Tour de France 2014

[Amy]

Well, I don't know about anyone else but I think Yorkshire (and a bit of Derbyshire) did us proud this weekend. Today certainly sorted out the men from the boys

[Andrew G]

Agree Amy, today's stage was one of those classic leg breaker type. no main mountains so the riders think they won't be too hard but relentless up and down saps the legs.

Amazing crowd sizes, couldn't believe how many were on the decent of Holme Moss, a long way up to see the riders for a second and they shoot by bum up nose down.

Hope to be able to pop out the office to catch them fly past.

[Phil H]

Saw the route markers around the Olympic park today. Looks like a highly boring stage tomorrow.

Today was epic with the big beasts coming out to play early on in the tour. Saw bits on the big screen at the Velodrome but watched sections when I got home. I have said a couple of times that Yorkshire would be a great place for a Spring Classic. We'll see what the mini tour brings next year.

[Andrew G]

Popped out the office to catch them fly by, I was a popular man with it streaming on my phone and a big umbrella .

Mum and Dad went up to the fan park at St James to watch and sample the atmosphere, and came home with a nice t shirt for their little boy .

[Andrew G]

Sky's no plan B backfired spectacularly. I bet Wiggins is laughing like a drain.

Brilliant ride by Nibali, don't know why he was expected to go so badly on the cobbles, good bike handlers are generally fine with them and he's a great bike handler. Wish I'd known he was 500-1 for the stage, I'd have had a couple of quid each way.

[Phil H]

I was a bit surprised by Nibali but also by Contador just losing it. Yeah, if you watch Nibs descend, it's clear that he's better than your average Luxembourger at steering the thing. Maybe Sky should've sent G after the stage win once Froome had crashed - he was racing in his national weather.

[Andrew G]

Don't know if Thomas was waiting with Porte or just didn't have it, once you missed that split there was no way back so he'd never have got across. G has form winning junior P- R. Porte is a poor back up for GC, he is good to challenge in week long races but three week ones are too long and he'll lose time on at least one mountain stage.

I always thought Contador would struggle with the cobbles a bit as he doesn't ride as grounded as Nibali, he prefers bouncing on the pedals to driving it along, Nibali is a more seated rider climbing in bigger gears in the saddle so could effectively do the same but over cobbles on the flat. I thought Contador did well to keep the gap reasonable to the front and the sort of size he could pull back on steep mountains.

[Jon H]

Nice work by the Panzerwagon yesterday.

[DavidKennett]

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