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/

That's pretty clear, thanks msrisotto.

I find it very amusing that people are calling Sagan an obnoxious twerp and yet like Cavendish , who comes across as the most self absorbed , arrogant little person . I also think it's a bit rich that someone gets DQd for defending themselves from him with the amount of times he's done much worse to others and got away with it . Shane Cav can't find it in himself to admit that it was actually him trying to squeeze into an imaginary gap .

quite, Cav does come across as an entitled nouty little boy who calls in at the petulant stop when things don't go exactly as he wished.
And he must have known he made the contact with Sagan and wasn't touched by his elbow at all, but still bare-faced accused him of taking him down. Like him even less.

OMG this ^

The number of times Cav and his train have been a bit physical in a sprint. Wasn't it Mark Renshaw who was disqualified for headbutting?

Tuned in to last 10km. What drama! Relieved injuries weren't worse but Cavendish must be gutted. Wasn't expecting them to go the whole hog and disqualify Sagan.

To be fair Cavendish has grown up significantly since his enfant terrible stage - if he hadn't he'd be throwing all his toys out of the pram with his remaining good arm.... I thought the responses from Cav and Sagan are quite measured tbh. I didn't hear either of them mention elbow/hood contact - have they done so? I can't imagine them not talking about it if it happened.

Just seen footage of Sagan and Cav having a one armed side hug after the race and Cav showing him his cuts. I think both of them have been very mature about the whole incident. They must have had a lot more media training since their earlier days! Gutted for the pair of them. but glad I don't have to hear Sagan's whiny voice any more .

Interesting hearing Millar talking about a 'tactical' natural break from Froome and G!

I also think the reactions from Cav and Sagan have been very measured and mature.

Looking at the footage, I don't think that Sagan deliberately cut Cav up - but as @ragged said, he should have seen Cav, in his peripheral vision, so at best, it was carelessness and recklessness on Sagan's part. I did agree with whichever commentator it was who said that the elbow flick from Sagan was after Cav started to fall, so didn't cause him to fall, and was probably Sagan trying to maintain his balance.

I think it was overly heavy handed of the Judges to disqualify Sagan - his actions were careless rather than malicious, and as such, he deserved the loss of points and demotion within the GC standings etc that were initially imposed, but not to be out altogether.

I actually like Cav - I thought his response to the incident was very measured, and even when the reporters seemed to be trying to get him to criticise Sagan, he didn't get cross or say anything nasty. I feel very sorry for him, being injured like that, and the impact it will have on his racing - and I feel a bit sorry for myself too, because I love watching him win sprint stages - he is a very entertaining and exciting rider to watch.

On the same note, I think I will miss Sagan too - he is equally exciting in sprint finishes.

I follow both Cav & Sagan on twitter. This evening they both posted nice videos to their fans. But Cav, sheesh, the amount of attacks he gets on social media . It's ridiculous. What people like about Cav is how emotional he is, but flip side is I think he won't brush the hate off. What a shame that some people behave like such bastards.

Shame indeed. I think he comes across as very likeable - passionate about his sport, devoted to his family, modest about his ability and achievements, and a genuinely nice person. I'm glad I am not on Twitter, because I would hate to see such nastiness directed at him.

Cav has always been a wear your heart on your sleeve type of character. He's mellowed as he's got older but a lot of that is still there. He can be petty and critical in the heat of the moment and then quick to admit that he was wrong afterwards. He also comes across as kind and funny and compassionate. He's had all sorts of argy-bargies in the past which have enlivened the tour no end.

I think people can relate to someone like him more than, say, Chris Froome who is always very calculated and measured in what he says.

So G is out. That will shake things up a bit

Poor G - I hope he recovers fast.

Lost a bunch of riders today. Richie Porte's crash looked dreadful I hope he recovers quickly.

168 VAN EMDEN Jos TLJ withdrawal
161 GESINK Robert TLJ withdrawal
118 SAGAN Juraj BOH outside the time limit
108 TRENTIN Matteo QST outside the time limit
97 RENSHAW Mark DDD outside the time limit
75 KONOVALOVAS Ignatas FDJ outside the time limit
74 GUARNIERI Jacopo FDJ outside the time limit
73 DELAGE Mickaël FDJ outside the time limit
71 DEMARE Arnaud FDJ outside the time limit
67 MORI Manuele UAD withdrawal
41 PORTE Richie BMC withdrawal
9 THOMAS Geraint SKY withdrawal

Blimey!!

Man oh man those crashes, ouch.
So sorry Thomas and Porte are out.

Apart from the race it was nice to see Chambery, I stayed there overnight in April on my way to Italy. It's a nice little town.

What a stage... and not in a good way.

Gutted for G.

My velogames team is down to 6.

Hope Porte is OK, that was a bad one.

Secretly glad Demare was outside the time limit, I don't like him.

Also thought it interesting that the other favourites neutralised the attack when Chris Froome needed a bike change. Which is the opposite of what happened in the Giro when Tom Dumoulin had to stop for a poo.

Carnage today, poor Porte and Thomas :( Gutted for Bargueil as well.

Wow. Been out all day so know nothing other than what I have just read. Carnage is an overused word but today......

Can't believe I missed this thread. I did spot it when Felicity first started it, meant to post so I could find it again, then forgot about it.

What a day! Carnage indeed. Gutted for Richie & for G. Poor Bargueil, going from tears of joy to tears of disappointment in a matter of seconds. Pleased for Uran, though, I quite like him.

In other news, I somehow still have the leader's jersey in the MN Velogames league, yay! I can't see me keeping it for long so I'll have to enjoy it while I can

Porte's crash was just brutal, horrible to see. Poor Dan Martin as well being taken out as collateral damage.

Gutted for G, absolutely gutted. Looking at his x-ray made me wince, can't believe a doctor told him he thought it was broken but he carried on until a second doctor told him the same. Same stage and in the same position in the GC as the Giro. Here's to hoping 2018 is a luckier year for him.

Endo I am down to 6 too, is it possible to retire a team from Velogames? I'm scared I jinxed them, I've even got Dan M! I think I had my 5 days in yellow like G and now I need to get the hell out.