Tour de Yorkshire, Cambridge...and oh yes France as well!!

[Panwearsjaune]

T minus 35 days and counting, to the Grand Depart from Leeds 5th July, with two stages in the White County, and then a third from Cambridge to the Mall in London. It's just soo exciting! It's the biggest biking event in the world, with approx 190 professional riders in about 20 teams racing across tarmac and cobbles, up mountains and down Dales and ending on 27th July on the Champs Elysee, Paris in the now traditional sprint finish there. So here's the thread to share in it all, swop info about accommodation for Tour watchers, road closures, the parcours (courses), peloton gossip, potential meet ups, tv coverage, who's got the nicest legs etc.. and everything to do with the thrills and occasional spills with the event that is a game of poker played out every day on 380 wheels. OF course if you are a newbie to all of this and are curious about the whys and hows of racing then ask and someone will pop up to answer questions. Hopefully.

So I'll depart here next with the routes of the UK 3 stages being taken so no-one gets lost and ends up in the dreaded broom wagon.

Evening all, my recording didn't work yesterday but DH had noticed that the highlights are repeated on ITV4 at about 2am, so I caught up before today's highlights. Day off tomorrow so I could watch the whole stage but no one will eat, or get to swimming, or dance.....ah well.
So, no Wiggins, no David Millar, no Cav, no Froome. But we still have G the lovely Welshman and his brilliant enthusiasm..and we'll always have the memories of Yorkshire

Just finished watching now. I'd love to hose them all down after this. Look at the state of them!!

I wouldn't like to have to wash all that kit!

The spotty jersey could have been any colour!

Oops

Lord - that was a brutal day on the . I loved G's comment that when they heard that Froome was out, he turned to Porte and said "Let's smash it - we have nothing to lose" - he sounds like the testosterone-y boys on the FB page of my bike club!

DH and I had a long debate about whether it had been right to include the stage given that it could (and for some HAS) curtail the race. But between this and the Sheffield stage, I can't ever remember such an eventful first week of the Tour. It is such a contrast to the long boring flat stage first weeks that made up the Tour when I was younger. SO - as a spectator - ace.

However, the toll on the riders is ever-increasing in the name of entertainment and I worry that the pressure to dope to maintain performance also increases. Would it make for more sustainable racing to shorten the days so that attacks had to be made earlier in the stage? Hutch in his book Faster (well worth a read btw) says that the marginal gains must run out at some point and Brailsford himself admits that this approach was so successful in part because the sport was reliant on doping for so long that the field was open for them to make all the incremental improvements in all the other areas. It'll be interesting to see what happens then if the race organisers persist in upping the hard-man ante.

I don't know that is in the name of entertainment though is it? It's a real test of all sorts of different type of bike riders in the same way that some do mountains, some sprint and some are good at time trials - as technology and riders themselves (please god without chemical assistance) improve so the competition needs to evolve. If it focuses only on sprints and hills then that excludes a huge number of competitors. I thought it was fair to include the cobbles - they all knew it was coming, could have or should have practiced - unfortunate that it rained but hardly unexpected and most people managed to get round. Froome was the only one who abandoned and he didn't even get to the cobbles.

As an aside does anyone know the history of the cobbles - as in why they are there?

The organisers got yesterday about as right as anybody could. The cobbles looked terrifying to ride in those conditions, and Froome was right to abandon before reaching them, as he said he didn't have control of the bike. Luckily, the stage was pretty flat, although the chasing down would certainly have taken it out of the riders.

I agree they need a couple of nice easy days. When you look at the breakaways they've all happened at the end of the neutral zone, so right at the beginning of the stage. What's been interesting is the peloton has not allowed the escapados to get more than three or four minutes ahead, even on stages that were unlikely to end in a sprint. After five stages, three of which have been brutal, I can't help but wonder if they'll still adopt this tactic if a small group gets away that are not in contention for the GC.

frosty history of the cobbles here milestoneimports.com/milestone-blog/porphyry-on-the-champs-elysees/

I'll be missing today's live coverage as I'm going to be otherwise engaged looking at plants at Hampton Court. Just hope the Sky box does its job. I was planning to go to Hampton court yesterday but for work reasons decided to go today to avoid the risk of cancellation. So glad I chose today I would have been disappointed to miss watching yesterday's race live.

I think the cobbles are there because when competitive riding took off in France/Belgium that was part of the experience - tarmac roads weren't the norm, so it's a nod to evolution as well as demanding a wider set of skills from the riders. I'd felt muddied just watching the highlights last night!

Despite putting on expensive moisturiser by the bucket full, my 'TdF Classic Stage 2 2014' sun tan is slipping off my face! So funny we have two glorious days in the north, only to have the rain and winds darn sarf.

The cobbles are a big part of other Classic rides (I think Dauphinee or Paris-Roubaix?) they aren't that bizarre to include. DH does cycle-X so we appreciated seeing those types of skills come to the fore; the Dutch are the European leaders in Cyclo-X so it wasn't surprising to see their ex-national Cyclo-X champ win yesterday's stage!

I loved Thomas at the end, such a happy glint in his eye about what fun it was. Very intrigued about the way Sky were quoted, maybe it was just the editing for TV, Sky didn't seem sad for "Froomey"... more disappointed in him, maybe?

