to watch every moment of the Tour de France

[stubbornhubby]

No, Wait!

...with the man Cavendish in real contention for Green, a British team for the first time in yonks, and Bradley Wiggins capable of getting on the podium, and a route that takes the peleton up the tourmalet not once but twice..

IASNBU

Lance Armstrong starts in 25mins...

Comments after Sunday's race:

Schleck - very impressive. I think he'll win.

Contador - surprised he didn't look stronger when challenged. Doesn't look nearly as infallible as his reputation

Armstrong - terrible luck. What a rotten way to go out after such an illustrious career. Will be interesting to see how he stays motivated for the next 2 weeks.

Agree earlybird- I am sad about lance as although am sure will manage last two weeks will be sad end tocareer.

Did anyone else see vinokourov do superman domestique bit powering up hill with waterbottles?

Also can't really warm to schleck and contador - I can admire them i suppose bur care factor isn't there in way it is when watch/watched other riders.

Oh and think bradley may be out of it- I would love to be proved wrong here.

Agree about Contador - seems a cold, hard person who would do anything to win. Ruthless and out for himself.

Schleck I like a bit more. He isn't great in interviews, but think that is down to a bit of awkwardness with English, rather than ruthless attitude.

Must say the SaxoBank and Astana teams look very impressive as a whole.

Yes schleck better but as you say doesn't get much English press coverage (comparatively) so relative unknown(there is very funny YouTube interview with both brothers). Was amazing how many astana riders were near front at end... I am uncertain how I feel
About Riis so that colours my views on saxobank but you can't get away from
Them being strong.

I was pleased to see cadel back in yellow- like mould he has grown on me over the years

yeah for Andy - although I'm disappointed for Wiggins and Ryder Hesjadal. It would have made my week to see Ryder in yellow rather than Evans, but then Ryder's performed amazingly well and is not a climber (interestingly he has the same sort of mountain bike pedigree as Evans but is younger (we think) and newer to road racing so will hopefully keep improving).

I don't mind Contador - he's a bit of a non-personality which makes it harder to cheer for him but he's not ever done anything to turn me off. I thought it was brilliant to see Vinokourov being a great domenstique too - what the sport is about. I'd prefer Contador to Evans I think - Evans is entertaining but I can't like him.

The Schlecks get a ton of coverage in one of the cycling magazines - Cycle Sport I think. They are interviewed at least once every six months so they must be well known within cycling mad fans...

We're anti-Armstrong here in this house (have followed the tour for a decade and remember back when he was invincible and an ass - he's much politer now that he's losing) so I'm just hoping they will stop following him on the cameras and let us enjoy the rest of the race and the real contenders. I don't think anyone thought he was a real contender this year - but it's good press!!!

abdnhiker - I didn't follow the TDF back when Armstrong was dominant. What did he do that made him seem an ass?

I was/am filled with admiration that he'd survived cancer and returned a winner.........am I wrong? Bit of history would be appreciated please.

Basically he was a king sized twat - sulking at media.

I like cadel for stropping about people stepping on his dog.

I agree with poppy, and he hated the french media and acted like he was a god. It was inspiring that he survived cancer - until he'd open his mouth

poppy but would you want to be within 20 feet of him if he'd had a bad day? Loose cannon! good for the sport though...

Agreed ah re lance- read his biography/autobiography which impressed me at his fightback/charity work fighting cancer but am not sure the steel that helped him do this made me warm to him.

Fair point but he is far from alone- brad has his moments as does cave or Robbie mcewen.
Still believe contador will win but would prefer someone else...

Was happy Andy Schleck won today. I like the fact he always "helps" his brother up the mountains, usually to the detriment of his own race. Its a shame that Frank is out, but I can't help thinking it might mean Andy has a stronger chance.

I don't like Contador and I am far from convinced that he is "clean"

I strongly suspect Lance may come down with an "injury" in the next few days which will mean he doesn't finish the Tour. His ego is far too big for him to do his last TDF and finish well down.

I don't reckon Bradley is out yet.... He keeps his head down and lost a bit of time today but there's plenty of time for him to make it up

Poppy - at Cadel being like mould. He is the same for me - really didn't like him but I do now. I'd love him to win

Thought you guys might be interested in my photos in Morzine today.

I was not sure who the riders were, but I think that one of the photos is Lance Armstrong. Does anyone know who the others are?

One thing that puzzled us though. The first rider, from the Rabobank team - not sure who he was though - went through Morzine far ahead of the following teams (at 17.06 according to the time on my camera) the following three riders came through at 17.22, closely followed by a larger group.

Is that common, that there was such a huge gap and he was still caught by the following riders?

great pics MmeLindt

• I think that is Lance, in your second riders pic, the 2nd Radio Shack rider, with bloody/bandaged arms
• you have Chavanel who was wearing yellow yesterday
• you have Hushovd who was in the green jersey and Pinau in the polka dot.

I went to the see the TdF in England two years ago, it was great fun.

everyone else

• I though Lance conducted himself with great dignity yesterday. He's a consummate pro and I think we'll see him riding for the team all the way to paris, and I am sure the yellow jersey will share his champagne with armstrong on the last day.

I also predict that we haven't yet seen the end of him: of course he's too far behind in the GC to have any chance now, but i think he still might spring a surprise or two somewhere along the way.

Yay ! You convinced DH to go to Morzine. I love Morzine - we saw the Tour whizz past from our apartment window about 6 years ago. Brilliant photos.

