With the Santos Tour Down Under moving along, we can now talk about the 2025 season. Robbie McEwen, Anna Meares, and Phil are doing the commentary. I like hem. Robbie brings the dad jokes, Anna gets to ask the leading questions about road tactics, and Phil gets some pressure off him so he’s making fewer flubs.
Stage 5 had a nice class in how to drop a guy from the breakaway who is too high on GC.
I can’t find a viewing option for the race that doesn’t include crazy Uncle Phil, unfortunately. The man is so far past his prime that it is embarrassing.
Every year I try to watch the TdU, but man it is just SO BORING. You only need to watch the last 10k (at most) of any stage. I usually just opt for the highlights now.
That’s it for English-language TDU as far as I know. To be honest, even though he’s lost a step, I always enjoy listening to Phil Liggett call a bike race. Have ever since I was a kid. Him and Robbie McKewen make a good pair.
I agree with you. Phil is well, well past his best days but Robbie McEwen and Anna Meares are pretty good and help to dull him down
We’ve got Jez Cox and Adam Blythe on Discovery in the UK.
Seems like I’m not as interested watching pro cycling so far this year. I did catch a little of the TDU on Peacock. I do like Phil, having become so used to listening to him for so long. He’s def past his prime, but so am I. If I’m holding it together as well as he is at 81 I’ll be happy.
The Willunga stage was exciting at the start and finish, well worth a watch. Plus some very very stick bottles.
Todays CX battle was interesting but some mistakes stopped it from being that exciting imo.
I remember when the TDU was basically an off-season exhibition race. Crazy how competitive it’s gotten. Good to see.
Could be an interesting year for rules enforcement. JP Lopez got DQ after the 5th stage for sticky bottles. It was so bad that the commentators called it during the race. Commissars called it after post-race video review.
The yellow card system is going to catch out some riders (sprinters).
Road side feeding is now limited to predefined locations. UCI felt that the race to get from “random” one spot to another was causing too much dangerous driving by support staff.
The sticky bottle in question….
Yeesh.
I hadn’t imagined it was a ‘neutral’ motor bike, I had assumed it was a team car 
So, If you’re gonna be in the area for this stage, Stage 18 - Vif > Courchevel Col de la Loze - Tour de France 2025, where would you position yourself?
The Madeleine is likely too far from the finish for anyone to risk going that far out……so if seeing some action is the goal, I would pick a spot somewhere between 6-10km to go.
Or you can pick a spot halfway up the Madeleine, see the race go by and then get into a pub for the finish.
Depends a bit on how close you’re staying, how you’re getting up there and what road closures are in place. If you have bikes with you and can ride there (or at least park the car in the valley and ride the last bit up the mountain) then that’s the best way of doing it as they’ll close the road to cars a long time ahead of the race (and you can’t drive the last bit from Courchevel to Col de la Loze anyway, it’s bike lane only) whereas you can ride it up until a few hours before the race comes through and will also be able to get out again a lot earlier.
If in car then Madeleine as suggested above is a good option where you can see the race without getting caught up in quite so much of the road closures. Or another option might be Le Praz which is about a third of the way up the final climb but has the 2 benefit of being accessible by 2 roads (1 down the valley, 1 coming across from Meribel) which should make it a bit easier getting in and out - from Le Praz onwards there’s only 1 road in or out. Quite a few good bars and restaurants there as well.
If on a bike I’d ride the climb and get right up near the finish somewhere. Pretty cool riding a queen stage climb the same day the pros do it.
He kept doing it and wasn’t even subtle about it
Took 2 “sticky” bottles from the motorbike and then about 30 seconds later launched one of them and went for another bottle from them
I’d love to bring my bike, but it’s a family vacation that it just won’t be feasible I’m afraid.
We fly into Geneva on the 23rd. Open to staying anywhere in the vicinity for a couple days before heading to Paris, catching the finish, and exploring the city for a couple days, then headed to London for a few more days before flying home.
You can see how taking the bike would be challenging. going to rent a car for the couple of days were in SE France.
Is there a map of the actual course published yet? Considering just getting a studio in Courchevel.
Assume it finishes on this segment, no other real options I don’t think for going through Courchevel and finishing at Col de la Loze - Col de la Loze - Le Praz | Strava Ride Segment in Courchevel, France
Staying in Courchevel or one of the lower villages (Le Praz, Courchevel Village, Moriond) is a good plan and you can figure out the details once you’re there as the local tourist office will have a lot more info than you’re likely to easily find online. Whole area is also joined up by ski lifts so assuming some of those are running (they normally are in summer) then you may well be able to get up to the finish on foot pretty easily. Or at least more easily than convincing the family to walk up a mountain!