Ironically, I was congratulating myself this morning on not having duplicated a title for the first 95 paintings of this Tour. And then I called this one "Rolling Along" and blew that stat. This is a group of five that the peloton wasn't interested in letting go. While Niki Terpstra (Quick Step) was pushing hard on the front, the peloton never gave them more than two minutes. Joining the former Dutch national champion were two riders from Mitchelton-Scott, Matthew Heyman and Luke Durbridge, along with the French sprinter, Thomas Boudet (Direct Energie) and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). With today and Paris the last chances for the sprinters to get a stage, neither I nor more importantly the peloton were giving any chance of this break succeeding.
The Tour de France is full of traditions, and hold overs from days gone by. Before the edition of race radios, the riders kept taps on the where abouts of the breaks and peloton by a moto carrying a chalkboard and showing the time gaps to each group. With all of the information available to the team directors in the team cars, this is now basically a cute hold-over complete with an attractive woman holding up the chalkboard for the rider's momentary distraction. In fact, it only seems to be Jerome Cousin (Direct Energie) that is even giving the moto more than a passing glance. Guillaume Van Kiersbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) along with the Cofidis riders, Anthony Peres and Dimitri Claeys, seemed to just be getting on with the job at hand.
You can see this painting come to life at my You Tube channel, where I hope you will be come a suscriber. Or you can see it here:
I will be sharing one of my paintings being created each and every stage throughout this Tour.
This is a small 4x6 inch original watercolor painting that is available though my website at www.greigleach.com, or you can simply follow the direct link at the end of this post. Since it is an original it is first come first served. The painting was created using Yarka St Petersburg watercolors from Richesonart.com. The work sells for $75 plus shipping. And yes, international shipping is available.
Stage 4 has the Tour back out on the road of the Britton region of northern France, and has the requiste early break up the road. The two Frenchmen and the two Belgiums were collaborating now, but they will be cheering against each other with tonight's World Cup Semi Final between the two countries. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) is calling for his team car, most likely looking for a little information about where the peloton is (or where they are for that matter). Joining him are Jerome Cousin (Direct Energie) in his second break away of this Tour and two riders from Cofidis, Anthony Perez and Dimitri Claeys. This foursome buitlg up eight minutes on the peloton before the group decided to start chasing them down.
This is a small 4x6 inch original watercolor painting that is available though my website at www.greigleach.com, or you can simply follow the direct link at the end of this post. Since it is an original it is first come first served. The painting was created using Yarka St Petersburg watercolors from Richesonart.com. The work sells for $75 plus shipping. And yes, international shipping is available.
