Tour de France 2015

Yippee!!

Just started on ITV4

chapeau

I think he'd be pretty pleased to only be a minute behind on his least favourite part.

Should be an absolute classic Tour this year with all the climbs.

stopping race for crashes, strange

In a new office this year.  Boss man is nuts for the tour and watches the whole thing, not just highlights, when he gets home in the evenings fast forwarding to the bits that are interesting.  Must be a fine art.  Anyway, trouble is means we can't discuss it during the day.  Another mate in the office is well keen have to email each other with our thoughts during the day without giving anything away. 

Shaping up to be well interesting this year, Froome hasn't harmed his chances so far.  Well happy with my 35-1 bet on him for SPOTY.

wet cobbles coming up

This is a brilliant Tour.

So many fantastic displays all round from so many people it's hard to say which one I've preferred the best - but one thing's for sure; I really hope Geraint Evans is a number 1 one day and wins Le Tour.
Just the best 'domestique' there is.

Just out of interest when was the last tour that wasn't largely decided before the final week?  This was all quite interesting but when Froome did them all in the last six km the other day it was effectively end of tour.

I remember there was a brilliant bit of 'I dare you' on one of the climbs when both of them were standing on their pedals, playing cat and mouse with each other.

Can't find it (and knowing me it was probably the year before and  Frank Schleck!), plus having YouTube open with this poxy site is slowing everything down to sloth's pace so I'm not looking any more - but this was a bit of the battle between them that year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn2OMLCAnHw

lol, just read that 10 closest tours article.  That 1989 with Greg LeMond sounds like a cracker.  Cant copy and paste but their phrase was"LeMond used tri bars and an aerodynamic helmet.  Frenchie wore his ponytail."  Le Mond beat him By a minute in the final TT.  Stupid tw@tty Frenchy.

Seriously this is over ain't it?  There are no more TTs iirc, barring a Froome fall/injury it is hard for him to lose.  There are mountainous stages to go but he has proven he has them all on toast.

Still, anything can happen and might do yet - but it's just such a joy to watch anyway I don't care who wins.
I just can't believe how they get out there day after day and do what they do.
It really is the most remarkable race.

Good luck to you with that Rob.
I think I'd be crying before I'd be laughing if I even thought about attempting it!

Only today and tomorrow for any chance at all of anyone gaining on Froome - and they've already tried a couple of moves to drop him today which haven' paid off.
Fascinating stuff though.

Can Nairo come good a bit later?

Cracking stage.

Well done Nibali.

I know exactly what you mean Bix.
It's like "Er...where's The Tour?" come 1pm on the Monday and you feel a great sense of loss.

Such a great attempt by Quintana yesterday to try to reel Froome back, which ultimately failed, but what a great stage.
Such a shame the little Columbian couldn't have at least won the stage. He really deserved to.

As it all (ultimately) came down to the time he lost in the cross-winds on the second day because of poor race planning by Moviestar and Boardman confirmed yesterday that Nairo was the fastest over all the mountain stages if you put all the times and not points together, he's definitely a Tour winner in waiting (bar bad fortune).

I'll cheer the day that comes.

Anyone who can climb massive mountains like he's having a tootle out on a Derny deserves every accolade going.

I don't know, S&G, I've only heard the report of it on the radio and seen it on 'ceefax' - although on there it says they are not thinking it's terrorist related.

I don't think so so much, Alun.
Nasty stuff has always gone on throughout the years.
Remember, it was only a few years ago some idiot put tacks on one of the climbs that punctured a load of tyres - the main unfortunate recipient being the race leader Evans.

I reckon it's because it's Froome getting all the abuse this year it's being brought to attention moreso over here.

Can't believe many people have had to put up with being spat at though Tommy