Tour de France 2010

For the Brits the next three days are all about Cavendish.

Then its all about Wiggins and Millar in the GC.

I'm sure Cav will get his stage wins, but the more I see of him the more I see faults. The TDF has always favoured the talented individual, sadly Cav relies on his team so much that he wouldn't even complete a stage without them.

I'm also sure that Wiggins and Millar will each have their moment in the spotlight with the early break on a calm day, only to be reeled in by the peloton with 15k to go, cue the shrugs and "did what I could" interview afterwards.

Nice picture of Lance from yesterdays stage:

Awesome. I'm not at all a fan of Pharmstrong but he was a bad ass bike racer yesterday. That Veino / Contador / Wiggo group should have dropped him like a stone after he punctured but he rode it in like a demon.

so many team cars photographers bikes and referees cars kicking up all the dust
imagine that for 8 hrs in the saddle on cobbles

i think i'd just go back to bed and not HTFU

Manx^^

As for Cav I wonder how much his 'personal life' has had an impact? I think he's great and am surprised that his form has dropped but I guess having a big break up, seeing your brother banged up and good mate almost die might just mess with your head.

I wonder how much the psychological side of things makes a difference and is this coupled with his bad luck (a fair bit of his own making) is causing him to fuck up? I fhe gets a win under his belt it'll make all the difference otherwise it'll be like 2007 again.

Iban Mayo2 is in the breakaway... exciting.

lots of roundabout for finish. will be carnage!

god they've been talking shite on eurosport all afternoon.

I don't disagree, but maybe I'll put a slightly different emphasis...

re: cav.

I'm no TdF / cycle racing expert but my take is that an on-form cav is the most talented individual at what he does. Unfortunately for him the TdF green jersey is not about finding the best 'pure sprinter', though as he proved last year (by coming close) it is possible that a pure sprinter could win it. Hushhovd is not the sprinter (an on-form) cav is, but his range of abilities are better which means he does not need to beat cav in every or even many 'pure sprints'.

When was the green jersey last won by a rider like cavendish?

I love cavendish for having a will to win, arrogance and sheer ability that few british sportsmen possess. But he is a very long way from being a rounded rider.

All true, Cav is probably too much of a pure sprinter for his own good in this game. He did an 11second f200m the first time he went on the track, as a kid on a junior gear, could probably have been up with Jason Kenny et-al by now if he'd turned that way.

I want to see him do well in this tour, starting today

Looks like you guys are going to get your Cavendish wish. Columbia are starting to shape up.

what about the old dog mcewan? although big thor will be hard to beat.

Columbia need that photo op today, otherwise there will be a shit storm!

Could be an exciting end to a pretty straight-forward race with the roundabouts and a Thor v Cav sprint.

#notanexpert

breakaway caught. who would of guessed.

my feed still says 14 seconds. ha, I should maybe turn ITV4 on.

well you're right, but pretty much caught.

speeds coming up 55kmh
http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour/

Oooof, tight roundabouts.

FFS cav

Wow! Looks like Cav just gave up.

Cav, ooops.

Cav was no where today

well done Edvald BH

cavendish not enough juice. woah, petacchi multiple kicks.

Well, well, well.

Cav is clearly struggling. The team gave him a good lead out, he didn't have the legs at all though.

Not to take anything away from the rest though.

petacchi clearly on the NRG-1 there