Tour de France challenge

So with the Grand Départ over in Normandie, I’m attempting a doodle-a-day for the Tour this year, each stage with a quick illustration based on some element of the stage that day, cycling and not cycling related.

Allez, allez!

Etape 1. – Saint Mont-Michel

Tour de France etape 1 - Mont Saint Michel

The Manx Missile Mark Cavendish took the first stage of the tour fighting off fellow sprinter, and probably favoured, Marcel Kittel to take the green and yellow jersey for the first time at the tour.

An exciting first stage, with a persistent breakaway finally caught in the last 10km, and a number of brutal falls one including previous winner Alberto Contador. Luckily it looks to be “only” road rash at this stage. Nobody wants to see one of the general classification (GC) riders drop out on the first stage, so I hope he makes a recovery!

Anyway, one of the iconic sights along this stage which skirted the many beaches of the Normandy invasions, was the island commune of Mont Saint-Michel, the subject for my first doodle. Tomorrow’s subject…Cherbourg.

It’s looking like it’ll be a wet stage.

Etape 2. Cherbourg

Yep it was indeed a wet stage, and another fall for Contador. Beginning to feel sorry for him…

Uphill finish on this one that experts pinned Peter Sagan as the stage favourite. Thrilling end to the stage with breakway rider, and polka dot jersey wearer, Jasper Stuyven caught 500m before the finish. Sagan duly delivered a strong finish to take the stage and the maillot jaune. 

I focussed on the start of the stage in Cherbourg, with it’s association with the film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and the grim weather outlook. Here’s what I came up with.

Tour de France etape 2 - cherbourg

Etape 3. Granville

Another stage win from Cavendish – just! The photo-finish just separating Cav from Andre Greipel at the line, Cavendish stays in green, and Sagan in yellow.

This stage began in Granville, a lovely looking seaside port town, and birthplace of Christian Dior. I opted to go for the nautical theme.

etape3 granville

Etape 4. Saumur to Limoges

Longest ride of the Tour, although as the website for 2016s event is keen to point out, not necessarily the longest. Seems worthwhile putting this stage in perspective today with this, slightly inaccurate representation. Struggling for creative interpretation today!

france2

Etape 5 – Limoges

The end of stage 4 is also the start of stage five in the town of Limoges. It’s not a place I know an awful lot about, but I’d been looking at trying to design a cycling cap to incorporate an element of one of the towns that the Tour goes through. This seemed a good opportunity!

Some good cycling and a couple of category 2 climbs at the end of the stage which will be interesting to watch and see what effect that has on the peloton.

Anyway, in the style of the pink Brooklyn cap made famous by Spike Lee, here’s a Limoges equivalent…

Limoges2

Etape 6. – Montauban 

Whoa, what a finish. Was it just me or watching that clip of the sprinters hurtling towards the line a little terrifying? Anyway, another stage win for Cav – he’s having an amazing Tour so far, and now second to Eddie Merckx on the total number of Tour stages won.

Here’s my doodle of the day, a representation of la Place Nationale – a style I haven’t really tried out yet, I think it works quite well. The idea came to me while sitting at my desk today!

montauban

Etape 7. – Lac de Payolle

Woops, I dropped a day out of step with the Tour and my challenge, so here’s yesterday’s piece for stage 7 ending in Lac de Payolle – not a place I know a great deal about, but after a little investigation, I saw it has a good winter sports scene, so opted for that vibe!

lac de payolle

Etape 8. – Pau – Bagnères-de-Luchon

Stage 8 was all about Team Sky ‘s Chris Froome. What about that mental descent and technique?! Much controversy over what happened on the climb, but to be honest I think he was well within his rights to do what he did. Every year the message is the same – don’t run with the riders….

froome

Etape 9 – Andorra Arcalis

Stage 9 moved into Andorra, so a simple design with my favourite font at the moment Arcon and the colours of the flag. What a day – looked more like the sort of swing in weather you can expect here in Scotland rather than in the south of France and Andorra!

etape 9

Etape 10 – Madriu-Perafita-Claror

First full rest day out the way and the riders are back on their bikes and heading back to France through Andorra. Froome holds a slender lead of 16s over fellow Brit and rider for Orica-BikeExchange Adam Yates.

