Tour de France 2014 - Au revoir Yorkshire and the south, bonjour les montagnes et les côtes!!

[Panwearsjaune]

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Photo finish!!!

Really gutsy day for all wasn't it? Sagan sounded thoroughly pissed off, didn't he? "I can't take them all on." Was that a dig at his Cannon mates who didn't stay with him? Gallopin was a bit extraordinary, finding whatever he had to, to go again after being caught first time.
Nibali always looks rather nervous on the podium, as if he is saying 'Is this okay with you all?' A bit like Dads Army John Le Mesiuer/Sgt Smith.."Do you mind awfully that I'm in yellow? We can talk about it if you'd like?"

Ah go on Pan, stick the map up on your bedroom wall. You don't have to be 12.

I think Sagan is pissed off that the other two wouldn't ride with him to catch Gallopin - well why would you help him to a sprint finish that he would win? He probably deserves to win a stage at some point but it doesn't work like that - at least he's still upright!

I felt for poor Talansky at the end, clearly completely knackered and in pain, having to field stupid questions like "does it hurt?"

Talansky reminded me of the two Lampre riders left behind on Stage 2, as they came round our reservoir, about 15 mins behind everyone else, bloodied and ripped kit. We'd all gotten onto the road, to be met by "nee-naw"s, and two riders looking like thunder. Whatever actual injuries Talansky has, it's a chapeau for keeping going after stopping for so long, and a discussion with the team manager, but most of all with himself.
< Endo, the map gets a big spot on the dining room table as a sort of compromise.>

You're way behind the rest of the peloton, Pan. LostInWales and I have had ours since before the Tour started . Lots of great info in there. My map is sitting on the ironing board while I decide what to do with it

Felt so sorry for Sagan yesterday. Poor lad, nobody would ride with him

DH mighty happy about Nico Roche getting the combativity award today.

Award for the gutsiest ride of the Tour so far has to go to Talansky. Chapeau indeed to him for finishing. Fought a huge battle with his inner chimp & won.

I've got one too! My son has the map up :)
Has talansky started?

Ok talansky out :(

DH reckoned that Talansky wanted to stop yesterday but they 'persuaded' him into carrying on.

Yes I suspect that was the case...if he made it to the end of the stage they could really assess him. Vaughters has been quiet on twitter since

Drama - I didn't manage to get my Tour Official magazine until after the Tour started - we did look for it in Tesco beforehand, but they had none!! I didn't get mine until the day after Chris Froome abandoned, so reading it, with the article about Chris Froome - Defending Champion, was very bitter-sweet.

I am expecting that ds2, who is as much of a Tour-geek as I am, if not more, will make off with the map, and put it up on his bedroom wall - along with last year's map.

So Talansky didn't start today? I think Atia's dh is probably right - he wanted to climb off yesterday, and was persuaded to finish the stage. I can understand why the Directeur Sportif would do that - it gave Talansky the option to see how he felt this morning, after a massage, food and a good night's sleep - and if he still felt he didn't want to carry on, fair enough, but if he'd stepped off yesterday, then woken up today feeling good, and wanting to carry on, that option wouldn't have been available.

That was on Lost's photo of reading material then, DA? tbh I wasn't going to trawl back 285 posts to check. It was a nice surprise to get it off dd's mum who, like dd, has noooo interest whatsoever.

Acute analysis there SDTG - the perils of stepping off during a stage, grande regrets the following morning.

Am still wanting though to get a copy of the Eurosports coverage of Stage 2, to see our valley, at least, that ITV cut out. Checking youtube from time to time. The first we knew of the peloton coming was hearing the helicopters coming over Holme Moss. Ever since, each time I hear a helicopter I'm immediately giving darting looks, trying to see a peloton. #simpleboy.

and just back from Spesh Training Session #4 in a series of 1,456,729..rode in early lunch time traffic, which was a bit nervy still getting used to pedals - clipping out on the right is soo counter-intuitive, so I'd spent 10 mins on a car park practicing, with shoppers wondering 'what the heck is he doing stopping and starting so much?
And the brake/gears on the hoods is a challenge - on the hybrid you don't have to move your hand at all, brakes-fingers gears-thumbs. Dear Chris would have had no chance with bits of his wrists broken.

