Tag Archives: Tour de France

June 29, 2026 · 15:44

Surprise from the left of the UAE

This is what we see and it shows. You see, I (silly old me) for the longest time saw the Tour de France as a European event, often ‘dominated’ by the Italians and the French. We saw the greats get the golden shirt, the green shirt and all the other shirts, but now, today, I got introduced to another player getting its non-oil hands on that tour. Non-oil because it is a setting using a muscular vehicle called a bicycle and this 2026, sponsored by Emirates and XRG we see that the UAE is contributing its team to this event. And (at https://www.tour-magazin.de/en/professional-cycling/tour-de-france/2026-tour-de-france-teams-uae-team-emirates-xrg/) we are given ‘UAE Team Emirates-XRG’ and the image there shows us 12 cyclers and a captain (likely cycling too) whilst we see “Top favourite with a top team: Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates are heading into the Tour de France brimming with confidence and self-belief.” With the added “With three riders leaving and four joining for 2026, UAE resembles the Tudor squad in this respect – albeit on a completely different level. Whilst all eyes are invariably on top star Tadej Pogačar, who has won almost every race he has entered this year; the 44 victories this season – achieved by the team leading the world rankings by the end of June”, the Tour de France 2026 will start on Saturday, July 4, 2026 until Sunday, July 26, 2026. This 113th edition of the race (it started some time before I was born) spans 21 stages, beginning with the Grand send off in Barcelona, Spain, and concluding on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. I would advice the team not to engage the senoritas in Barcelona and prepare for that race on the 4th of July. I just remembered, s there is something all people in Canada can tune into, to avoid seeing that 250 year event in Washington DC, they can watch the start of the Tour de France. What a nice coincidence. 😛

If you want to catch up on that official tour, (at https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route) you can see the whole map and all the stages it contains. For me it was a sentimental journey. I personally saw parts of the 6th tour taking us to Gavarnie-Gèdre, I fell in love there with a French young lady called Solange (in 1982) seeing that map brought on a few silly feelings. The only thing that I am missing is, nothing. I saw that place, I have seen France in a few ways and I saw several places. Orleans, Lourdes and one other place (I forgot the name) are still on my mind. The tranquility and the blessed silence from enjoying a Spanish coffee (cafe-ole) which was my interpretation of Cafe au lait (I didn’t speak a word of French) in those days (I still don’t) and the baguette with Cheese or pate my mouth still remembers. Still, today after 44 years. They were that good. Still, the UAE team will take that monumental and titanic event. If you want to follow them you can do so at:

Website: https://www.uaeteamemirates.com
Instagram: uae_team_emirates

The only thing I question is that they also give us that “Training wheels Enve” Why would a tour team need training wheels?

My apologies for this little created giggle, but I just couldn’t resist. I wonder how they hold up against Nils Politt (Germany) and Adam Yates (UK) who both have done this 9 times, so they are up against some serious competition, there are a lot more teams, but you can read that in the article as well as the amount of times they have started, there is even an Australian team (which until now I did not know). So you all have a great day and consider what sport you want to embrace, I say when you are in the UAE or the KSA, biking might not be a great idea. The sun is ruthless there. You all have a great day today.

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May 23, 2026 · 10:07

Press X to race

There was an article in LinkedIn and it reminded me of an idea that I spouted on my blog. It took a moment, but I wrote it on February 16h 2022, it was called ‘Gift for the militant wench’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/16/gift-for-militant-wench/). So whilst I was looking at the image with the text “Wow! You can now simulate real world places by grounding Genie 3 generations with Street View imagery. Google sitting on the mother lode of real world data, and is starting to put it to work!” Nice for some to wake up, but I got there 4 years ago. And the blog is the evidence. In a setting where I wrote. “So in my sleep I was racing through the street, there were paths, obstacles and my mind was making sense of it all (which took a few seconds) and I was seeing the brilliance of that Nintendo kart game that can take place in your home. A good idea, but I gave it steroids and turned it into something serious. You see, there are the F1 people, who love the F1, want to race on their tracks, want to be an F1 driver and this is not for them, There are good products and they are happy there. No, this is for the people who want to race in the real world.” I got there 4 years ago, that is how asleep some developers are. I still think that the non-serious setting of real world and a Mario kart (or wacky races) works the best. For the serious racer there is Gran Turismo or Forza and as I see it, these are decent products. Racing them to overtake is not that eventful. But Wacky Races is down and out, Mario Kart is for Nintendo devices, as such there is a gap for Sony and they could release it on Nintendo as well. A market that I saw over 4 years ago and someone could have opened that door, but as you see alas, and now we see on LinkedIn that is is an awesome option. So whilst we see “Can’t wait till this grounding ability extends to fused aerial + ground imagery for a large area of interest. One helluva interactive canvas for humans and machines alike.” I was there over 208 weeks ago. As I see it, someone is asleep in a few places. A setting that could invigorate a new Franchise like Wacky Races, there is another setting, and that is perhaps a little niche. If the graphics are real, you could have a fun addition based on the Brigades du Tigre (1912), organized by French Prime Minister Georges Clemencea, and they race is on the tracks of the Tour de France. A wink at Ubisoft (as they lost enough revenue), but the idea that it isn’t speed, but the Renault Type EK might be fun ride to, optionally you could unlock the 1930 Talbot M67 11 six, or the 1932 Citroën C4 G Torpédo night be a fun addition. We all seek speed, whilst the fun of driving shouldn’t be ignored and as such there are plenty of other ideas. And the main machine (not the mean machine) would be where it becomes a setting of speed with kart traffic, or more graphical perfection with the slower older kin that the Ford model T offers. As I said, these were merely ideas that sprouted from the original and that is to let people race in their neighborhood and that will have a larger appeal, especially with the younger racers among us. Still to see that others see the option 4 years later gives me my validation, I wonder when they will see that they themselves denied themselves billions of dollars in revenue. 

One can only hope, have a great day.

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