A splendid summer of sport

Hey there lovely subscribers, yes it’s me again, back with an interim newsletter of sorts… it’s not a ‘proper’ one – it might take me a couple of weeks to get back on track with the usual format of news, results and opinion as I’ve moved from full-time Tour de France duties to holiday mode, but we’ll be back to normal in due course.

First off, if you’ve stuck around after Le Tour Dispatch to see what the newsletter is all about THANK YOU! And to my regular pre-Tour subscribers, welcome back to normality (ish).

We are part-way through a high-octane summer of non-stop sport, as we careen headlong from Tour de France into the Olympics, which will be followed by the Tour de France Femmes and La Vuelta a Espana. It’s a LOT – but we love it, right? Stick with me for plenty of content from ALL the races – I’ve got you covered.

Before we move on to pastures new though, a few final pieces reflecting on the Tour de France for you to catch up on over at the website.

First, Peter Barnes considers whether or not Tadej Pogačar should go the La Vuelta.

Second, Adam Harridence brings us all the atmosphere from the final stage of the Tour, in Nice, as the race passes through the city, then bids farewell for another year.

And finally, I look back at a tear-jerker of a Tour, picking 15 moments that made this one of the most emotional races ever.

In lieu of a news section this time around, I invite you to read some of the latest stories from the world of cycling over at the WBR News Page.

EVEN MORE RACING!

During the Tour, we’ve had the Giro d’Italia Women, a thrilling contest over eight days in Italy that went right down to the wire. With Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) taking the overall victory by just 21 seconds from Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-ProTime) - a gap that was just one second for the previous stages - the race also saw the confirmation of Canyon//SRAM’s Neve Bradbury as the next big GC talent to come through the ranks, while there were fantastic breakaway wins for EF-Oatly-Cannondale’s Clara Emond and Mauritian rider Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal Team). Peter Barnes reflects on the race in the Race Reports section over at the site.

Other results news:

- An exciting Tour de Wallonie saw the overall victory taken by Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) after five days of fast and furious racing

- Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) secured his third win of the season at the Czech Tour, a race which also featured Thomas Gloag of Visma-Lease A Bike as a stage winner – the Brit returned to racing for the first since last autumn following a training crash, and marked his return with a win

- Caleb Ewan (Team Jayco-AlUla) took his first victory since February at the Vuelta a Castilla y León

- Lorena Wiebes kept the Team SD Worx-ProTime fires burning at the Baloise Ladies Tour, where she took an incredible five stage wins from six stages – and somewhat unsurprisingly, sealed the GC in the process

THE OLYMPICS ARE HERE!

Yes, the sporting extravaganza that takes place just once every four years has finally arrived. I am huge fan of the Olympics and have been ever since I can remember – I love how every four years, we have a chance to check in with athletes from sports we would never normally have time to follow to see how they’re getting on, cheering them on with unreserved enthusiasm while pretending to be an expert in [insert random sport here].

For cycling fans, it’s a thrill to see ‘our’ athletes making a cameo in a different kind of competition, fighting for gold for their nations instead of their trade teams, and being embraced by sports fans the world over, in the same way as we embrace competitors in badminton, hockey, archery or handball. It’s a showcase – a chance to bang the drum for your sport(s) of choice and to share them with friends and family who may otherwise not be too bothered. So bang that drum loud!

So far we’ve had one of the two road cycling events – Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) completing the Worlds/Olympic set with an unrivalled performance in the men’s individual time trial, while Grace Brown of Australia absolutely destroyed the field in the women’s race, in the final year of her career.

Over at the site, you can read about what it was like to be at the roadside on a wet day in Paris, in a thought-provoking and engaging account written by Callum Devereux – it’s really worth a read.

We’ve also seen Pauline Ferrand Prévot of France dominate the women’s mountain biking cross country event, in her final season of mountain biking before she returns to the road in 2025, while Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock successfully defended his title despite an early puncture, breaking the hearts of the home fans as he attacked on the final lap to pass Victor Koretzky, who had led for almost the whole race. A true thriller, and well worth a watch on catch-up, if you have time.

Up next, the BMX events, before the road race this weekend, and a week’s worth of track action in the velodrome to follow – the Olympics really is a treat for fans of a broad variety of cycling disciplines.

Look out for more words over on the site – including a guide to the road race, going live later this week, which should be useful for anyone who’s a bit newer to the sport – as it’s not just your average one-day race.

THE LAST WORD

Apologies again for the not-quite-normal newsletter, I’ll be back on track in a couple of weeks and ready to bring you all the news from the Tour de France Femmes too, including the return of the incredible photography of Justin Britton, who will be shooting the whole race for WBR.

Until then, if you’d like to support the site, please consider buying me a coffee – it’s hugely appreciated and honestly your support gives me such a boost – every virtual coffee goes towards enriching and improving the content on the site and gives me the motivation to send out newsletters and put together articles even when I’m in an AirBnB in Scotland relaxing with the family!

Enjoy the racing and I’ll be back with you in a couple of weeks’ time.

Cheers,
Katy