With the mountains on the horizon the peloton set off from Bourg-en-Bresse on a warm day of riding to St-Etienne. It was without the American who battled on to finish last in stage 11, Andrew Talansky. RIDE spoke with his DS Robbie Hunter about the battle to get to the finish and we are reminded that inspiration comes in many forms. As well as doing a few interviews on the morning of the 11th stage, Rob Arnold also took a few photos from the ville départ (which you can see in the gallery below); he also stopped at a roundabout inside the final 2.5km to take a moment to remember a former rider.
Andrei Kivilev finished fourth in the Tour de France of 2001. A few years before that, he won the title of the Commonwealth Bank Cycle Classic in Australia. He was a generous rider who offered his time to others willingly and happily. But in 2003 he crashed during a stage of Paris-Nice that was going to his adopted town of St-Etienne. He died as a result of the injuries he sustained. After that incident measures were taken to increase rider safety and, ultimately, helmets became compulsory in races because of what happened to Kivilev.
Everywhere you look there are stories. Here are a few pictures and we let them tell their own tale without the need for long captioning…
Click the photo below to begin the slideshow….
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