In that last pic, is Cav on the right ? I'll show DH after, I'm sure he'll know some of the others.

I suppose 16 minutes is a pretty big gap but there was a decent climb to the finish after Morzine wasn't there ? I think the peleton are much more likely to make up a big time gap on a climb than on a flat stage.....

Ah - I think your Rabobank rider was an imposter... there wasn't anyone 16 mins ahead @ Morzine.

The first rider had a camera man with him, I can post a pic so you can have a look. We wondered if he was a hobby cyclist going for a bit of glory, but he had a team nearby, and as I said a motorbike/camera team with him.

Thanks for the advice on who the others are, have loads more photos just put the best on the blog. Will add the names.

Here

In the second photo, you can see the camera man.

no gloves, no numbers?

As they went through Les Gets, down to Morzine and then up the other side there was a group of three leading, about two mins from the peleton (might have been also some poursuivants between). here's the extract from the velonws commentary....

4:50 C.F.Pelkey: 21km to go, the gap is 2:06 to the peloton and 3:11 to the Armstrong group.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:50 C.F.Pelkey
4:51 C.F.Pelkey: Our three leaders are at the top. We'll get some clean time checks here.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:51 C.F.Pelkey
4:51 C.F.Pelkey: Aerts took top points there.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:51 C.F.Pelkey
4:52 C.F.Pelkey: BBox's Charteau is ahead of the peloton, chasing the break, by 1:48. The peloton is at 2:05.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:52 C.F.Pelkey
4:53 C.F.Pelkey: Vinokourov, by the way, is back with the peloton and doing domestique duties, hauling bottles etc.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:53 C.F.Pelkey
4:54 C.F.Pelkey: Charteau crested at 1:40.

The peloton was about 15 seconds back.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:54 C.F.Pelkey
4:54 C.F.Pelkey: The Armstrong group is still climbing.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:54 C.F.Pelkey
4:55 C.F.Pelkey: A crash in the Armstrong group. A Euskaltel rider hit the deck at the top of the climb.

Armstrong did not crash, but he was delayed....
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:55 C.F.Pelkey
4:56 C.F.Pelkey: Armstrong seems to have given up the ghost today. He's not chasing furiously and looks pissed.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:56 C.F.Pelkey
4:57 C.F.Pelkey: Brajkovic is now setting pace for Armstrong... the offending Euskaltel rider is back on, too.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:57 C.F.Pelkey
4:58 C.F.Pelkey: That crash at the top was a dumb mistake. It looks like a Euskaltel rider tried to grab a feed bag and it got caught in his wheel. He hit the deck and stopped Armstrong in his tracks.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:58 C.F.Pelkey
4:59 C.F.Pelkey: Astana is now leading the peloton - which caught Charteau - and heading to the final climb. We need a time check.
Sunday July 11, 2010 4:59 C.F.Pelkey
5:00 C.F.Pelkey: The three leaders are 1:38 ahead of the Astana-led peloton and 3:55 ahead of the Armstrong chase.
Sunday July 11, 2010 5:00 C.F.Pelkey
5:01 C.F.Pelkey: 13km to go for the leaders. They are on the climb. The Astanas still have four riders driving at the front of the field.
Sunday July 11, 2010 5:01 C.F.Pelkey
5:02 C.F.Pelkey: In the Contador group we still have Evans, Schleck, Hesjedal, Menchov, Basso ... we got us a bike race folks.
Sunday July 11, 2010 5:02 C.F.Pelkey
5:03 C.F.Pelkey: Also in there are Kloden and Leipheimer.
Sunday July 11, 2010 5:03 C.F.Pelkey
5:05 C.F.Pelkey: The three leaders are 1:26 ahead of the peloton. They are 11.6km from the finish atop the 13.6km climb up the Cat. 1 ascent to the line at Morzine-Avoriaz (6.1%).

Ah, looks like he was an imposter then. He got a good cheer from the crowd anyway.

Strange that he had a camera man with him though.

poppy definitely reasonable to cheer for Cadel for entertainment sake too - the peleton would be very dull if there wasn't any characters!

MmeLindt - love the pics!! Agree with stubbornhubby's identification of who's who, I didn't see Cav anywhere either. I'm very jealous, once my youngest is older we'd love to do this on holiday (we saw the prologue in London a few years back and had a fabulous day).

It would be great if Wiggins can stage a bit of a comeback but I think it's a tall order. I thought he spoke honestly about being tired and I appreciated that!

Armstrong should hopefully stay in the race and work for Levi - that would be classy...

lot of speculation that Armstrong's personal aim is to win to win a stage. He might just it.... for one thing the peleton are a sentimental bunch, and now that he is some way down the GC he's not a challenge, and they won't be worred about him making a breakaway... if he can.

We are now caught up in the whole thing, and seriously considering heading up to the Col de la Columbiere to watch a bit of the mountain stage.

We could head over to Annecy afterwards, so I think I can persuade the DC that it would be fun. I think they are in it for the goodies that the sponsors were chucking their way though.

MmeLindt - loved your photos. Am seriously envious that you were there yesterday.

Feels quite strange to have no race to follow today.

I am seriously thinking of a day off on 22nd to watch them climb the Tourmalet on the TV.

MmeLindt - how old are your DCs? Is there enough happening with the pre-race caravan etc to keep them interested?

Rest days are such a let down - glad the race is back on today!