Windy hits dog! 😆

Wot no football?

Wot no football?

What is this "football" that people keep mentioning?

Bets on when the break will be reeeled in?

genuine shoe probs for basso or an excuse for a push back to the peleton?

good crowds!

Dull stage so far

I dunno, it's been OK considering. A lot of these flat stages aren't really known for being thrill-a-minute.
The accident with the dog. Don't know where Wiggins is, he stopped for some work on his bike, was being paced back to the group by Michael Barry but I don't know if he's back in the peloton or not.

web link?

http://www.letour.fr to follow it online although the Team Sky website has various links as well.
It's on both EuroSport and ITV4 at the moment.

http://www.steephill.tv will have all sorts of online players in various languages too.

Getting a hard time from the Mrs for watching TDF and not interacting with the kids 😕 Eldest one asks me to leave him alone, youngest quite happy with his own company, guess i'm not going to win any superdad prizes.

I find it hard to bring myself to watch any of the first week of the Tour. Though I'll tune in for the last few Ks.

i'm getting nervous!

Ouch….

Ouch again…..

Ouch again……..

wowza!

ooooooff.

wtf

looking forward to the cobbles!

Damn, there goes my entire TdF Fantasy Team!
Unbelievable carnage at the end there! 🙁

Oops Cav!

Ouch. Bad news for Cav's green hopes with Hushovd getting second (I think)

cav was 19/10 for stage win…glad i didnt bet

Well I tuned in for the last few K's but I seem to have got the finish of a Triathlon instead 😆

So was it Cav's fault?

Yes

The first one was sort of his fault, he kind of didn't make it round the corner and took out Jeremey Hunt and Oscar Freire as he drifted wide, the rest of the carnage – no idea who caused that, there were at least 2 separate crashes though, the big one and then another smaller one a bit further on.

Going to be a big skip full of expensive carbon tonight… 🙁

Boo! What are the implications?!!

In other news good to see Geriant still in 5th!

It's really hard to make points up in the green jersey competition. If Hushovd doesn't have a bad result (eg missing a sprint that Cav is in) then it might already be over since Hushovd is a very consistent finisher even if he doesn't actually win that much.

Obviously Lance Armstrong is secretly smacked upto his eyeballs.

How else can someone of his age compete at such a level?

Oh Floyd you really are a dishonest tool. You dragged the sport through months of pain in the courts hoping you'd get off on a technicality then when you don't you fling mud.

Notice how its the Dopers who seem to have these revelations to spill? Why don't clean cyclists come out and complain/hand people in?

Sorry- just reading about Floyd's latest 'revelations' to the Sponsors and authorities..

Don't forget green jersey points are available throughout the day and not just at the finish.

Hang on! Where's my comment about the budgie smugglers crashing gone!!!

Oldgit – yes but far fewer and Hushovd will almost certainly always finish just behind cave plus cav has always said that he's a one sprint a stage rider.

On one of the last crashes it looks like a spectator leaned over the barriers and a rider swerved to avoid them = carnage

(sensible) precis, anyone ?

Watched it earlier on Eurosport but I'm sure they'll have the pics for the highlights shows tonight. Didn't see Cav cross the finish, though they were speculating whether he'd punctured…or more likely just gone in too hot then used the peloton as an air brake. He looked pretty sheepish when the camera bike caught up with him riding away from the crash.

(sensible) precis, anyone ?

Level stage, three riders breakaway early and hold lead 'til 20km or so from end. Stage through built up areas with much narrowing and therefore bunching of peleton. Tight right-hand bend near end expected to cause problems which is where Cav had his mishap and then there were two further pile-ups in the last couple of kilometers. All pile-ups in the last 3km so everyone involved in or held up by the crashes gets same finish time.

Watching it on ITV4 it appears that Cav overshot the tight RH bend, leaning on rider to his left taking him out along with himself and another rider. He managed to remount and finish. Suggested he may get some form of penalty though if he's adjudicated to have been the cause of that particular incident which may well mean that his Green Jersey attempt is over before it's started!

Yep, and the big finish line pile up was a middle bunch rider going down.
Cavs off to a good start with the officials, and he brought Hunt down.