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/

Porte's crash was sickening and poor Dan Martin. And G.

Uran winning on one gear was incredible.

Porte was lucky. Lucky he cleared that little gully and didn't go left down that hill, and lucky that Dan Martin was where he was. If Dan had been 2m behind Richie would've hit the rock and brought Dan down, if he'd been 2m ahead he would've hit the rock face. Either way, the outcome would likely have been worse for Richie.

I feel sorry for G, though happy that he's going to spend a week in the pub (exaggerated, ofc) before getting back to training. He'll likely be bored shitless by then :o

I have asked Tech if we can have the bicycle emoticon back - thread here - if anyone else wants to back me up, we might get it.

What? The has gone?

I was sure I'd posted on this yesterday - in fact I know I did (along the lines of "Ouch, poor Richie, that must have hurt") but my phone must have crashed MN as it was posting (my phone is getting a bit temperamental not surprising given it's an iPhone 4 ).

Ds disagrees with me: I think there was an element of Ritchie choosing to "fall right" as otherwise the option was falling down a steep hillside.

....and people wonder why I was more scared watching participating ds in cycle races than watching him play rugby (He's now chosen rugby).

While all the crash related excitement was eventful, the Tour ain't half boring now.

It should liven up a bit tomorrow?

Unfortunately it's turned into a bit of a predictable route march , if it wasn't for the hilarious commentary I'd have abandoned as well . It was always going to be difficult to live up to the Giro , and at the moment it's failing , hope the Vuelta is better , it usually is .

Hopefully it'll perk up tomorrow. I heard David Millar say that the peloton got so bored they lost concentration and crashed as a result! Bloody hell. And Marcel Kittel is walking it.

I watch on Eurosport , on there they are marking the hay tributes out of 10 and giving cooking and wine advice , it keeps you awake .

I've been watching every day, but it's not very interesting. Bring on the mountain stages where it might get more exciting. I haven't enjoyed this Tour as much as previous ones, too many boring flat stages with predictable results.

prettybird DS3 has now ditched the eleventy million other sports he was doing (swimming, football, running) because all he wants to do is cycling and rugby. I give in. Anyone got spare sedatives for the next 12 months?

I have to say my enthusiasm for the tour has gone right now (I forgot it was on today because I was busy ). I hope there are some interesting days in the mountains Cummings stage win cough . I did pause it yesterday so we could all watch after school because they were cycling through a region we holiday in a lot but that was the only interest for us. It's been an odd one this year I think. Too many interesting riders gone. Who knows it might all get a bit exciting yet. Please?

How old is your ds3?

Ds was told by his cycling coach when he was nearly 14 (while he was treating him for a torn muscle - from rugby ; coach was also a physiotherapist) that he'd have to make his choice by 15/16.

Up until about that age, both sports encourage the cross training: the cycling strengthened the core muscles that give ds his wicked side step and both sports built stamina.

Ds gave up on his cycling when he was 15.5 (after having to abandon the Youth Tour of Scotland due to shoulder pain), just as predicted - and only a few months after we'd bought him a very expensive new bike (only saving grace is that it is big enough to take him into adulthood and he still uses it to cycle to the gym)

He's still in primary school prettybird. He's only been cycling for 4 months (properly, as opposed to young boy pootling on a bike) and the difference in his fitness levels/leg muscles has been amazing. He actually won a running event this week and he never does well at running. Proof positive, if it were even needed, that cycling is the best sport in the world . I'm really sorry your son has had to give up his racing, he was doing so well. Sport is such a lottery, luck has more to do with it in the end than dedication and ability. Look at our poor boys chewed up and spat out by the tour! You never 'give up' cycling though do you, as you say he still bikes to the gym. We cycled to music lessons this week. Although the little voice squeaking 'on your right' as he flew past me when I thought I was hammering along was a tiny bit annoying .

Fingers crossed for something more interesting today, where is Chaves? I thought he'd be coming into his own this tour. Time for some epic solo breakaway wins, Chavanel off the front, proper tour stuff.

Channel 4 have had some really interesting bits with current pros and I've learned loads about how it works inside the peloton from Millar. Plus red wine tips and cooking. They are playing at being test match special presenters!

Interestingly, ds gas said that if he goes back to cycling competing , he'd go back to track just when we thought we could sell his track bike - he says that he couldn't thole the pain effort of c.200km for just the final few 100m.

He's been called upon to compete for the school quite a lot in cross-country/running races even though he doesn't run per se, just because of his stamina.

I'm trying to persuade him that he needs to supplement his exercise regime with running and/or cycling so that he can maintain both his turn of speed and the fact that he can maintain it over the length of a rugby pitch.

He does eventually listen - yesterday he went out for a run after having been to the gym.

Hoping to see Steve Cummings do well today. I'd love to see Team Dimension Data win something after losing Cav.

When is Steve Cummings day?

This tour is a bit like the one where Nibbles won a few years back when everybody else had crashed. It's no fun if there's no competition either for Sky in GC or Kittel in sprints.

Shame Bodnar didn't quite make it after his solo effort, (probably bored like the rest of us).
Did laugh when he swept around a left corner and a family of spectators waiting barely registered him as they were amusing their infant in a buggy.

Agree Drama and Mr Slant. I was saying exactly the same to DH last night that apart from the crashes this tour hasn't been as interesting as previous Tours. We need to get into the mountains, get some good breakaways etc. The flat stages dominated by Kittel now that Cav and Sagan are gone are just a bit dull!

Steve Cummings day is always my favourite day of the tour Endo .

Loving the coverage today on C4, they had a 'viewer' phone in with his take on the tour and we were treated to Cav detailing exactly what it was like in the gruppeto on a big hill day. Fascinating stuff.

Yes, I might say it's a boring tour but I'm still sitting here watching. My back hurts ok!

Looks like it's Steve Cummings Day!

Interesting finish!

Imagine that, Kittel being in the breakaway was not the most surprising thing that happened!

Well we wanted interesting! The whole thing just light up a bit again. Fantastic to watch, great finish.

Cav was saying that actually it can be sensible to go in the break for a sprinter sometimes. Just because they have the times 40-50 minutes back doesn't mean they are worse riders they just use their legs wisely so they can do the climbs well if they want to (look at Bling today, KOM points so his team mate didn't lose them to someone else). If you go in the break you are safe from all the crashes and you can slip back safe in the knowledge that you have 6 plus minutes to roll back on. Easier than working out the maths of staying in the time limit in the grupetto (as Dumare found to his expense). I was educated today .

Bit gutted it wasn't Steve Cummings Day after all but he looked knackered by 7k to go. The man was sweating like nothing I've ever seen. Another time Stevo.