TOUR DE FRANCE 2014

No , Tommy , weather got even better.

Ah. Just Stoke weather - as usual - then.

kenny mann     05 Jul 14 11:29 
can't believe the crowds. Staggering.



Ridiculous Imo. Akin to mass hysteria. What's the point, all you'll see is 10 secs of cyclists and preceded by and followed by 30 mins of motorised  cavalcade. Complete waste of time and overhyped nonsense.

You're a complete waste of time, and full of shyte nonsense.

say what you feel man, don't beat about the bush !

Do these breakaways just happen on instinct or do you think certain riders/teams get together before hand and plan it?

For once i agree with facts

It's rumoured that by the time the riders leave the Olympio Park area, Team Mogadishu will have vanished into thin air.

Olympic ffs

Where are all the TDF viewers today?

Was Newham shown in a good light?

first post, cracker

http://bit.ly/1mtqPZ8

see froome has taken a tumble early on in 2day's stage
postulating as 2 how much he may be inconvenienced esp in 2 moro's cobbles stge with all the jarring
drifting out in the o/r now to 2.4 cont 2.76 nibs 9.2

Would you like to purchase some punctuation?

FOYDC

For
Once
You're
Dead
Correct?

You can see from that video why Froome said he was covered in goose pimples on day two, Fishy.

Fantastic crowds.

Made today's French turnout look very poor.

I reckon they should re-route next year's Tour de France wholly in Britain!

It was great to see Tommy Voeckler in front for so long today, tongue a-lolling!

Just seen the replay of yesterdays tour.
I was on screen for 1/4 of a second in Felsted but it was a bit blurred

It was a brilliant day though, and essex did us proud

Great stuff Moony!

Those cobbles tomorrow are certainly going to test Froomey's wrist.
Let's hope he can put up with them - and doesn't take another tumble.

Great pics og Britain in the first 3 days of the Tour on the Cycle Show on ITV4 now.

if bike riding is so popular what happened to the milk race?

It's more or less been replaced by The Tour of Britain, BB.
It's been a big success in the last few years.

They're missing the Stoke stage this year, unfortunately, but hopefully it'll be on the agenda again next year as it's very popular here.

Here's the map of where they'll be cycling this September:

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/stages/#.U7xB2JRdWSo

call me a taxi     08 Jul 14 17:26 
For
Once
You're
Dead
Correct?

smth like that

Can anyone tell me why we have to wait until 1pm everyday on ITV4 when the race is in France before we can get live coverage when Eurosport have it from the off?

*2pm

Numbers...

Blimey this is going to be treacherous with all the rain.

Blimey, third down for Froome and they haven't even reached the cobbles yet.

He looks a goner to me

Froome abandons.

Game over

Very bad luck for him.

Crikey, that was a cartwheel!

backed this fella for a tenner for a bit extra interest.

Fabian Cancellara is an obvious candidate to make a move on the cobbles. The three-time Paris-Roubaix winner had another excellent spring campaign in 2014 and he has looked good so far in this race. With so many teams focused on getting their GC leader safely to the finish, Cancellara could put in a dig from far out and remain solo all the way to the line; he certainly seems to be the likeliest candidate for an escape victory. What sets him apart here from the many classics-specialists here is his varied toolset; he is much more than a cobbled specialist, with soloing ability almost unrivaled in the peloton and a decent finishing kick as well, should he come to the line with a group. As this stage is not as long or as difficult as the spring classics, that broad toolset could be pivotal.

Looks like Boom. Ah well.

When you take drugs you are inclined to have accidents.

It was a boom boom for Boom.

Very well done to him.

What a very interesting stage this has been for the rest of Le Tour.

They're all coming down like skittles again today.

Liggett getting somebody wrong again tries to excuse himself by saying "He's got a beard like Lopez"!

For anyone that wants to follow what's going on in the stages before ITV4 goes live at 2pm - you can follow the text on Le Tour site here:

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2014/us/live/aso/


Why don't they start transmission from the begining when they've taken such big efforts in getting more people interested in cycling?
Stage 7 started today at 10:50am.

