[ritchiebaby]

This year's Tour starts in Dusseldorf, Germany (birthplace of golfer Martin Kaymer) on Saturday 1 July with a 14km Time Trial with a few slopes but definitely no hills, never mind mountains - a nice gentle ride along the banks of the Rhine. Sunday's stage starts with another loop in Dusseldorf and ends 203.5km later in Liege, Belgium. There are 2 Category 4 climbs and an early Intermediate Sprint in Monchengladbach (one of my favourite German words and football clubs).

It's almost at the end of Day 3 on Monday before Le Tour eventually reaches La Belle France, starting in Verviers, Belgium winding it's way through Luxembourg and ending in Longwy. There are 5 categorised climbs, only 1 being difficultish at 9.3% gradient, and an Intermediate Sprint. Early in the day, the race takes in the Spa motor racing circuit, which was notorious for high speeds and, unfortunately, fatalities.

I will have all the time in the world to watch this on ITV4 as I will be recuperating after a scheduled hernia operation - caused by lifting my big pension according to some!.

As far as Le Tour is concerned, my ones to watch are Michal Kwiatkowski, Jarlinson Pantano, Thomas De Gendt and Louis Meintjes with Romain Bardet for the overall win. There's no doubt that Chris Froome and Peter Sagan will feature prominently throughout and Mark Cavendish will be out to add more stage victories to challenge Eddy Merckx's all-time record of 34 wins. The Manx Missile is 4 behind, but having been unwell for some time earlier this year, will find it hard to be at the top of his game for Le Tour.

[themaclad]

Think they are going up Ventoux as well, looking forward to it

[ritchiebaby]

Geraint Thomas wins the Time Trial by a 5 second margin to be the Yellow Jersey wearer after Day 1. In very tricky conditions, which saw Alejandro Valverde withdraw with a broken kneecap after his heavy crash and many other riders come a cropper, Thomas rode perfectly to be a surprise winner. Fellow Spaniard Ion Izaguerre also withdrew after another crash on the same corner as Valverde.

Result
1. Geraint Thomas 16m04s
2. Stefan Kueng 16m09s
3. Vasili Kiriyenka 16m11s
4. Tony Martin 16m12s

The big winners were Team Sky who had 4 riders in the top 8, including Chris Froome, who has already set down a marker for the rest of the race. Expect to see Mark Cavendish make a big move in tomorrow's stage which is suited to the sprinters and we'll then see if his fitness and desire are equally matched. If he tires towards the end, Peter Sagan and Marcel Kittel will be there or thereabouts after strong performances today.

[themaclad]

Froome already in a very good position

[Lord Snooty]

Today's stage is from Dusseldorf to Liege. Think somebody at the organising committee must be an old Auf Wiedersehen, Pet fan.

[ritchiebaby]

Following on from yesterday's crash, it transpired that Ion Izaguirre suffered a broken bone in his back and both he and Valverde have had hospital operations. Luke Durbridge withdrew at the start of today's stage, also having crashed yesterday.

The breakaway started a few metres from the start line today and survived most of the stage with 4 riders. It took the peloton all day to catch the last two, Taylor Phinney and Yoann Offredo, only 1 kilometre from home - the breakaway probably lasted longer than it should have due to a crash at the front of the peleton as they negotiated a roundabout in the rain 30km from the finish. The race then developed into a mass attack from various teams to get their sprinters into position. Marcel Kittel was the victor, beating Arnaud Demare and Andre Greipel to the line. Mark Cavendish finished a creditable 4th with Peter Sagan in 10th.

The only real change to the rankings saw Kittel move up to 3rd overall, courtesy of his 10 bonus points for the win. As it was a massed finish, a total of 161 riders were given the same time.

Tomorrow's stage finishes with a 1.6km climb, suiting the likes of Peter Sagan over the out-and-out sprinters. A German won today when the stage started in Germany, so don't be surprised if Phillippe Gilbert, who was born in Verviers, wins tomorrow. I'm sure there will be another early breakaway, possibly at the first climb after 18km, but I think it'll be swallowed up long before the finish.

