For all my Tour de France writing this year, please visit my Substack, and if possible subscribe and recommend to others. More to come! edwardpickering.substack.com

Cycling, the Universe and Everything | Edward Pickering | Substack

Essays, longreads and nerd stuff about cycling and other interesting things. Click to read Cycling, the Universe and Everything, by Edward Pickering, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscriber...

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Montmartre may have been a tourist trap for years, but it’s got about as rich a cultural heritage as any square kilometre in the world. During the Belle Époque, it was home to Van Gogh and Picasso, and artists like Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Utrillo painted lively scenes from the district.

My reflections on stage 21 of the 2026 Tour de France, featuring Stendhal, Picasso, Van Gogh and a bit of bike racing. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 21: We'll always have Paris

Reflections on the scintillating final stage of the 2026 Tour de France

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I loved the contrast between the crazy, chaotic Friday stage on the Alpe and yesterday’s understated, quiet ascent of the Sarenne. I also found the battle between Sepp Kuss, a smooth, classy climber, and Richard Carapaz, a tenacious, punchy fighter, very compelling.

My stage 20 piece, on a race of epic proportions and a battle of extraordinary intensity for the stage win. In which not much actually changed overall. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 20: Déjà-vu, all over again

Reflections on the final mountain stage of the 2026 Tour, which was epic in its scale and in the way it unfolded

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Pedersen, dropping Bernal on the Croix de Fer, there.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the climb to L’Alpe d’Huez – it was an annual fixture in the Tours of my teenage years, to the extent that when it was omitted from the route in 1993 for the first time since 1985, I was shocked that an Alpe-less route was possible.

I enjoyed stage 18 to Orcières-Merlette, which was far more bar brawl than Queensberry Rules in terms of strategy. These hilly stages have become incredibly complex, with break after break after break.

Today’s stage spent a little time heading south on the N85, better known as the Route Napoléon. So the riders of the Tour were not the first to travel this road en route to Paris, with some big ambitions. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 18: On the Route Napoléon

Another crazy day of non-stop attacking saw many in the peloton trying to take their last chance for a stage win

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Still not convinced that only playing the very least interesting radio communications, about 10 or 15 minutes after they happen, is a great addition to the Tour's television coverage.

I had some Green Chartreuse poured down my throat when I was living in France as a student, and I think my 22-year-old palate wasn’t quite ready for the medicinal herbiness or notes of grated bark.

Today’s stage piece, in which I try to distil the important facts of today’s chaotic race on the edge of the Chartreuse with the care that the Carthusian monks at the nearby monastery put into distilling Green Chartreuse liqueur. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 17: It's not that easy being green

A chaotic, unpredictable stage took the riders of the Tour to Voiron, on the edge of the Chartreuse

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Serendipitous discovery of the day yesterday came when I was looking at art inspired by Lac Léman, and covered in my stage piece. The poet Percy Shelley spent time there, and wrote his great Romantic poem Mont Blanc, which I’d heard of, but never read www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45130/...

Today’s stage piece contains time trialling, and also an account of ‘residence time’, which is the length of time water takes to get from one end of a lake to the other. Plus special guests Lord Byron, Freddie Mercury, Richard Burton and Audrey Hepburn. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France stage 16: Still Waters

The Tour's time trial skirted the southern shore of Lac Léman, a beautiful place which has attracted writers and poets... and racing cyclists

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Here’s yesterday’s stage piece, featuring Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, the artist Ferdinand Hodler, Mont Salève and, of course, Jonas Vingegaard. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 15: The End of the Road

Reflections on the stage to Plateau de Solaison, along with a look at some of the artists and writers who have been inspired by Mont Salève

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Evergreen post.

Edward Pickering@edwardpickering.bsky.social · 3w ago

Is Pidcock in that group?

Philipsen only 31 points behind Pedersen in the Green Jersey competition after that intermediate sprint but I'm not sure he's going to score a single point between now and Paris...

Yesterday’s Tour stage was a tour of borderlands. The start town, Mulhouse, has been, at different points, German, French and Swiss, and is not too far from the town of Basel, where the tripoint border between those three countries sits.

My reflections on stage 14, and what the 2026 Tour de France has in common with the Décapole, an alliance of city states in Alsace under the Holy Roman Empire. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 14: Ten out of Ten

The 2026 Tour has settled into its hierarchy, which is Tadej Pogačar, followed by nine closely-matched riders. These 10 riders are defining the race

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Given we've just missed 2 or 3 minutes of what looks to have been quite interesting action because of TNT's advert breaks, the least TNT could do is nudge their commentator to explain to us what the situation is, and what happened. The race has completely changed shape, in case anybody noticed.

Is Pidcock in that group?

At some point, he'll be overtaken by events and facts on the ground. Might not be for a while, but it's going to happen – the Tour was a week or 10 days from facing 43 degrees in Bordeaux this year.

Domestique@domestiquecycling.com · 3w ago

❓ Could the Tour de France move out of July as the climate crisis deepens? ❌ Impossible according to 🇫🇷 Tour director Prudhomme 📰 www.domestiquecycling.com/en/news/prud... 📸 Cor Vos

I wrote about the Belfort Gap in yesterday’s stage piece – I couldn’t resist it, what with the Belfort gap that appeared between Tom Pidcock and the other GC contenders. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tour de France 2026 stage 13: The Belfort Gap

Reflections on the 13th stage of the Tour de France to Belfort, which was as chaotic as unpredictable as the previous 12 had been controlled and straightforward

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My stage 13 piece, including the Belfort Gap, a corridor of flat land between the Vosges and Jura where international tensions have played out over the centuries, plus bike racing, in which the Belfort gap was 7:30 between Tom Pidcock and his GC rivals. edwardpickering.substack.com/p/tour-de-fr...

Tour de France 2026 stage 13: The Belfort Gap

Reflections on the 13th stage of the Tour de France to Belfort, which was as chaotic as unpredictable as the previous 12 had been controlled and straightforward

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So I think Lidl-Trek probably blew the teams classification today, if they care.

Edward Pickering@edwardpickering.bsky.social · 3w ago

Over half the stages done now. Who's going to win each classification? Yellow: Pogačar Green: Pedersen, probably KoM: Pogačar, probably White: Don't know Teams: Lidl-Trek Supercombativity: Don't know

Trying to use AI as a research and information function is getting so frustrating. It lies, it lies, it lies.

Impressive win by Jayco. They had four in the big group, but three of those came across in the Pedersen group, which took a lot of time and effort to bridge the gap. I initially didn't think they'd do it.

Gap's still going up, lads.

These days, Chalon-sur-Saône, where yesterday’s stage finished, is a fairly standard provincial French town. However, it’s been very prominent in years past. It was on the Via Agrippa, a major Roman road system, and it also benefitted from its position on the Saône.

Enjoyed the thoughtful conversation on @thecyclingpodcast.bsky.social about what the Tour victory record is. My opinion: it’s five. If you win the Tour and then get disqualified, you haven’t won the Tour any more.