Itv did their own production in the UK hence pictures from the start.
Once on the continent they take pictures from a host provider as per Eurosport.

I know, Geoff, but Eurosport transmit from the beginning of each stage, don't they?

Hi Tommy as far as im aware Eurosport dont start Live coverage until 1.30 /2.00 pm just prior to that it is the highlights of  previous days race they show.

Ah, I didn't know that, Geoff. I though they were live from the off.

*thought

This is a cracking finish.

Go Jens!

Brilliant win for OPQ.
Well done Matteo Trentin.

Live coverage on ITV4 earlier tomorrow at 1pm.

Could be a crucial stage today for who eventually wins.

ITV4 - race on live now.

stage 8, 101 min lead, plenty matched at 1000, leaders being pulled back, could be close

*11 sry

Distracted by the racing, I'm focusing on this now.

luckily kadri went when he did otherwise it would have been brown pants time

Well done Kadri.

But how good was that from Richie Porte?

Should be a fantastic stage today with all the climbs.

It's on early today on ITV4, as in now.

Sh1tty weather again over there .

Contador down

Contador out

Spartacus out

Round up of all the stages so far on ITV4 on now.

It was more than that. Great programme. Catch it later on ITV4 or tomorrow if you're a cycling fan and missed it tonight.

Yes. Excellent programme. With the way the favourites have been hitting the deck I might chance a small interest on Richie Porte.

I just wish I'd have gone with Nibali @15.5 on the opening stage when David Millar was bigging him up so much on ITV4 in the pre-race chat. Could have greened up so long ago at excellent odds - but yes, Porte is still in with a chance.

To clarify: Wish I'd gone for Nibali as race winner on the first day @15.5

Don't we all.

haha! Yes, I suppose we do!

I really hope Richie Porte manages to do it now!

Very well done in holding them off, Gallopin.

Great gesture by Le Tour organisers in taking Jens by surprise the other day in presenting him with 6 Yellow jerseys for his kids in honour of his terrific contribution to the wonderful race over the years.
You can read about it here - and see a picture of Jens having the jerseys presented to him:

http://blogs.bicycling.com/blogs/hardlyserious/the-day-i-got-six-yellow-jerseys

Cracking finish to this stage with just over 5km to go.

Wow, how unlucky is that for Bauer?!

Brilliant finish though.

Well done Alexander Kristoff.

Poor old Bauer. He's obviously gutted.
All those miles at the front to have victory snatched away from him in the final few seconds.

Great comments by Jack Bauer after the end of the race - just shown on the highlights show.

What a bloody shame - 3 seconds to glory!

Just watched the highlights show again.

Just such a shame that Jack couldn't get the win after all that effort.

Big round-up show on ITV4 now seeing that it's a rest day.

These are always good.

round up was excellent - especially the Christophe Bassons interview. Did anyone see it?

Yes, I saw it, BigH - and very good was the interview.
What a vile piece of work that Armstrong was/is.

I also caught half of a new documentary about Armstrong on BBC4 a few weeks a go and that was also very good.
I'll check if it's still available on the iplayer later.

Go Tommy Voeckler!

Early start on ITV4 today for the last mountain stage.
Starts in 5 mins.

Oh, and the Armstrong programme isn't available on the iplayer at the moment but no doubt they'll repeat it again in the near future.
It's well worth watching when they do.

What a fantastic Tour it would have been this year if Froome and Contador hadn't had to abandon mid-race.
With those two and Nibali in such top form I reckon it would have gone right to the wire.

chapeau Nibali but he's no Marco Pantani

...and i see someone brought along an actual bear!

Haha! I saw it!

today's random animal: a facking elephant!

http://bit.ly/1AiCxMy

http://bit.ly/1lG5cS1

Hahaha!

How good will next year's tdf be??? Nibali, Contador, Froome & Quintana. All backed by super-powerful teams and all up for it. Has the potential to be one of the best tdfs ever.

Downside for me this year has been the obvious cheating by certain members of the peloton (mentioning no names Tinkoff)

Aye Marychain.
I can't wait to see Quintana again.

