Le Tour de France - this is out of order!! But I love the tour!

 One of the things I’ve been doing recently is watching the Tour De France. My favourites, are as follows; 1. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) 2. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondialle) 3. Pierre Rolland (Team Cannondale-Drapac) 4. Chris Froome (Team Sky) 5. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) 6. André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) 7. Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) 8. Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) 9. Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) 10. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal). However, Geraint Thomas won’t win, as he is busy protecting Froome, so I’m hoping that Romain Bardet will (he’s currently fourth), and Pierre Rolland has crashed. Rolland is still in it, but he is behind by a lot. Froome… I like him, but he won 2013 and 2015, so I don’t want him to win this year. Bardet is only 44 seconds behind Froome (who is first), and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) quit (I’m writing this just after Stage 9), so that’s a huge favourite gone. Fabio Aru (leader of Astana-Pro Team), another favourite, is behind Bardett by more than two minutes. Because Contador, the team captain of Tinkoff, is gone, either Roman Kreuziger or Rafal Majka will become leader. I’m hoping it’s Majka, but because Kreuziger was second-in-command to Contador, he’ll probably snatch up team leader. So, out of my favourites, I want Bardet, Majka or Kreuziger to win the most. As of now, either Thibaut Pinot or Rafal Majka have the KOM (King Of the Mountain) polka-dot jersey, so hopefully Majka does. Yes, that is only a smidgen of my opinion on the Tour De France. I could spout half a dozen drug theories, like, for example, Alberto Contador hasn’t won the Tour since getting caught for drugs in 2011 (he won 2007 and 2009), or Nibali, who won 2014, yet came 9th in 2015, and is, like, 30th in this Tour. However, Contador quit nobly on Spanish soil (he kept riding, even though he’d crashed in Stages 1&2, and woke up this morning with a cold), at exactly the 100th km. Also, I COULD tell you which jersey is my favourite, why, and the reason Geraint Thomas is my favourite. My favourite jersey is the KOM jersey, because, in my opinion, it’s the hardest to get. The KOM points are earned at the top of climbs, and I’ve followed it so close, I could tell you who got it this Tour, and the order from Stage 1-9. First, Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), then, Jasper Stuyven (I don’t know his team), then Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), then Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), and now it’s either Majka or Thibaut Pinot (FDJ). Last year, one mountain stage in the Pyrenees, Chris Froome left the Peloton (main group), and took off, wearing the Yellow Jersey (first place jersey), and Nairo Quintana (Movistar, his biggest opponent), tried to follow him. When Froome left the Peloton, he abandoned the Sky teammates who had protected him from the wind. They were Richie Porte, Ethan Swift, and Geraint Thomas. They were the only survivors of Sky, having protected Froome and lead the Peloton at a pace that had burned out some of their own teammates. Geraint Thomas was in the middle of Swift and Porte when Quintana took off, and he was about to replace Porte at the front of the Peloton. Instead of doing this, he and Swift followed Quintana, going to help Froome, and leaving Porte in charge of the Peloton. Porte was overtaken by Movistar, but that was irrelevant. Geraint Thomas and Ethan Swift caught up to Quintana, who hadn’t been expecting company. Movistar had taken over the Peloton with IT’S three remaining riders, including Alejandro Valverde, a big-time favourite this and last year, who placed third in 2015, with Quintana second. Ethan Swift was and is Sky’s sprinter, so he wasn’t the best climber, but Porte was all tired out, so he'd gone to help Thomas. Swift fell behind Quintana and Thomas after about three minutes of heavy climbing. I don’t blame him. The trio (and Froome ahead of them), had been doing Category 1 climbs, the hardest and steepest. Swift was eventually caught up by the Peloton, and finished with the riders in it. Meanwhile, Quintana was failing too. He eventually fell behind Thomas, who was somehow still there! He even nearly caught up to Froome, and the two finished close together, with Froome taking the stage win. Geraint Thomas earned the KOM jersey for his trouble, because Froome, who actually had it, was wearing yellow. Now, you can probably guess why my favourite jersey and rider are tied to that one stage, my favourite stage out of the 6 Tours I’ve watched (I saw three stages in 2010).

Also, you can probably guess why I want to convince Jay to get the Tour De France official video game 2016! I could have Geraint Thomas, Romain Bardet, Pierre Rolland, Chris Froome, Rafal Majka, André Greipel, Roman Kreuziger, Bryan Coquard, and Thomas De Gendt on my team! Porte betrayed Sky to BMC so I don’t want him!

Sullivan

P.S. You can probably guess my favourite team, Sky!

P.P.S. Wow… did I just write a whole Blog about Le Tour? AWESOME!

P.P.P.S. Ok… one last thing! Max and I have put together a race called Le Tour De Dartmouth! Date to be determined. it takes place on Dartmouth. Anyone except adults can participate. Here is route+teams!

Le Tour de Dartmouth

Route: Use chalk and draw a line in between Nichol’s&Pearson’s houses. Start on Hughes side of the line. Go down towards Lake Crescent. At Derik Intersection, turn right. At Powell cross, turn right onto James Street. Go up James Street. KOM (King Of the Mountain) points 4,2&1 at Royal York. Turn right at Royal York towards Sarka House. Turn right down Dartmouth. Intermediate sprint for ISP (Intermediate Sprint Points) 3,2&1. Stop Intermediate sprint at Hughes House. ISP 1 at finish. Repeat twelve times. 

Teams:

Team Supreme*

Sullivan

Sawyer

Tinkerbox*

Kalum

Max

TheBlueTwo*

Owen

Alex S.

ManeOfChain*

Tao

Hannah

The Beasts*

Ethan

Joey S.

POWells

Hudson

Zuzu

*=Random names!

Race Rules:

White Jersey- Best young rider. Eligible for people 10 and under! Fastest 10 and under racer gets the jersey.

Green Jersey- ISP Jersey. The person with the highest amount of ISP points gets the jersey. 

Polka-Dot Jersey- KOM Jersey. The person with the highest amount of KOM points gets the jersey.

Blue Jerseys- Fastest team (combined times) to pass the finish line gets the Blue Jerseys.

Yellow Jersey- The fastest racer overall. Any age. The Yellow Jersey is the first place one. Ultimate goal. Finish the race with it to win.

If you have two jerseys (e.g. Yellow and White), wear only one, and the second place person gets the other.

Jersey Superiority (if you have two, which to wear):

Yellow

White

Polka-Dot

Green

Blue

Every three laps there is a rest to exchange jerseys (e.g. if you have the Yellow jersey, but become second, you exchange). The rest is for one minute.

There will be one lap before the twelve laps to determine the jerseys.

If one person on a team has a jersey other than Blue (e.g. Green), but the team has earned Blue, the other racer does not get the other Blue jersey. It goes to the second place team, and so on.

Going on the road is allowed, except on Royal York. Single file on Royal York sidewalk, and no passing.

Be careful when passing! Try to avoid crashes, but you can go as close as you want to someone else, even forming a Peloton or drafting!

If the race becomes too hard for you, the option to drop out is available at any time.

Watching the KOM, ISP and finish lines will be three adults. I don’t know who yet though! Volunteers are welcome. They will need one notepad each, to write down KOM, ISP, and finish numbers, and times. NO TIES! As we don’t have a photo finish, try to be exact! We need to know how many seconds everyone is behind the Yellow jersey by!