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Hello out there, fine people of the cycling community, I hope you are all feeling fine and well and fizzy with excitement for the Tour de France which begins… um, like five days ago. Oops.
As I alluded to in my last newsletter, things have been busy in my world, in a good way, but also in a way that has meant I’ve been completely unable to produce any work over and above that which I’ve been doing for Domestique, and latterly CADE Media, with whom I’ll be working throughout July – more on that shortly.
I wrote the majority of this newslett3e from an apartment in Lille, where I attended my very first Tour de France. It was quite a surreal experience to be there, and while I had some work commitments, it was originally booked as a leisure trip, a chance to just soak in the reality of the biggest bike race on the planet.
Thursday night’s team presentation didn’t disappoint. A sea of yellow took over the Place de la Theatre in the city centre as the teams were introduced and the atmosphere was incredible. There were various ups and downs after that, about which I will hopefully write in more length when I have more time.
Anyway, this is where I front with you all – this isn’t a regular newsletter sadly. I haven’t had the resource time-wise to put it together, but I wanted to make sure you were able to see what I’ve been up to early on in the Tour, in case you want to follow along. There’s a few more bits and pieces too. Here we go…
THINGS WHAT I WROTE
Yes, I’ve been producing content, and the first piece is a fun thing I wrote for Domestique on the top nicknames within the Tour de France peloton – I really enjoyed pulling this one together, hope you like it – can you guess who came out on top?
Staying in France, but a far less widely discussed ‘tour’, the Coupe de France is a race series that I absolutely love, as you’ll know if you’ve read my summaries in previous newsletters. I was delighted to be commissioned to write about the series for Cycling News – it’s the first in what I hope will go on to be a longer body of work about French cycling.
ON THE POD
In our pre-race show, you can find out all about the Tour de France contenders, and how Sanny and I feel they’re going to get on, in the latest On Yer Bike, our quick Tour de France preview. We’ll be catching up on an ad hoc basis going forward, so make sure you’re subscribed to be updated when new episodes go live!
THE WILD ONES PRO SHOW
This is the big one! All through July (and a bit of August) I’m going to be a part of CADE Media’s Pro Show, a daily highlights podcast available on YouTube, Spotify and other podcast platforms.
Aimed at the casual or curious cycling fan, the show covers all the day’s action at the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, featuring race footage, analysis, and loads of fun segments that will hopefully entertain you all. It’s a seriously great product and I’m over the moon to be a part of it – listen in every day, and get involved! The first two episodes feature me on location in France, and from stage 3 onwards, I’m back in the studio. Here’s the most recent episode, from yesterday - find the rest from there and follow along.
OH HAPPY DAY!
Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…
There has been heaps of fun stuff posted on team and race social media over the past few days and weeks, here are a couple of examples but there has been loads more – keep up with the Tour de France Instagram as it seems they are really upping their game this year in terms of content.
This clip of Julian Alaphilippe and his little boy is too cute.
The women of the Giro d’Italia were introduced in a fun and novel way!
As for the peloton at the men’s Tour de France… I’m sure they are all lovely looking young men… right? RIGHT?!
Uno-X are fun guys!
FINAL THOUGHT – It’s just the Tour, isn’t it?
It feels like déja vu - it’s chaos at the Tour de France. Let’s face it, we’re not surprised. It’s the biggest race of the year, and just as in other years, the race has started at a high octane, unforgiving pace, already beset with drama and crashes, and plenty of talking points. This is how it is at the greatest show on earth - if you don’t keep up, you get left behind. It’s remarkable every year how all-encompassing the Tour is, eclipsing everything else, including the Giro d’Italia Women, and stage races in Austria and Hungary, as fans and media gorge themselves on the stories coming out of La Grande Boucle. Hopefully, I can bring you some of these untold stories in future newsletters. If you are able to keep up with anything outside of the Tour de France, then more power to you!
Of course, as I was out on the road in France for the first two stages, I was already starting at a bit of a disadvantage, but I’ve played catch-up and have been writing about the key takeaways from each stage for Domestique - check out my stage 3 and 4 write-ups below.
Speaking of Domestique, I may be a bit biased, but I highly recommend you bookmark the page and visit regularly during this Tour de France (and after of course). The content is amazing (I have not created any of it aside from the below two pieces so can say this completely objectively!) and covers so many areas - everything you'd expect and hope for - daily interviews, race updates, and race reports - but so much more - in-depth route previews, stunning photography, thought-provoking features, fun and quirky podcasts with excellent hosts, and analysis from the pros - for example Marcel Kittel giving his opinion on the sprint stages, and Nicole Frain bringing expert nutrition insights.
I will also hopefully be writing a post or two on the Substack - if not during the Tour, then plenty of reflection going forward.
THE LAST WORD
I have so much to say, and so little time. I have to figure out a way of sustaining this newsletter long-term, and fully intend to do so, despite my recent irregularity. If you’d like to support the continuation of this free newsletter you can buy me a coffee – thanks for all your support, it really means a lot. I’m opening a new virtual jar and putting any income towards organising a trip to France to develop a book idea, which I sincerely hope will actually become reality at some point in the future. Manifesting 🙏 And putting in the work, too - allons-y!
Until next time, enjoy the Tour, and keep up with me and my writing and broadcasting at CADE and Domestique. Normal service will be resumed…
Cheers,
Katy