Psst! Get your drug testing kit here! TdF 2018. The MN Peloton rides out.

[DoctorTwo]

It's the time of year that millions of us marvel at the athleticism of 168 cyclists and admit that we wouldn't do that without industrial amounts of illicit pharmaceuticals.

Cyclo-X riders often do very well on pave days. I fancy Roglic doing something impressive today.

G. will be very marked, and I don't think he has the climbing power of many others, I don't think TdF is right event for G. to compete highly in GC.

Isn't DuMoulin going well?! Love that boy. x

Cracking stage. Had both dh and m me engrossed from start to finish.

Totally disagreed with Gary Wotsisname who said that pavé stages shouldn't be in the TdF.

Pavé classics like Paris-Roubaix are an established part of the road race calendar. The TdF is the ultimate multi-stage road race. Ergo, if you want to claim that you can win against the best of the best, you need to be able to survive compete in a pavé stage. It's not just about the mountain stages ; it's also about not falling off completing the pavé stages without losing too much time

Dave Martin had a great attitude. :)

**Dan!!

Unf. It was a bit stressful to watch, I can’t imagine what it must be like to race in those conditions. Gripping stage though.

I’m sad for Richie Porte, who seems to have the worst luck. The way the other teams overcame crashes, injuries and mechanicals was really impressive though.

And, yes, Dan Martin is hard as nails!

Check out Sagan's twitter feed, his wordless (video) description of what it's like to win Paris-Roubaix. :)

Wow! Great ride from G. I wonder what Froome is thinking?

good discussion on Radio5 right now, including the internal Sky dynamics.

Well it all got a bit more interesting. Haven't watched today yet.

And I just keep thinking "G was in my Velogames team".

At least it's got more exciting the last few days.

I do miss Velogames

It's certainly been exciting.

Poor Nibali

Loved the way G took that corner wide so that he could accelerate. Ds had literally just been saying that he was using his track experience.

Sorry to see all the sprinters out Again, ds' view is that it is the TdF organisers' fault by naming the 1st week too hard, with long so-called "sprinter" stages tiring the sprinters out, followed by 3 mountain stages in a row.

I wonder how long Sky will let G sit in yellow before they tell him to prioritise Froome...

Sprinters Degenkolb, Kristoff, Demarr still in. I suppose 1st 2 are strong men.

Well this is an odd day isn't it? I'd guess with all the hard riding it's what the purists would like to see. Riders actually racing!

and of course the ubiquitous sunflower shots..

G and Froome remaining tight-lipped.

This will go to the TT won't it?

Looks like it. Unless one or other of them feels extra good on one of the hilltop finish

Must be a nightmare for the other teams though - which of the two do they cover if one of them makes a "break"?

So there is a TdF thread! I hunted for one but couldn't find it. It will be interesting to see how the next few days play out. Can't see Thomas losing nearly 2 minutes in the TT.

Just to correct myself: only one more mountain top finish

I haven't been able to watch yet so i'll catch the highlights at 7pm, but I saw this on facebook!

Hair raising moment!

As with all of my bike predictions.....it WON'T go to the TT.....

Watching those accidents from Monday and the fact they got up asap and carried on riding put me in mind of Premiership footballers....🤣🤣

5 or 6 years ago some bloke called NicholasTeakozy predicted G would be a GC contender. Turns out I was right, it's just a shame I can't find my post.

Gilbert's twitter has a shot of his two knees, good and bad. If you have the stomach for it.

Yrs I recall that Dr! And I said he won't as he is too heavy and won't be able to keep the wait off!

I am genius......🙄🙄