Tour de France 2013

[Panonabike]

Are we having a spin on Le Tour this year? They are half way across Corsica already, and Cav and Froome are settled in. Cav's looking for a stage win.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

I live not too far from the finish of the first day (next year). Am trying to work out whether to brave the crowds and the hanging about waiting though, as I have a son who can't wait for anything and he will be a nightmare.

Although might be worth it to see Cav whooshing past everyone else along the Stray.

Will also be able to go watch on the second stage.

Haven't watched todays yet, I record the highlights for when children are in bed.

Duchess no Sky Ride for me, as although I have watched the Tour since the 80s I sadly can't ride a bike myself.

[YellowJersey]

Well that was an exciting finish! Good for Simon Gerrans, the stage by less than half a wheel. Glad he held off Peter Sagan, I'm not a Sagan fan at all.

Not great news about Geraint Thomas. He's determined to carry on, but not sure how long he'll be able to with a fractured pelvis.

Roll on the team time trial tomorrow.

[ChairmanWow]

Poor Geraint. I can't see him lasting the week. But he's young and a great hope for the future. Shows how totally rock hard these guys are though - riding for two days on a fractured fecking pelvis. Jeez. Reckon I might stop whingeing about having a cold now!

Next year - I'm not a million miles away either. Going to see if I can get a gang together camping somewhere we can catch both Yorks stages.

[DorisShutt]

Next year... off to visit PIL I think

[TheFuzz]

David Millar should be in yellow today with the Garmin squad in the TTT.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

ChairmanWow - did you see Geraint going to the medic's car for treatment part way through yesterday's stage - apparently there is an aerosol spray that treats fractured pelvises!! It must be magic.

Fingers crossed that David Millar gets yellow today.

[IndridCold]

Agree about Sagan! I really want to like him as he is a formidable rider, and seems like a nice boy, but I just can't warm to him.

Jan Bakelents, on the other hand, I'm now a fan and will be interested to see how/if he develops from here. I just loved his win on Sunday - everyone watching must have thought that the bunch would catch him, but he just kept on pedalling and he did it!! He was very sweet in the interviews afterwards too < shallow >.

We are hoping to go the Brittany stage this year, and I am insanely excited about it - even though I know they will pass us in a flash.

[YellowJersey]

I'm at work so am recording the race to watch it tonight. Just sneaked on here for a quick catch up .

Go Garmin & David Millar in the TTT! I think they will really go for the leader's jersey today & they have a great chance. DH, who is Irish, is hoping for good things from Dan Martin later on in the Tour.

Jan Bakelants - I'm a new fan as well.

I'm insanely jealous of all of you who will get to see a stage or two! We are in Ireland but have family in NW England so we might see if we can arrange a visit to coincide with the Yorkshire stages next year.

[ChairmanWow]

Magic spray for fractured pelvises. Love it! The pelv-o-matic! Love G a bit. He seems like such a nice boy.

Excited about the prospect of Millar in yellow. He's a really interesting guy and I loved his book.

[DuchessOfAvon]

I enjoyed his book too Chair - if I may call you that.

I had an orgy of bike-related reading after Christmas and read Brad's autobiog, followed by Tyler Hamilton's book followed by David Millar's - all back to back. They added up into a fascinating picture of the sport.

Millar was very reflective, I thought. He was clearly adrift from such a young age and had no-one to anchor him or mentor him at vital stages of his life. I know Sky gets criticised for being overly structured but if teams like that can support and nurture their young riders rather than the old system of "sort out your own training and you'd better do well when we enter you in a race", then that has to help combat the drugs culture.

He is one of very few to make a full admission and then work hard on rehabilitation - of both himself and the sport.

I like cycling for being a thinking sport as well as a super-human fitness one.

I hope Sagan is just a brash testosterone-fuelled callow youth but I can't warm to him either. Time will tell.

[LostInWales]

Found you! Phew, I knew there would be a thread somewhere. Back in a mo' just going to catch up on the thread.

[LostInWales]

Panon how lovely to be missed. Sorry, my lovely, lovely bil (who we were with at the top of the Alpe d'Huez two years ago for the tour) has been very poorly and it's distracting me from my usual tour frenzy.

