Tadej Pogaar wins Tour de France stage 6 and claims Souvenir Jacques Goddet prize on Col du Tourmalet I wanted to enjoy myself: Baptiste Veistroffer shares the stats behind his 144km Tour de France solo break "Its outstanding" Norwegian who was treated for cancer now leads the Tour de France Ridley built this custom yellow-jersey Noah Fast for Torstein Traen in less than 30 hours after he took the lead in the Tour de France Who is Isaac del Toro? 4 things you need to know about the Mexican who could be a future Tour de France winner A Tour de France breakaway only has a 2% chance of winning, so why join one? Every team bike at the 2026 Tour de France