Lauren Fignon was the best Le Tour rider I ever did see.  Being English, I hate the French , but Fignon was a great Le Tour cyclist. Nick P.S. Great to see some brief interviews with him on ITV4 too over the last three weeks.

lanternerouge:Isn't it to get the riders behind out of your slipstream? In fact it is the otherway around.  The lead cyclists does this, as it helps to see a pending attack and hopefully be able to react 'pre-emptive', and jump the gun first.  The reason all the cyclists follow and all weave about like a shoal of fish is until ...

They should be made to use 'Fred Flintstone' type cars... Nick 

Basically it is fitness.  The more training you do, the bigger gears you can pull at the same cadence - hence go faster ~ but climbs (et al) are still are steep, and still hurt, but you get to the top faster. Every serious cyclist will soon know their own cadence rate that works.  How to push bigger gears at that cadence rate is ...

This also has to be one from PE edition 1212: Nick ''The heat can quite literally fry your brain like a boiled egg. '' COMMENTATOR ...

sofa cyclist:His sponsor must sell bananas. Spotted him today midway up Alp d'Huez in a yellow jumpsuit. His headgear was the usual red colour and his trident looks like it is Mk 12.  Yep, all yellow suit today. Nick

It did on Freeview UK TV too - so I guess it was a technical glitch from the broadcast.  Nick

I concur - quite breathtaking shots today.  As to the riders, just a WOW.  Super stuff indeed. Thanks ITV4 for 'allowing' us all to see it live - a rarity in todays TV market.  Nick

BTW, the otherway around % -> ratio would be 1/(gradient % /100) - i.e. 1/(20/100)=5 (1/5).  Nick

Yep, that's about right.  Use the formula (UK gradient)*100 - i.e. (1/5)*100==20%, (1/7)*100=14.28% etc.  And you reckon an average 1 in 5 climb over (8km) 4.97 miles is NOT steep Nick