Shane Stokes is currently on the Tour de France covering the event as a journalist and takes us (sometimes very) deep behind the scenes of the world's greatest bike race.
Anyone from Ireland, or indeed any part of the English-speaking world, who has followed pro cycling down the years will know the name Shane Stokes.
The Irish journalist is currently on the Tour de France working for CyclingTips.com.
And along with colleagues Matt de Neef and David Everett they've been recording a video blog.
It brings us a behind-the-scenes look at the Tour and the less than glamorous, though rewarding, life in the trenches for the reporters covering the race.
The three pieces below cover the race to yesterday's second rest day.
The lads passed this caravan on Mont Ventoux; good job the last 5km of climbing up to the most exposed part of the climb was scrapped (Photo: CyclingTips.com)
Advertisement
The clips feature some great footage of what it's like for reporters on the race and also some really good glimpses of the top riders away from the glare of the main TV cameras.
These also some footage in here of the kind of Air B&B accommodation you can source if you wanted to go some of those areas of France with the inconic climbs and ride them.
Related News
And, tellingly, the lads observed some dodgy fan behaviour on Mont Ventoux hours before the carnage with Chris Froome having to run up part of the climb.
Their footage at the very top of that ascent shows why the race wasn't brought up there, with a caravan blown over and threatening to take a car off the side of the mountain in high winds along with a number of men struggling to keep a motorbike upright.
These clips are really authentic and they're put together by three really credible voices in world cycling; all in all, well worth a look.
To follow any/all of the guys on social media; CyclingTips.com Facebook page is here and its Twitter account is here.
Stokes can be followed on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
He also has a great piece on Sam Bennett on CyclingTips.com today, which you can read by following this link.
You'll get de Neef on Twitter here and on Facebook here and Everett (no relation to Kenny) can be followed on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
The latest
Part two
Part one
Topics
