📸 From Assen train station or a carpool spot: riders get last hug before Tour (or fear for their bikes on plane)
CyclingThursday, 03 July 2025 at 10:00
The Tour de France is almost upon us! With just days to go until the start of the race, riders are now making their way to France — or have already arrived — for the Grand Départ in Lille. Across social media, we've seen numerous pros boarding flights, checking into team hotels, or getting in their final training rides. The countdown is on, and for many, the journey has already begun. For fans, it's the last quiet moment before three weeks of full-on racing drama kicks off this Saturday.
Dylan Groenewegen gets one last hug before leaving
Teammate Elmar Reinders takes train to France from Assen
Geraint Thomas' famous last snap photo before leaving for the Tour
Michael Matthews wishes training buddies Tadej PogaÄŤar and Eddie Dunbar success
Toms Skujins asks ground staff at airport to 'be careful' with Lidl-Trek bike case
Teammate Jasper Stuyven takes a different approach: he flies with a private jet
IDL-productions
Favorites stage 1 Tour de France 2025 | A unique chance for big, fast men and their lead-out trains
Van Aert loses count: Belgian star logs heavy training on Strava after battling illness again
Favorites points classification Tour de France 2025 | If you can go for yellow, you can go for green too, right?
Favorites general classification Tour de France 2025 | Pogacar vs Vingegaard or can someone else exploit their weakness?
Favorites youth classification Tour de France 2025 | A one-man show for the white jersey? Maybe, maybe not…
Latest Cycling News
Mattias Skjelmose looks at polka dot jersey in upcoming Tour de France with more than a slanted eye
At the hand of returned Brailsford, INEOS Grenadiers dares to dream big again: 'We want to win the Tour'
De Lie explains towards Tour the roles of 'three-headed Lotto snake': 'Have to be honest during the stage'
UCI completely misses the mark with well-intentioned press release on safety, including Zonneveld and Plugge react vehemently
Steven de Jongh (Lidl-Trek) explored first 11 stages of Tour de France and shares his findings with us
Popular Cycling News
Preview Tour de France 2025 | Route set to test Pogacar’s weaknesses and play into the hands of Van der Poel and Van Aert
Van Aert loses count: Belgian star logs heavy training on Strava after battling illness again
Favorites youth classification Tour de France 2025 | A one-man show for the white jersey? Maybe, maybe not…
Favorites general classification Tour de France 2025 | Pogacar vs Vingegaard or can someone else exploit their weakness?
Favorites points classification Tour de France 2025 | If you can go for yellow, you can go for green too, right?
Latest Comments
- Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to Heiden. What he did was unique and exceptional but he wasn't the only one who combined those distances, nowadays it is just not possible and nobody competes in both distances. The same is true for cycling with for example the combination of Roubaix and de Tour de France. In Merckx era there were more riders who managed a top10 in both races than currently.Joostmehrtens19-06-2025
- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
- Merckx was able to win in a break away on a flat (sprinters) stage, what do you mean they did not drop that easily in his time. Vlaeminck won in the mountains and the classics, but now you need to specialise. The days that a Eric Heiden could win the sprint and the 10k and everything in between are long gone and cycljng is no differentJoostmehrtens16-06-2025
- Carsapaz and Del torro were not capable of chasing Yates. They paused and looked at each other because they didn't have it in them. Yates had kept his powder dry waiting for this stage and demolished both of them. They lost Yates won. Your second guessing is utter nonsense., if either felt they could close Yates down they would have , just like they did countless times for other riders. They blew up , Yates excelled.Uphillbilly05-06-2025
- Carapaz is full of it. He is absolutely irrelevant after a rant at del Toro. Isaac had no obligations to do anything for Carapaz. It should remind one of the saying that goes lke this: "If I jump off the bridge, are you going to jump too?" If Caapaz wanted to win the Giro he should have chased Yates with or without Isaac. And if del Toro could follow, then so be it. But it was Carapaz's choice to slow down and stare at Isaac. Isaac was on the radio at times and you can bet he was being told by the Team car to do just what he was doing. Did I like that he didn't set out after Yates himself, NO. But the 21 year old was probably being instructed to do what he did, otherwise you can bet we would have heard from UAE mgmt. that Isaac chose to ignore their orders. But what we did hear was they were happy with his result. Which I think was a terrible betrayal of their young rider, who I think was capable of more than that penultimate stage showed. The Giro finished on a truly sour note as far as I'm concerned, because it was not "raced" The most crucial stage of the whole 21 stage race was simply given away, playing games with the unwritten rules of bicycle racing. "Leaders jerseys responsibility" and all that nonsense. Just RACE! It was disgraceful.
reemmo004-06-2025 - Well this aged like fine milkGlyn31-05-2025
- This is just mean-spirited.agnessk29-05-2025