This week’s Club Sportico essay looks at the way in which commercial sponsorships and detail-oriented cyclists sometimes clash at the world’s biggest bike race. Tour de France riders are obsessive about their equipment,

Instead, it was his Classics rival Pogacar who distanced him, with team UAE Emirates-XRG setting an infernal pace up the final slope to whittle the field down to a select group of climbers, including Remco Evenepoel, local boy Kevin Vauquelin, and Briton Oscar Onley, who ultimately finished third.

Reigning Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel should be a major factor in Caen as Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel battle for overall lead.

The Tour de France rolls on Saturday, July 12, with Stage 8 offering a golden opportunity for sprinters to shine on a flat, fast route to Laval.

A three-week Grand Tour will always contain natural ebbs and flows, and, for much of Monday’s stage between Valenciennes and Dunkirk, it looked as if the peloton had declared an unofficial rest day, with the riders happy to cruise back towards the coast after a weekend of wind, rain and intensity.

The first stage of the Tour de France is completed! The 184 riders started in Lille, where the first leader's jersey was awarded. In three weeks, we will know who will take home the yellow jersey, as well as the green,