The MN peloton heading for the Alps and then Paris. The TdF thread. Hopefully we're not on drugs. Actually, do nicotine and alcohol get you banned? In which case I'm buggered...

[ariadneoliver]

Starting tomorrow in Utrecht

The stages

1 Individual time trial Saturday, July 4th Utrecht / Utrecht 13.8 km

2 On-line Sunday, July 5th Utrecht / Zélande 166 km

3 On-line Monday, July 6th Anvers / Huy 159.5 km

4 Hilly Tuesday, July 7th Seraing / Cambrai 223.5 km

5 On-line Wednesday, July 8th Arras Communauté Urbaine / Amiens Métropole 189.5 km

6 On-line Thursday, July 9th Abbeville / Le Havre 191.5 km

7 On-line Friday, July 10th Livarot / Fougères 190.5 km

8 On-line Saturday, July 11th Rennes / Mûr-de-Bretagne 181.5 km

9 Team time trial Sunday, July 12th Vannes / Plumelec 28 km

• Rest day	Monday, July 13th	Pau		
  

10 Mountain Tuesday, July 14th Tarbes / La Pierre-Saint-Martin 167 km

11 Mountain Wednesday, July 15th Pau / Cauterets - Vallée de Saint-Savin 188 km

12 Mountain Thursday, July 16th Lannemezan / Plateau de Beille 195 km

13 Hilly Friday, July 17th Muret / Rodez 198.5 km

14 Hilly Saturday, July 18th Rodez / Mende 178.5 km

15 Hilly Sunday, July 19th Mende / Valence 183 km

16 Hilly Monday, July 20th Bourg-de-Péage / Gap 201 km

• Rest day	Tuesday, July 21st	Gap		
  

17 Mountain Wednesday, July 22nd Digne-les-Bains / Pra Loup 161 km

18 Mountain Thursday, July 23rd Gap / Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne 186.5 km

19 Mountain Friday, July 24th Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne / La Toussuire - Les Sybelles 138 km

20 Mountain Saturday, July 25th Modane Valfréjus / Alpe d’Huez 110.5 km

21 On-line Sunday, July 26th Sèvres - Grand Paris Seine Ouest / Paris Champs-Élysées 109.5 km

www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/us/overall-route.html

Teams

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/tour-de-france/11693097/Tour-de-France-2015-teams-and-riders.html

Hope you've all got bottles and musettes filled for the long haul!
Allez MN Peloton

Great photos, Pan! Sounds like you had a brilliant time. Very jealous, moi.

Today's scenery is stupendous. Have never been to that area, and would love to. I'm watching Eurosport today - it started earlier. Plus I like their little features :) And Greg Lemond. Will probably still watch the highlights for Gary, Ned and Chris though! Who are your favourite pundits?

(And I've written a couple of hundred words, so I am working, ok )

I really like Greg Lemond, and I'm a huge Juan Antonio Flecha fan. His daily Tech Talk feature is really interesting.

Sean Kelly is a total legend in cycling circles here in Ireland and I like his technical & tactical knowledge & dry sense of humour. Carlton Kirby irritates me at times, though. I prefer some of the other commentators Eurosport use - Rob Hatch & Matt Stevens in particular.

I can't get ITV4 in HD here, and I can't record it, so I always record/watch Eurosport HD. I sometimes catch ITV's highlights programme which is shown on TG4, the Irish language channel - in English, thankfully. TG4 has live coverage of the TdeF, but as the commentary is in Irish, I haven't a clue what they are talking about!

Qu'est que......! What a finish.

Commentary? Don't really have a fave. Do like the Boardman/Boulting double act snippets and their current FAQ series. Sean Kelly doesn't do it for me at all - quite staid and conservative, I think.....and the accordian ITV theme tune I'd miss. So it's ITV4, though I have paid to have Euro and Sky sports channels so maybe it's time for a review.

I prefer ITV4 by far however, they really need to get the twitter statuses too 'cos they're interesting.

Anyway, I can hardly believe this is true - someone threw urine over Froome today and someone actua;;y punched Porte on Tuesday!! Sky abuse article

Very jealous Pan. Great photos!

I mostly watch it on Eurosport because I have the Eurosport app so either watch live at work or on catchup (they put the whole live programme on the following day). But Carlton and Sean do push me to the edge sometimes but on balance they are better than Paul and Phil who have a sketchy grasp on riders' names. When I get really fed up with the commentary I watch Seiclo on SC4 and the commentary will tell me the name of the person doing something at any particular time, the rest could be nonsense but as I don't understand it I don't care.

Today's scenery was stunning - I have the area on my holiday wish list and I want to drive over the viaduct.
How do you locate the feed stations - are they marked on route maps?

Yes - dh always buys the official programme, and they're marked in there. I would think they're on the website to somewhere? For other races, like the Tour of Britain, the info is on the websites.

I've wanted to go to the viaduct for ages too! They went past what was obviously a hotel with a swimming pool on the banks of the river at one point - dh found it for me: www.chateaudelacaze.com

ariadne yes, annoys me to heck that Phil & Paul get riders' names wrong so often. It's just a bit sloppy, really.

Great stage today, Cummings taking a jump on the two French riders was brilliant. They had no idea he was there

Cummings was amazing - I'm a little bit in love

Orica Greenedge's BackStage Pass from today.

Aaarrgh!! I'd have kittens if there was a bat flying around my bedroom I don't mind them outside cute mice with wings but I'd completely freak if one got inside the house.

"The riders are dragging a dead dingo." ?????

The Australian saying, I believe is that they are as dry as a dead Dingo. That make more sense given they were talking about it being hot and how much water they need to drink.

Ah, thanks msrisotto - my Aussie patois is obv utterly rubbish!

It's disgusting that a so-called fan thought it was OK to throw urine over Froome - that sort of behaviour is unacceptable, no matter who it is directed against.

And I believe 100% that Froome is clean - he is simply a great athlete and cyclist. I do also believe that cycling is getting a lot cleaner - I have no figures to back up my belief, but I think it is more clean than dirty now.

I believe there's much less illegal doping too. But I also don't have much doubt that the teams are looking for chemical ways to gain a bit of advantage that just haven't been banned yet. There's a blurry line between what's ok and what's not - e.g. altitude training is ok, taking EPO for a similar effect isn't. I imagine there's a lot of work being done in the blurry bit.

More photos anyone?

I think I got a bit too close with this media bike......

if you tap on it you see just how keen the breakaway riders are looking across and itching to spring.

This one was really close.

And I think I've slightly fallen in love with the Pyrenees! Those white spots are remaining ice corries on the north-facing slopes.

And the beautiful sunflower fields....

Speaking of which, I've not seen any gratuitous and ordinarily ubiquitous shots of the peloton zooming past the sunflower fields yet. Well, we have to put that right.

Leading the peloton on Thursday....in UCI regulation headwear, footwear and basket on the front. The sunflowers are obv crying "Qu'est que le..!"

They caught me eventually....

Oooh wet roads on hot tarmac...not good is it? And Cav has been left. Damn.