[ritchiebaby]

Once again the TdF is almost upon us. I will be on holiday - well, looking after my daughter's house - for the next two weeks, so my presence on here will be extremely limited. I'm sure Marco4 will be glued to the TV and hopefully he will find time to take part in this thread, as the rest of you might do also.

The Tour starts on 2 July with the Grand Depart in Mont-Saint-Michel with the 188km stage finishing at Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont in Northern France and ends with the usual Paris procession on 24 July - 21 days of racing with only 2 rest days. I will be following the race with great interest and will be especially following Thibaut Pinot, Marcel Kittel, Pierre Rolland and Mark Cavendish.

For me, the decisive stage might be Stage 18 on 21 July which is a 17km Time Trial, most of it being uphill, which should keep the leading climbers in the hunt for the yellow jersey.

The leading source of reference is http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2016/us/ov...route.html which includes everything there is to know about Le Tour, including the broadcasters, ITV, S4C and NBC plus another 54 all over the world.

[St Charles Owl]

I'll be keeping one eye on this, but that eye also has other duties as well so might not see a lot of it.

[ritchiebaby]

A very quick report tonight after a very boring tourist cycle ride until the last 12km. Only Fonseca and Voeckler showed any real intent and I'm sure most of the riders have had harder rest days than that. However it all livened up late on with a rejuvenated and focussed Mark Cavendish pipping Andre Greipel on the line by a baw-ha.....er whisker to win the stage with a long-time Marco favourite, Bryan Coquard, doing the same to Peter Sagan to grab third place. Cavendish now is 2nd equal in TdF stage wins on 28 along with Bernard Hinault, both behind Eddie Mercxx on 34.

Tomorrow's stage from Saumur to Limoges is the longest on the Tour, but is hopefully not as pedestrian as today's. It's another fairly straightforward flat stage, well suited to the sprinters, so I'm expecting the usual suspects - the 4 above plus Kittel and perhaps Kristoff - to be there at the death.

Peter Sagan still leads the race by 8 seconds, with the next 54 riders all within 1 minute of him. There shouldn't be much change in the rankings tomorrow, but the first climbers' stage on Wednesday might sort a few out. Mark Cavendish, after 2 stage wins out of 3, is 1'39" behind and is really only interested in the stages he feels he can win, trying to pick up other points along the way without competing hard for them. I'm expecting at least one more stage win from him, maybe even two.

[Lord Snooty]

Not seen any of this yet with Wimbledon being on. Amelia though did send a tweet to radio Leeds yesterday morning about them totally ignoring Cavendish's stage win in their sports bulletin.
This is after all, the station that claimed to be THE station for the Tour de France when it started in Leeds a couple of years ago. They included it in the next one. Almost word for word.

[ritchiebaby]

Another quickie tonight. Mark Cavendish got his third stage win on Wednesday and today saw another GB win with Stephen Cummings going solo to win by over a minute. Totally different from last year's stage victory, when he snatched victory from Bardet and Pinot in the home straight.

Greg van Avermaet retained the yellow jersey today, even extending his lead to 5 minutes 50 seconds over the unfortunate Adam Yates, who was knocked off his bike by the collapse of the overhead inflatable denoting 1km to go - a classic comedy moment for the viewers but not for him. GvA might just hold on to the yellow jersey tomorrow but it looks unlikely with the some proper mountains, including the punishing Col du Tourmalet followed by a Category 2 climb and two Category 1 climbs, coming up tomorrow. There's another barsteward of a day on Sunday on the Spanish/French border, with 5 climbs. The riders will definitely deserve their rest day on Monday and we might even see the first of the withdrawals..

Nibali and Pinot struggled today and look out of it now, but the stage is set for 10 or 12 riders, including Froome and Quintana to move up in their bids for GC success.

[Lord Snooty]

Managed to see a bit tonight. Enough to laugh at the deflating inflatable.
Can't these French organise owt right?

[ritchiebaby]

Catch up time again.

Chris Froome won Stage 8 in a tremendous downhill attack to win the stage and lead the GC. It came as a big surprise to the rest of the field, as the riders who should have responded didn't. Quintana, who had followed Froome's back wheel all day, seemed bemused and didn't know what to do.

