Unbelievable stage again.

Armstrong is burying himself to get back.

great finish

Three British Team Sky riders having a good day today. Must be all the practice on Manchester's shocking roads – they might as well be cobbled!

Thomas could be 2nd in GC tonight

Thomas to overshadow Wiggo this year?

Brilliant stage for Andy Schleck, apart from the loss of his brother.

Go Geraint!

Standings

1. Cancellara
2. Thomas
3. Evans

6. Schleck

9. Contador

14. Wiggins
15. Millar

18. Armstrong

Wiggo clear of Contador and Armstrong too apparently

Brilliant stage for Andy Schleck, apart from the loss of his brother.

He did much better than I expected given his anorexic build but I would say if he loses Frank it will more than cancel out todays gain once in the mountains – No tag team climbing attacks.

So, it's going to be interesting when they hit the mountains.

Contador and Armstrong have some work to do against Andy Schleck and Evans 😀

Chapeau to Gerraint Thomas …

White Jersey

Impressive ride from Armstrong to get back to that group. Still reckon he's going to have a major play in the positioning of the podium come 3 weeks time!

Can someone explain today's stage to me please? I was going to watch it but got distracted at work by various people, anyway…… the stage is pretty much flat on the Eursport profile, I was expecting a breakaway to be caught and a group sprint, where did all the time gaps come from?

Thanks

What about the vultures with cameras around Frank Schlek when he was on the ground a wee push would have had them in the ditch.

cobbles, I gather.

But the TdF text feed is less than illuminating.

these buggers = punctures, crashes and general mayhem

Our colleagues from luxembourg radio have told us frank schleck is out of the #tdf with a broken collarbone

Frank Schleck broke his collarbone and is at the hospital in Valenciennes.

Yup, it's the pave, crashes and punctures left right and center

Stunning rides over the cobbles – amazing how most of them could see where they were going with all the dust thrown up by the team cars and TV bikes.

Brits did well – looks like Armstrong is not going to feature this year. Could be a fight for the yellow in the mountains between Contador, Andy Schleck, Evans and Wiggins.

Well done to Geraint Thomas!

Geraint Thomas just pulled on the white jersey. 🙂

Stoner, cyclingnews.com text feed is a little better.. not so many Test Match Special tangents yet though which is a pity.

cheers BN, will bookmark it for next tuesday when Im stuck in the office again.

Yeah, I knew there were cobbles, but don't really understand why it makes a difference? Sure if you get a puncture or crash it's a problem, but it wasn't all those people that finished off the pace that had problems surely?

Can someone explain today's stage to me please? I was going to watch it but got distracted at work by various people, anyway…… the stage is pretty much flat on the Eursport profile, I was expecting a breakaway to be caught and a group sprint, where did all the time gaps come from?

I refer my honourable friend to the reply I gave some hours ago. 😉

(Namely, the stage had five sectors of pavé (cobbles), which has the effect of breaking up races massively. If you're not familiar, check out the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) and Paris-Roubaix next year. you'll get a feel for the mayhem produced by cobbles then. And probably a taste to ride them yourself.)

As well as crashes and mechanicals, the difference in the riders ability to ride the cobbles fast makes a difference.