Morning all.

Not sure who’s going to have it today. It looks a bit of a flat run in to the finish. Think Thor will still be in yellow? Could see the break staying away today.

And here’s a pic of Cadel’s custom slammed TT bike. Lovely.

Some useful links:

http://live.cyclingnews.com/
http://gaps.letour.fr/us.php
http://data.srmlive.de/TDF/

My money is on Gilbert!

Afternoon beginning to think it was rest day 😉

Having just turned on, that’s a handy breakaway group! Voeckler, Casar, Flecha, Terpstra, etc. 3’22” with 121km to go though, so can’t see it lasting.

Come on Tommy, it will stick one day.

You’re lucky I got woken up tbh, I could’ve slept a few more hours easily 😉

Gessink in trouble, white jersey could be up for grabs.

Oh dear Contador has fallen off! 😆

I don’t really mind if he wins. I just want him to really work for it.

And no team mates are back with him?

Yeah, hard to call today. I think the big GC guys will finish in a lead group, with someone else allowed to go off the front at the very end. Cadel definitely in yellow this evening.

Just a thought, there’s no real ‘patron’ anymore, last one being LA. Is this a good or bad thing?

Just a thought, there’s no real ‘patron’ anymore, last one being LA. Is this a good or bad thing?

Better for the neutral spectator surely? Remember the Cancellara episode last year?

Jon, I tend to agree. Although I wonder if we might have had less crashes if word had gone out in the peleton to keep calm?

I want Voeckler to get it. If anyone deserves a win it’s him, he’s proper awesome.

😐

ooft

vino in the woods, looks over for him, such a shame after yesterdays balls out attempt for yellow

Good to see JAFlecha in the break again as well. Not bothered about Vino – druggy cheat. Seems like Millar has been caught up in the crash too which is a shame.

Not bothered about Vino – druggy cheat. Seems like Millar has been caught up in the crash too which is a shame.

sad for one druggy, yet not for another?

vino and van den broek confirmed out

Carnage! Millar looked in a bad way too, flat out on the floor

That was a nasty one. Good chance for the breakaway to stay away now.

If Millar drops out I wont be sad as he is another druggie cheat.

sad for one druggy, yet not for another?

Didn’t really want to get into this but yes. Millar is a reformed character, he’s admitted his wrongdoings and now works hard to redeem himself and the sport.
Vino never really admitted anything, never said sorry and has never given any concrete evidence of being reformed – his exact words when he returned from his ban when Ned Boulting asked “Can you guarantee that you’re now racing clean?” were “You’re looking at a different Vino”. Hardly the most emphatic statement…
Then he refused to make any further comment.

Watching Voeckler on the descent is great, look at him ride! I really hope that break succeeds, JAF needs a good showing for Sky after the disasterous loss of Wiggins and Voeckler just deserves it for trying so hard!.
Race radio now saying it was David Zabriskie fallen, not David Millar.

Shame that Chavanel has had some bad luck and doesn’t appear to be on form. I’m still hoping that he finds some legs and goes for a long solo break later on though.

the pack aren’t chasing. for whatever reason,,,

Zabriskies abandoned.

broken pelvis for vino

Yeah just heard that, I actually feel a bit sorry for him now. Broken femur, cracked pelvis. I’ve cracked my pelvis before and it’s bloody painful!

Seems Zabriskie has a broken shoulder.

Looks like the gap between breakaway and bunch has steadied at about 5 mins 30 sec.

Millar is a reformed character, he’s admitted his wrongdoings and now works hard to redeem himself and the sport.
Vino never really admitted anything, never said sorry and has never given any concrete evidence of being reformed – his exact words when he returned from his ban when Ned Boulting asked “Can you guarantee that you’re now racing clean?” were “You’re looking at a different Vino”. Hardly the most emphatic statement…
Then he refused to make any further comment.

What a crock of poo. Just cos a cheat sez ‘ooh I’m so sorry’ don’t change the fact that they’re a cheat.

Vino deserves the same treatment as Millar.

(Wonders what the attitude towards Millar would be if he weren’t a Dirty Foreigner…)

What is causing the absolute carnage in this year tour? Too many riders?

No, it’s the same number of riders as always, 200 or so.

Sometimes it’s the weather, also crashes cause nerves which causes more crashes.
Mostly I’d say that it’s because there’s no one ‘main’ contender or team, there’s a whole host of people who could win this race so there’s more teams trying to get their riders to the front and no team is really strong enough to control the bunch in the way that Discovery Channel used to be able to.

Vino deserves the same treatment as Millar.

Vino had the same treatment – a 2 year ban.
The difference is that Millar only used EPO on a couple of occasions – almost under protest. Yes, it took til he was caught before he admitted it but he did, he’s said sorry and his actions subsequently have done a lot to heal his reputation and help the sport.

Vino was on a systematic blood doping programme and has done nothing since to redeem himself.

They’re both cheats yes. What I’m talking about are their actions afterwards. I’ve got a lot of respect for Millar for what he’s done since. Read his book, it’s very good – gives a great insight into his psyche.

No.

I’m not interested in what cheats have to say.

Interesting conspiracy theory going round that Contador’s earlier fall may have been caused by another rider deliberately pushing/forcing him into the ditch…

He’s not a popular chappie is he…

is this Contador being elbowed off his bike?
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwviTmZZSlk&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 

Well I like him so that’s all that matters, quite frankly.

Whoa! WTF was that driver doing???? 😯

bloody hell!

!!!!!!!!

JA Flecha! Did you see that?! 😯 What’s going on? French TV car just took him out.

WTF?! NOOOOO!! Poor guys. 🙁

Who’s in the fence. That’s horrific.