Tom Doumoulin won the following day with a large breakaway group sped away in fine conditions. In the last part of the race there was a torrential hailstorm which saw Doumoulin stage an attack which he comfortably held off the rest, and the GC contenders plodded home.

Michael Matthews won today's stage from Peter Sagan in a breakaway from the peloton, ably assisted by 2 of his Orica Bikeexchange teammates. Sagan ran the show from the front all the way and must be satisfied with the 45 point haul for the green jersey (Points) competition. In the race for the yellow (GC) jersey, Chris Froome still leads by 16 seconds from Adam Yates, with a further 11 riders within 2 minutes of Froome. The polka dot (King of the Mountains) jersey is worn by Thibault Pinot, with the white jersey (Youth)race being led by Adam Yates.

The sight of two races in one might become a fairly common sight in the next week - one for the race points and/or stage win and a more cagey, tactical one for the GC competition. The two races might join up in some of the stages, especially in the serious climbs. Nairo Quintana will surely be comfortable with a 23 second deficit, as he normally does his catching up in the third week, but he should be interested in attacking Froome on Thursday on Mont Ventoux..

[ritchiebaby]

I'm now back on track here, although after today's calamitous crash near the finish, I'll be reporting on the Tour de Farce!

I've always felt that the cretins who harass the riders, running beside them, waving flags in their faces and crowding in so that the riders can't race properly should be made to move aside, by force if necessary. They're the type of self-centred morons who think the world wants to see them. TOSSERS!!! I would gladly drive the snowplough that removes them from the road.    It's a serious racing event contested by top athletes and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

Yesterday, Peter Sagan again led the attacks, this time winning the stage, closely followed by Chris Froome and Maciej Bodnar. By following Sagan, Froome extended his overall lead by another 12 seconds, and looks invincible. He is attacking at every opportunity and is dominating Quintana, who many, including me, felt would give him a real run for his money.

On today's shortened stage, because of 75mph winds on the top of Mont Ventoux, there was a 13man breakaway group. None of them were threatening the GC leaders and they were allowed to go. After various attacks, the Belgian duo of Thomas De Gendt and Serge Pauwels finished ahead of Daniel Navarro well ahead of the others. Well behind there was an attack by GC contenders, Richie Porte, Bauke Mollema and Chris Froome who all hit the camera motorbike which had been forced to brake hard to avoid a spectator. Mollema managed to get back in the race right away, but Porte and Froome didn't with Froome running up the hill before getting a spare bike then another to complete the stage in 25th place. Quite rightly, Porte and Froome were given the same time as 10th placed Mollema, to right the injustice suffered during the race. Once again Quintana was found lacking and the biggest damage to him might be psychological.

The overall effect is that Froome leads the GC by 47 seconds from Adam Yates, with Quintana 54 seconds behind and Mollema 56 seconds behind.

Peter Sagan will be hot favourite for the Green Jersey, leading by 90 points from Mark Cavendish with Marcel Kittel a further 17 points behind.

Winning the 3 climbs today means that De Gendt moves to the top of the King of the Mountains rankings on 89 points, with Thibaut Pinot on 80 points and Rafal Makja on 77.

Yates leads the Young Rider classification by 1'42" from Louis Meintjes, and by 3'41" from Warren Barguil.

Tomorrow's stage is a 37.5km Time Trial, a mere warm-up for Saturday's sprinters stage. I expect Froome to be in contention in this, with Tom Dumoulin and perhaps Tony Martin to be competing for the win.

[Lord Snooty]

Whoops! Unfortunate timing of the snowplough comment there, Ritchie. I get what you mean though. Bloody morons.

[ritchiebaby]

Very true, Snooty. Terrible timing in fact, considering that the horrific murder of 84 innocent people was just minutes away when I made that comment. It just goes to show that even the most flippant remarks made in the heat of the moment can come back to bite you on the bum. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims, including those still in hospital. Also spare a thought for those who witnessed the carnage and only just escaped with their lives.

It was only right that the TdF continued today as we cannot let the murderer dictate our lives as he would want to. In short, Tom Dumoulin won today's Time Trial with Chris Froome over a minute behind in second place, meaning that Froome has increased his overall lead over the other GC challengers. Tony Martin came in 9th. Instead of the usual podium presentations, the jersey wearers came onto the stage and a minute's silence was held. The presentation flowers were then placed on the stage in tribute.