Tour de France 2016

Because he's an apologist for dopers and has been dialling in his commentary for the past ten years?

Hmm, I take your point. Did he do it last year?

Yes. I think he's still doing the US/Australian commentating this year.

I thought Ned & Millar were far better that Liggett & Sherwen. Other than the frequent ad breaks regardless of action ITV4 is looking bearable this year

30 sec of Millar talking wind direction and peloton reactions was more informative for the nerds than L&S have been for years about anything at all whatsoever

Well i still think it's important to know that if you brake going into a sprint your going to lose ten places.

He'll be biting his lip before seeing the footage next time hopefully. Contador's crash record is worrying though (via @jakob_haslund)

Contador #TDF  record:
2011: Crash in st. 5+9
2013: Crash in st. 17
2014: Crash in st. 10 (out)
2015: Crash in st. 7+17
2016: Crash in st. 1

He should try a bit of bike polo, might sharpen up his bike handling skills... 👷

Haven't watched yet but I've been asking for Ned and Millar for years, glad it's finally here. Still Imlach and Boardman in studio? With Matt Rendell (after whatever happened with Movistar...) doing interviews, that's the dream team.

They are only being inflicted on the US and Australia this year. Something to do with Brexit, I think.
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/tour-de-france/phil-liggett-paul-sherwen-itvs-tour-de-france-coverage-249523

I'd have to totally disagree with you there, I went early July about 4 years ago from Les Houches to Forclaz and back (I was time poor) and aside from it being a hard ride for me as I was 106kg at the time and on my 'shopping' bike it was a fab day. The scenery is fantastic, the roads excellent, I had only one poor pass by a touring motorcyclist and being able to let the bike run including coming back through a barely lit tunnel at almost 50mph was great.
The chicanes coming back into Chamonix are a real tester especially when you have cars etc cutting the corner when all you're wanting to think about is how much brake you need to use to avoid going over the edge when your rims are already a little cooked...lol
Going into Martigney from Chamonix is certainly easier than the other way around, I would thoroughly recommend that area most thoroughly, only wish I had more time to scout around.
And get in Cav, life in the dog yet.

Yes, aussie commentary is ribbie mcewen and some other bloke for 2/3 rds.of the race. Then ligget and Sherwen.

Looks like Bertie slipped on the road markings.

Both ligs and Sher didn't even mention Cav's name til after the finish.
Hope it's windy for the rest of the week, really livens up the flat stages.
Alberto, ouch. Hope he recovers I've the 1st week.

Robbie McEwen is great, no Sean Kelly but he's pretty good...

He pipped my mate to last year's elite CX title in Queensland... Nice guy...

You've got your dream team. Plus a bonus of Daniel Friebe as the roving interviewer.

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2016/us/stage-2.html

Do we fancy Cav again for today then? Or too many sharp little rises for the cuddly wee man?

I fancy that his rivals will hope he doesn't like the hill finish and will try their chances, and that Cav will try to work his socks off to put up a good fight and defend the yellow so that he can at least hold it for a stage or two.

The team should be able to drag him up those little inclines, no?

The last 3km and finish don't look like Cav's cup of tea, I think he'll lose a couple of seconds at least. More suited for Valverde, Van Avermaet, Sagan or Dan Martin

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I expect there will be some time gaps when people start sprinting up the final lumps.
Probably too steep a finish for Cav, Dimension Data to try and use EB-Hagen to keep them in yellow?

I'd have thought the track work Cavendish has been doing will affect his chances of retaining yellow today. But, we should know by now that you write him off at your peril. Sagan's third place yesterday earned him 4 bonus seconds so he's the most likely to be in yellow tonight.

The Millar comentary is good and all but he seems to be lacking in his historical knowledge of the local Chateaus and landmarks a la Ligget.

Ligget couldn't even spot Cav in the sprint yesterday... Many chevrons...