Anyway, it was the valley of Madriu-Perafita-Claror that drew my attention. The World Heritage Site is the only region of Andorra without any paved roads, so obviously the tour won’t pass through, but it does go nearby.

etape 10 alt

Etape 11. – Montpellier

Montpellier done – next stop Mont Ventoux! Froome stays in yellow, Sagan in Green. Rewarded with a stage win after he led from the front pretty much until the last gasp on stage 10. Felt sorry that he did all that work and didn’t get the win, so I’m pleased he got it today!

I would love to have spent a few days of the tour in this area, particularly to say I saw the peloton off to that classic climb.
Anyway, this is a style I’ve seen before, can’t remember where or who did it though, but I really liked it and so have used the idea to capture the shapes that make up the Porte du Peyrou.
etape 11 alt2
Etape 12. Mont Ventoux
Well, that was unexpected! Surely the only time we’ve seen the yellow jersey wearer run part of the Ventoux. Beginning to wonder if there’s going to be fences all the way up the next time the tour ends up here.
Thankfully, Froome retains the maillot jaune and lives to fight another days. Same can’t be said with Simon Gerrans pulling out with a broken collar bone…
 ventoux
Etape 13. Bourg-Saint-Andéol / La Caverne du Pont-d’Arc 
Shocking events in the south east of France last night, sort of puts an event like this into perspective. But as Chris Boardmand and Gary Imlach said on ITV4 – to stop would just give the terrorists what they want.
So on with etape 13, the first time trial of this year’s tour – and one which cemented Froome’s lead at the top and now puts him in an extremely comfortable position.
etape 13 alt
 Etape 14. Manx Missile 
I think Mark Cavendish having the tour of his life, looks unbeatable at the moment. Looking forward to the last couple of sprints. So to celebrate his 4th win of this tour, and an incredible 30 overall, a little badge design for the ‘Manx Missile’. Looks a little more like a rocket maybe, but you get the idea!
etape 14 alt2
Etape 15. – Col du Grand Colombier
Etape 15 took in the Col du Grand Colombier, twice! I bet the riders were relishing that prospect. Another great stage, on a Sunday afternoon too, doesn’t get much better than that. Froome still well in the lead but the stage was taken by Pantano of Columbia to gift IAM their first win. Great finish, though Majka was going to bully him into leading him over the line!
Grand colombier
Etape 16. – Berne
So Cavendish pulls out of the tour?! WTF? I haven’t read much of the commentary on this but feel that his decision is a weird one, although I understand he’s preparing for the olympics, it’s a bit of a slap in the face to his team surely?
I kind of feel like if you’re in it for one stage you should be in it for all stages. Anyway stage 16 ended up in Berne in Switzerland – I wonder how many water bottles have been strewn across France, Andorra and now Switzerland…!
water bottles.png
Etape 17. – Finhaut
Whoops – got a little out of step here, quick catch up on the #tourdefrancechallenge – stage 17 starting in Berne and ending in Finhaut, the beautiful Swiss alps being the highlight of the stage eventually won by Team Katusha’s Ilnur Zakarin. Made this a real pastel focused circular piece with minimal detail.
finhaut 17.png
Etape 18. – Sallanches
Nearing the end of the tour, and looks like Froome has this wrapped up! Here’s the aqueduct at Sallanches. I quite like the colours of this one.
megeve 18.png
Etape 19. – Mont Blanc 
Stage 19 was won on the alps by frenchman Romain Bardet, so put together this font heavy (Railway) piece using the bike as stand in for the letter B. Chose the colour scheme to be that of the French flag…for obvious reasons, and the focus being Mont Blanc, the finish of the stage.
19 Mont blanc v2.png
Etape 20. – Morzine-Avoriaz
Effectively the last stage of the tour, and the final stage in the alps brings the race to Morzine-Avoriaz from Megeve, a stage that was won by Ion Izaguirre of Team Movistar.
Chose to use the team’s colours to make the M of Movistar that is emblazoned on their shirts, but also an M shape that sort of mapped out a heartbeat for the exertions of the stage as well as representing the switchback roads on the climbs.
movistar.png
Etape 21. – Paris
The FINAL final stage, Froome had a few drinks along the way to celebrate a 3rd tour win, and a very much deserved one too, he’s lead pretty much all the way and looked invincible both on and off the bike 😉
What a great event, cant wait for 2017. Here’s my final illustration of the #tourdefrancechallenge of the famous Tour Eiffel.
21 Eiffel.png

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