Le Tour de France 2017

[FelicityLemon]

The stages

1 Individual time trial Saturday, July 1st
Düsseldorf / Düsseldorf 14 km
2 Flat Sunday, July 2nd Düsseldorf / Liège 203.5 km
3 Hilly Monday, July 3rd Verviers / Longwy 212.5 km
4 Flat Tuesday, July 4th Mondorf-les-Bains / Vittel 207.5 km
5 Hilly Wednesday, July 5th Vittel / La planche des belles filles 160.5 km
6 Flat Thursday, July 6th Vesoul / Troyes 216 km
7 Flat Friday, July 7th Troyes / Nuits-Saint-Georges 213.5 km
8 Hilly Saturday, July 8th Dole / Station des rousses 187.5 km
9 Mountain Sunday, July 9th Nantua / Chambéry 181.5 km

• Rest day Monday, July 10th Dordogne 10 Flat Tuesday, July 11th Périgueux / Bergerac 178 km 11 Flat Wednesday, July 12th Eymet / Pau 203.5 km 12 Mountain Thursday, July 13th Pau / Peyragudes 214.5 km 13 Mountain Friday, July 14th Saint-Girons / Foix 101 km 14 Hilly Saturday, July 15th Blagnac / Rodez 181.5 km 15 Hilly Sunday, July 16th Laissac-Sévérac l'Église / Le Puy-en-Velay 189.5 km
• Rest day Monday, July 17th Le Puy-en-Velay 16 Flat Tuesday, July 18th Le Puy-en-Velay / Romans-sur-Isère 165 km 17 Mountain Wednesday, July 19th La Mure / Serre-Chevalier 183 km 18 Mountain Thursday, July 20th Briançon / Izoard 179.5 km 19 Flat Friday, July 21st Embrun / Salon-de-Provence 222.5 km 20 Individual time trial Saturday, July 22nd Marseille / Marseille 22.5 km 21 Flat Sunday, July 23rd Montgeron / Paris Champs-Élysées 103 km

The league is here www.velogames.com/tour-de-france/2017/leaguescores.php?league=682378015

Grab your wine and French (and German) snacks and enjoy.

Also not forgetting the real heroes of Le Tour
twitter.com/lesvachesdutour

www.lesvachesdutour.com/

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Thank you Felicity!

In some strange way I have managed to book a week's holiday from work, coinciding with the start of the TdeF. Who'da thunk it? I have masses to do in my garden but Le Tour will be on in the kitchen for me to pop in and out on ocassion.......

Well done G on yesterday! Seems really odd for some reason to see him in yellow. And there's a reasonable chance of him keeping it today too! And didn't Sky do well? And 35 sec lead for the FroomeWaggon!

G in yellow on the podium, with Cav winning his 31st stage? That would make nice viewing this afternoon.

Very happy for G yesterday. He seems like such a nice bloke.

I'm currently 37 weeks pregnant with DC2 and DH is desperately hoping that the baby arrives so paternity leave can be used for maximum Le Tour viewing.

They're showing all of every stage on ITV4. This could be very distracting.

Good, I prefer ITV4's coverage to Eurosport.

This will be with Ned Boulting? Like him a lot and quite funny, but does allow himself empathic access to the trials and tribulations of the pro bikist a bit too much......could be being a bit mean there though.

wet crash slide bash...

Some exciting racing in the first two days! Lovely to see Kittel back on form and so emotional. Cav did really well to be 4th with such a recent return from such a long illness. He did suggest in his post race interview that his positioning was more down to tactical ability than strength in his legs though. As he has said before, i'm not expecting him to win any stages this tour. Won't count him out, but to be honest, taking part to a good level is enough this time.

I'd love love love for G to get on the podium in Paris but that's a looong way off and I hope he just enjoys riding in yellow for now.

I reckon Quintana's chances might be scuppered by the loss of Valverde. I hope Yates gains some confidence too.

Amazing ride from Taylor Phinney too.

Pannnn
Ned's OK, but can go on a bit. It's David Millar that does it for me. I know he was a doper, but he's very insightful and a bit of a walking wikipedia on the Tour and other classics.

It's great seeing G in yellow. I think he may have to switch teams if he has dreams of being a GC rider, especially now Froome has signed a new 3 year contract.

From the TdF FB page. :)

is this another example of Cav trying to make some room where there wasn't a reasonable hope for it?

Looked like it to me.

I can't stand ITVs coverage , really enjoying Eurosport except for the Scottish bloke ( Brian smith I think) , Jonathon Edwards has been a great addition to the pre show and highlights . Shame about Sagan , from above it did look like an elbow , from the front it looked like Cav was doing his usual selfish , barging in . Frankly I don't think Cav can be that aggrieved about getting pushed when he's spent years doing the same if not worse to other people .

Well that escalated quickly! Agree about Cav though it puts a dent in my team.

Well. I have no idea. I am way to biased about Cav to have a sensible opinion but would bust Sagan from the tour for that 'tache alone.

ragged I love that pic.

Well - there has been no lack of excitement so far, has there!

I'm with Jens on this one actually. His tweets are at the bottom Shut Up Legs is the boss.

SDTG, no, not exactly a dull first week!

I like Sagan , never been a Cavendish supporter . It's been a good tour so far but there is no way it will be as exciting as the Giro .

Giro was brilliant. I love Dumoulin though so I'm probably biased there too! Really not keen on Sagan. Not sure why, he's just always got on my nerves. Poor boy, probably not his fault.

Hello all! A bit late but found you now.
It's already my favourite Tdf ever because GT is in yellow and today has kicked off the drama early. Twitter seems divided whether it was Sagan fault or not, I'm not sure, the incident actually starts a few metres before the elbow I think. I'm with Mr Slant on this one, Peter Sagan gets no benefit of my doubts due to crimes against hairdressing ( also music choices and groping podium people).
Listening to an interview with Cav on R5 now, recorded previously, but talking about the mayhem of the bunch sprint, good stuff.