I kept up with what was going on in the Giro through the BBC site (no Sky or Eurosport here) and as he won it, it looks like he made the right decision about leaving out Le Tour from this season's agenda.
It will be great if the four main contenders are at their peak for next year's race.

I think he probably would have won the Tour this year (especially without Froome/Contador) but MS clearly just wanted to win any Grand Tour this year and doing what they did meant they could also give Valverde one final crack at the tdf.

I went out there this year and did the Etape du Tour on the Tourmalet/Hautacam stage (8hrs 14 of hell )and then also climbed Port de Bales two days later and watched the stage won by Mick Rogers live. It was brilliant. I'm already making my plans to go again next year.

Great stuff, Marychain!

One last time to see Jens take the front in Le Tour shortly.

whilst its an absolute b'st'rd(altho rewarding)  climbing the Tourmalet marychain thought the descent was magnificent.

Go Jensie!

Cracxking stuff! Horner goes on the attack after jens!

Brilliant that Jens won first place the points in the final sprint of this year's Tour.

And just to back up what the commentators were saying about how it wasn't a 'ceremonial honour' that Jens went to the front and he still has the real power to do it, this is what he wrote after Stage 17:

http://blogs.bicycling.com/blogs/hardlyserious/pretty-good-for-an-old-man

"And when we started climbing the first climb, the Col de Portillon, Rodriquez just flew by us like, “Oh my God!” But then the group got bigger and bigger. At one point my teammate Frank Schleck joined in and so then I just took some big pulls to get over the first climb, before I faded. But boy what a way to start the day!

After the stage I told our coach that I wanted to see my data for the stage and I was averaging something like 380 Watts over the first hour of racing and over that first climb. When I saw that it was like, “Hey! That’s pretty good for an old man!”"

Haha! The bell clanger man was puffing a bit!

Cracking finish.

Considering the big two favourites were out so early in the race it's been an excellent Tour this year.

Probably would have been one of the best ever if Froome and Contador hadn't have had to abandon - and who'd like to predict what the end result would have been after Nibali was so good and proved himself time and time again?

Now it's all done and dusted I reckon the stand out highlights of this Tour will be The Grand Depart in England where the crowds were truly magnificent, particularly in Yorkshire and the environs, and probably the best ever spectators ever for Le Tour de France.

Plus, Jens Voigt winning another polka-dot jersey in his final Tour - and also the final sprint on the Champs Elysee.

“I felt it was almost an obligation to entertain the fans one last time, and give what they expect: me out in the break with the peloton chasing and I have zero chance - hey that’s the story of my life, the story of my career! It’s what made me famous. That is the way I knew I must say good-bye. I stayed out there long enough for the announcer to call up my 65 beautiful wins!”

How do I feel? I will not miss the pain, the stress, but I am going to miss interacting with the people, all the young kids, and of course the boys – I mean Danny van Poppel is half my age and it is just cool to hang out with him and see what the young generation is up to!

I am happy on one side that the suffering is over, the 100kmh downhills, the crazy fighting for positions, but 17 years is a big chapter of my life, more than a third of my life, and maybe tonight, or tomorrow, I will realize that I am never coming back. But since I am a positive person I won’t cry that it’s over, but will laugh because it has happened. And that is how I look at it.

Afterwards I was sitting alone by myself with my head down, helmet and glasses off, and just sitting there and letting it all sink in. Even the crowd was polite enough to be silent and let me be and give me some privacy. I needed this - it was a pretty special moment.”

- Jens Voigt

http://www.trekfactoryracing.com/news/reflections-successful-tour

And here's a video of Jensie after the final stage:

http://www.bicycling.com/video/jens-voigts-final-tour-stage?cid=social_20140727_28578496#/video/all/created/d/1


Talking of brekky - he says he's never having muesli for breakfast ever again!

Jens Voigt @thejensie  ·  Jul 27

"And now heading for my last Tour de France Muesli and Oatmeal brekky- from tomorrow on only eggs, bacon and pancakes!!!"

Some great photos from yesterday on Jens' Twitter page:

https://twitter.com/thejensie/with_replies