It was such a lovely gift, wasn't it? She obviously knows you very well

I was going to buy it online, but they wanted £££ to ship it to Ireland. Luckily, I managed to get it locally in Easons, which is sort of the WHSmith equivalent. It's amazing how, as soon as the Tour starts, the magazines go out of date

Talansky didn't start today? I can't say I'm surprised, he looked in a bad way yesterday, tears & all. I got the impression his DS was being a bit of a bully at the time but he was probably right to get Talansky to finish so he had the option to start again today if he felt better. Clearly, he didn't.

I really like Nibali, he seems like a genuinely lovely, unassuming sort of guy. I was listening to an interview with him on Eurosport. He said Contador was with him in a group when he fell. He & Porte stopped & dismounted to wait for him, but after a few minutes they made the decision to carry on because Kwiatkowski was posing such a big danger up front.

Pan we recorded Eurosport on Stage 2, possibly still have it somewhere on the completely incomprehensible telly recording system.

I'll ask the technical support when he gets home from work.

Our TdF map comes from the souvenir magazine that father-in-law bought from the caravan on stage 1.

Endo - that would be tres tres^ magnifique IF there was a way to lift it off to disk? On the 'When the Tour...' video there is a v brief view, on the descent side of HM with a couple of riders steaming down it. I'd copy it for the Hadfield Peloton too, who were just as when we got home. And adding to a growing collection of memorabilia of a fantastic weekend.

I recorded it too, but I'm pretty sure I've deleted it since. Will take a look later.

On the old Sky boxes you used to be able to copy programmes onto a VCR, but I'm not sure if there's a way to copy from the newer ones.

This is Blel Kadri from AG2R, the first to be coming by us, the last of the escapados to be caught on Stage 2, in fact about 1 min later as the beast of the peloton swallowed him up.

Any assistance would be fab DA!

This is building nicely isn't it? The sort for GT?

Am glued to itv4 :)

Is this one for Sagan?

Nope!

To quote Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman.."Wheel always have Paris."

Gahhhh knackered Sky box didn't record each day when I was away from fri - tues. Managed to watch the last 30k yesterday. Will try and keep up with you all again now

As a novice to this bike racing thing I have a question. How often does it happen that the peloton doesn't swallow up those who make a break? Seems quite hard work for those who make a break and then disheartening to be overtaken.

Miranda the peloton usually get them. But sometimes they get away. And that sometimes is enough to make it worthwhile. Tony Gallopin yesterday managed to stay away just long enough!

The peloton will usually decide whether they are worth chasing or not. If someone high up in GC is in the break then the teams of the other contenders will chase. If it's a stage that could end in a sprint then the sprinters' teams will chase to bring it back together.

Even if they do get caught, it's worth doing because if you get in a breakaway then you will be on the telly a lot, and therefore your sponsor's name will be too. There is also a prize every day for the "most aggressive rider" which will usually be someone who went off the front.

This quote is from Jens Voigt:

"If you go (with a break), you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win."

Pan the tech support is back from work, he thinks it is probably possible to do something with Stage 2 and will put it online somehow and send you a link.

(this sort of thing not my strong point, as you can probably tell)

MW - it's an oft asked question! Escapados have different reasons to go off. Sometimes it's to get tv coverage for the sponsor (especially local media companies in smaller races), sometimes it's part of a plan to break up the peloton by one team or more, sometimes it's just down to the riders who are real racers, and want to see what the others are made of eg David Millar (Garmin), Jens Voigt (Trek Factory Racing), Tommy Voeckler (Eurocar), Tony Martin (Omega Pharma Quick Step). So sometimes they know they will be swallowed up but that's okay. It's a team sport. Today's course, like yesterday's was made for a break, but today the big sprint teams didn't let anyone get too far away as the end was a sprinters inviation.

If the breakaway doesn't contain anyone threatening the over all lead, the General Classification for the yellow jersey, then the big teams in the group will let them have their fun eg Tony Martin a couple of days ago, or Gallopin yesterday.

The peloton always has the advantage by riding in a group and so expending less energy than the escapers. IF the breakaway contains experiences riders working together in sharing the load i.e. taking turns at the front, and they don't break up, then the group might get nervous and up the pace to catch them.

It's often though the poker game in the peloton - who is going to sacrifice riders to do the chasing? So whilst they are looking at each other, the escapados might just keep plugging away to victory!