I was gutted for Cav but then that's always the way with the tour isn't it. A stage will look like it has a riders name all over it then a crash, or a dog or just no legs and it all changes. I was quite pleased for the riders who won stages 1 and 2 though, they were just so happy and surprised. Lets get the first week out of the way and they will all settle a bit.

G is such a nutter, I can't imagine what he thinks he is doing, it must hurt so much, I think he was quoted saying something like 'I've worked so hard to get to the tour in great shape I'm not stopping now even if my mum doesn't want me to do it'! I LOVE tour cyclists.

Where did that fabulous ode to Brad get to?

[LostInWales]

I really enjoyed Farrar's book and Wiggins' Duchess haven't read Millar's yet. My next one is going to be Charlie Wegelius' memoir of being a domestique. Think I might download that for tonight.

[prettybird]

Ds (12 and a tour geek) likes Sagan but I just can't warm to him for some reason. There's an arrogance about him that I just don't like that imho goes beyond the arrogance of youth.

If anyone wants to know anything about the Tour, just ask and I can get ds to answer. He is such a cycling geek!

Fortunately, school finished last week, so he is able to spend every day watching it! (in between cycle rides of course! )

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I sent you a pm, pretty bird - about the final stage.

[LostInWales]

Ooooh, TTT, here we go, why oh why do team Sky have to be coming in for the finish at exactly the time I have to pick up DS3?

[footphobic]

Tour fans geeks here too.

OPQS just posted a very quick time, pleased to see this especially as Tony Martin must surely still be very sore. Wonder if it will hold or if Sky or Garmin can do better.

Have DS1 and DD1 at home now as exams and college finished, so I can get them to do the afternoon school run while I sit on my arse and watch TdF

[LostInWales]

I think I might be setting a few records myself for school pick up this afternoon . I am sitting here wincing on G's behalf. How that can't make a huge difference to Sky today I don't know.

[soda1234]

Cycling "widow" here. DH was in Nice on Sunday and rode the TT course (in 39 mins, not bad for a 56 year old!) it's lovely to be able to see where he rode on the TV.
He is off to Annecy on Thursday to ride the etape on Sunday, that will be more of a challenge!

[footphobic]

Phil Liggett's varying pronunciations of rider names is amusing me, he always does it. Particularly with Sagan...I think there were about 5 or 6 variations yesterday .

[LostInWales]

Being Welsh I have to say hearing everyone trying to pronounce Geraint makes me laugh. No wonder they shortened it to 'G'. Fair play though as far as I can tell from DS1 they put in a good time (once he'd tried to work out whether they were 2 seconds faster or slower than OPQLRSPMTUY or whatever they are called this week)

[LostInWales]

I know this is from last years Vuelta but it always makes me smile

[Panonabike]

greetings lostinwales

There's still a couple of escapees the MN Peleton hasn't chased down yet tho'.

[ChairmanWow]

duchess, if I can use your formal title, I really fancy Hamilton's book. Millar included some snippets about Armstrong, but I really want to read more about the whole US Postal scandal. Young baby and 2 yo at the mo, so reading is a luxury I either don't have time or am too tired for. It's on the list. I read Wiggo's account of last year's tour though not read his proper autobiog. I waver between being a big fan/questioning his commitment when he drops out of races he's not excelling in. But def prefer him to Froome.

lostinwales, sorry to hear of poorly bil. Hope it's not too serious. Phil Ligget is a bit all over the place with pretty much everyone's names and comes out with some rather odd stuff. However it's Gary Imlach who gets on my wick with his completely not witty banter and that deadpan delivery. Pundit wise I love the Ned 'n' Chris pairing. I followed them both on Twitter when I had time for such fripperies and they're really good friends and rather sweet about each other.

Rambling now. This cold that I'm not whingeing about is making me woozy. Highlights time!

[DuchessOfAvon]

Chair The Hamilton book is jaw-dropping. On the one hand, I have every sympathy with Nicole Cook's plea not to reward him by buying the book, but on the other, the account of Lance's behaviours are mind-boggling and utterly riveting. DH and I actually read sections aloud incredulously. Well worth a read when you have the time to appreciate the full horror.

Highlights time here too!