Maybe they already knew that with the wrist injury, the writing was on the wall for his 2014 tour. They always have to have a plan B and I think G quite enjoyed it and the adrenaline was talking.
Poor Froomey did not look like he was in a fit state to get back on a bike, I was quite relieved to see him get into the back of that car.

Who'd have thought a Welshman would be so good in driving rain and mud . I love G- always so upbeat and up for it, he must be a fantastic team mate.

I agree with PP about Astana- even without Vino, they're still tainted by association with LA and Bruhnyl (however you spell it) in my eyes. That was a fantastic ride from Nibali yesterday, though, and one in which I guess doping would have been of limited use.

Will miss most of today's stage because of children but will hopefully catch the sprint finish. Another one for Kittel?

Also, pleased to see to see Lars boom win- he's been a running joke between me and my husband for the past few years (we love his name) eg "did you watch the tour today?" "Yep, was good, but did you see LARS BOOOOOM??"

We shout it to each other across the kitchen (we may be a bit odd ).

Yep, under any definition of 'odd' you two qualify.

Was fortunate to put ITV4 on at work so no need to see highlights tonight. Soooo wanted to see OPQS do a stage win. Or that young Coqard(sp?) snatch a win. Oh well.

The thread's 'Queen of Posts' jersey holder comp for next week is pretty good atm - a couple of escapados in our peloton are ahead in taking over from How by Saturday evening.

Cobbles - iirc, they are included this year as a mark of respect to the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1, and the mass loss of life in the area. Hence the OPQS wearing of armbands.

I thought the highlights could have made more of the stage starting in Ypres for the centenary of WW1 yesterday - they barely mentioned it.

Puts a few cobbles into perspective, anyway.....

I have managed to get to the evening with no clue what happened today, by being out of range of any internet at the Yorkshire Show. Harrogate obviously not been busy enough already this week....

Agree with lljkk that Sky didn't seem to upset about Froome dropping out, by which I concluded either a) they are told to be upbeat regardless or b) they won't really miss him much or c) they were trying to avoid the inevitable "Bradley" question.

Renshaw should have won today but that was foiled unintentionally by Kwiatkowski and the rest of the team. They went hard from about 6k out and managed to drop Kittel, but Kwiatkowski went too hard at 1km, which caused the rest of the train to quit, so Renshaw had nobody to lead him out. OPQS really need to take a hard look at their tactics for sprint finishes, they've not got one right yet. Today was close, but the rest of the train gave up and gave Renshaw no chance. Shame.

Tomorrow is another innocuous looking yet brutal stage. 234.5km of uphill and down dale before two sharp climbs, the second only 5km from the finish. A climber could just get away with this one.

Again, the breakaway started at kilometre zero and lasted for over 160. The pack fragmenting over the final 20k was fascinating. It showed how on the ball you need to be. Again, Astana rode a perfect race keeping Nibali at the front.

At this rate the jersey ceremony will coincide with the new thread, we're nearly up to 1000. The ending was edge of the seat stuff. Not the result I wanted but it's good to see Greipel back to form.

Yes, I saw Greipel on Stage 2 close up and he was suffering! Wondered where he had been up until today!

Am hoping/assuming we won't hit 1000 until some time late tomorrow. Am happy to resume domestique duty then and do a new thread, of course If anyone wishes to pedal in and do it, then gud.

I can't believe that work is so mad at the moment that I am not getting to the highlights show until gone 10pm. I have to avoid this thread in the evenings in case of spoliers. I am glad to see Lotto-Belasol finally get some pay-back for their hard work. As a team they have been out front so often and for so long in this first week, they deserved a result.

On a personal aside, I broke off work after a disastrous failed-to-save-after-three-hours-work incident and went out on the road bike for the first time since the accident. As Pan feels about his Spesh, so do I feel about my Giant . I love it more than my husband. Or my kids. Well, not quite, but almost. It was a prefect summer evening for cycling, the light was soft and hazy, the breeze was light & not in my face and I tootled through the fields north of Leeds and felt happy to be alive.

Re the WW1 connection - dh tells me that someone from Orica Greenedge laid the wreath at the Menin Gate on Tuesday evening, and that for one stretch yesterday the caravan were only giving out cornflowers. Haven't got any links because we have been over there for three days and I haven't been online much!

On Wednesday we were at sector 4, just near Tornado Tom Frits :) It was really bloody grim out there, every bit as bad as it looks on tv, if not worse. When it's dry for the Paris Roubaix etc, they use the hard-packed dirt gutters, but of course they were all just muddy puddles this week and completely useless. The pavé is a great place to watch a race though - you're so close (as the roads are all so narrow!), and they're not going super-fast, and you can really see the miserable expressions on their faces

Atia do you get sprayed in mud as they go past?

We got some poppies and cornflower seeds from the caravan, I have sprinkled them in the garden will have to see if they grow.

I still think they should have stayed in Yorkshire, it was lovely here yesterday too.

Not so much from the bikes, but from the cars, yes! Lots of jumping backwards into the fields :) Two Sky spare wheel blokes were opposite us at one point, and when some cars went past, one retreated into the corn, and the other got completely taken by surprise and just stood there shielding himself with his wheel and looking kind of horrified :)

bolshy on the subject of family in jokes and cyclist names... I know he's not on the tour but Ian Stannard always becomes Eeeeean Stannuddddd in the style of an "Evening Standard" newspaper seller.........

We just can't hear his name now without doing it, sorry if I've now planted that indelibly in your brains