[ritchiebaby]

As predicted Peter Sagan won yesterday's stage. He was so confident, he was looking around while sprinting. He somehow managed to unclip his right shoe from the pedal, re-clipped in an instant and still won comfortably. His rivals were giving their all trying to win and he was almost casual in his victory. Michael Matthews finished 2nd and Dan Martin was 3rd. Other notable high finishers were Geraint Thomas in 8th and Chris Froome in 9th for Sky with Romain Bardet 12th and Phillippe Gilbert 22nd, all 2 seconds behind Sagan.

Geraint Thomas still leads the overall classification with Chris Froome and Michael Matthews 12 seconds behind. Peter Sagan's winning bonus lifts him into 4th place a further second away.

Today's stage slips back into Luxembourg for a few kilometres, then the rest of the way in France to Vittel, home of internationally known Vittel (no, not Sebastien Vittel   ), Vittel thermal baths and spa producing mineral water, the official water of the Tour - you might see their name on the overhead banners.    The route also takes in Schengen, which you also might have heard of, after 7.5km. No problems crossing the border there!

The finish should be dominated by the sprinters and their teams and the stage only has 1 intermediate sprint followed by 1 categorised climb fairly near the finish. All of the usual suspects will be there and Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel will be involved, but I would look out for Arnaud Dumare. To be quite honest, the stage is so benign (on paper) that it might end up a bit of a lottery.

[ritchiebaby]

I opened the report on yesterday's stage with Peter Sagan and today's is the very same, but for all the wrong reasons. Sagan was undoubtedly the reason why Mark Cavendish crashed into the barrier near the finish line, but it's always dog-eat-dog in these tight sprint finishes. “We decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the 2017 Tour de France because he endangered seriously several other riders including Mark Cavendish in the final meters (sic) of the sprint which happened in Vittel”, president commissaire Philippe Mariën stated. Personally I think Sagan has been too harshly treated with his disqualification, but that's water under the bridge now.

There was a breakaway of one rider for over 180km until all the other riders swallowed him up and spat him out the back. After a great deal of manoeuvring from all the top teams, Marcel Kittel and many others including Geraint Thomas were involved in a crash less than 3km from the finish, meaning that none of them lost any time. In the final incident Cavendish and 2 other riders were brought down - and it started off so quietly. Over 200km of genteel riding and 3 km of madness.

My man, Arnaud Demare, was the strongest at the finish, beating Sagan and Alexander Kristoff. After Sagan's disqualification, Kristoff was promoted to 2nd and Andre Greipel to 3rd. In the Yellow Jersey rankings, other than Sagan disappearing and Demare appearing in 9th thanks to today's win most other positions are relatively unchanged.

Tomorrow's stage is definitely one for the climbers, having an intermediate sprint after 102.5km, followed by a Category 3 climb and ending with a 5.9km Category 1 climb of 8.5% average gradient, with the last stretch boasting a gradient of over 20%. Chris Froome won here in 2012, so must be a strong favourite this year to take the Yellow Jersey from his team-mate, Thomas. Nairo Quintana, Romain Bardet, Rafal Majka and Richie Porte all have to do well on this stage to avoid slipping well behind Froome in the first week. Because there is no form for the mountains so far, keep an eye open for Pierre Rolland and Thibaut Pinot. Neither have any chance of winning the Tour, but are both very capable of winning a stage.

Mark Cavendish might have to retire at tomorrow's start. He doesn't like mountain stages at the best of times, but will be feeling even worse than usual tomorrow morning. He'll be thinking "Is it really worth it?"

[Lord Snooty]

Does Sagan have any right of appeal?

---

Cavendish out.

[ritchiebaby]

Mark Cavendish out because of a broken shoulder and Peter Sagan out as the commissaire will not allow an appeal. Very sad but these crashes happen time and time again.

One good thing about a mountain stage is that the field is split up long before the finish, so there is much less chance of another "incident". Expect lots of changes in the GC for the yellow jersey as the men move ahead of the boys. TV watch is now on!