Most of the riders huddle round the yellow jersey at the finish line day after day after day and nothing ever changes. Dont get me wrong there is a mesmorising addictive quality to watching nothing change day after day after day, but is it always like this? If so it's no wonder I switched from the dark side shortly after finishing my paper round job aged 14.

They seem to have planned the route to keep all the attacking for the Alps and the Ventoux. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow

A lack of mountain top finishes this year has pretty much ruined any day to day competition for yellow

plenty going on for the other jerseys though

there is a mesmorising addictive quality to watching nothing change day after day after day

There is?

It rained yesterday 😉

Cav only has a few more chances to gain points in the green jersey comp so expect him to go for the first two sprints today and then the stage win to set up a show down on the last stage.

yep, and with ponchos on they just looked liked loads of blokes riding to work in the rain…truly dismal..i will say though that it knocked me right out for an hour and i when i woke up i felt quite refreshed

It's a three week race.
3 weeks.
Just racing.

If you want fireworks every day from the gun, then you need to stop drug testing quite so much; it's unrealistic to expect a Classic road race everytime they ride.

yep but im new to all this and i honestly didnt realise that it was cycling's equivelant to chess only more boring

It's boring if you expect the equivalent of an Olympic sprint final every 10 mins, it's a subtle dance, with alliances formed and broken, with energy saved today allowing a greater effort in the mountains, with breaks allowed or not allowed to succeed, it is like chess on wheels, and it repays a closer more studied approach.

I'd rather watch TdF than Formula 1. But there sure are more interesting things to do with one's time.

Must say, the "contenders" seem remarkably quiet – despite the lack of hilltop finishes. Stephen Roche was joking about nodding off during the coverage yesterday.

Alps & Ventoux had better be good

I'm finding it riveting. You can feel the tension building up. I work from home and I'm not getting a lot done because it's live every weekday on Virgin Media (ITV red button) from 1:30.

it's a subtle dance

what sort of a race is it when Hushovd comes in 6 minutes later than the stage winner then bollocks someone who wasnt in the chase for the green jersey for challenging him on a sprint for the line.

I loved yesterdays rainy stage, it was great watching them suffer

I think it's been quite interesting so far. Obviously I wouldn't watch anything but the highlights but the points race has been backwards and forwards, there's all this lance and contador stuff, wiggins is there playing it cool and it's clear the tension is building for there to be some mad sprints in the mountains.

Football is boring 100% of the time but it's incredibly popular.

…Hushovd comes in 6 minutes later than the stage winner then bollocks someone…

Yeah a bit like a footy team struggling to stay up playing a mid-table team and then getting annoyed that team that has nothing to gain actually tries!

I can't see Cav getting green this year but what do I know.

This years race has been one of the best in the last few years, loads going on. The points race is likely to go down to the final sprint in Paris, the mountains later on will keep the drama going right to the end for yellow. The internal politics of Astana like a little soap opera in the background.

I'm still waiting for Wiggins to make a break for it. He does look pretty good this year and now Leipheimers out he must be starting to get a few ideas about wearing yellow.

One of the thing that keeps it interesting for me is the amount of "different" races going on at the same time. You've got people looking for stage wins and people looking for the various jerseys as well.

I think removing radios may make it more interesting. Remove some of the knowledge of what's going on and make people a little more twitchy about breaks and where their competitors are forcing them to act more rather than just sit in a bunch knowning they can catch the break and if they don't it doesn't matter as there are no GC contendors in there.

It's just you – there's a lot more to a stage race than GC.

Sky Sports 2 now – live FISHING! And.. my draw dropped in a cartoon stylee when I saw this.. they've got specatators!
What side is the TdF on? 🙂

I think its one of those sports that you can't just pick up on first view?
Possibly because in the UK we don't have the cyclesport culture that many people in mainland Europe have grown up with.

I love the subtle tactics & temporary allegiances that are formed on the road, but having followed it since the 70's I'm probably lucky.

My wife has just said "if you think nothing happens, then your not watching it" She's always right 😉

by the way…dont tell postierich you saw me here…he's been trying to find out who i am for 6 months now. I dont see him often but i hear he's been doing a bit of digging trying to find out who i am….i am the scarlet pimpernel

looks like somethings happened

accident

And two riders were shot yesterday, by some eegit with an air rifle.

beeb link

i got shot at by some kid with an air rifle at trentham gardens at sleepless in the saddle a few years back. police chopper was up looking for the little eejits at 2am.

crashes, high speed sprints, death-defying downhills, shootings, deaths. Sounds pretty exciting to me.

It would be more interesting if they retired the last 5 riders each day.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

there will be plenty happening this week. it doesn't look like there is anybody capable of dominating the race like armstrong used to (of course, i may be wrong though). if so, they will be fighting it out all week.