Tour De France 2011

Apparently the crash was towards the front of the bunch where it is meant to be safer.

That's it, my money's on G now.

G now Sky leader???

Hah, beat me to it.

Would be awesome if he could but I suspect that Wiggo would have been stronger in the mountains than G.

damn and bollocks.

Collarbone, broke.

Crash slowed chase down and so break away will take points.

as someone with a bust left collarbone I watched Brad with a lot of sympathy. you cant touch a bike when it's badly gone

so andyp, whats the story on geraint, is he a good enough climber to stay up there in the GC? Or is it just about SKY, looking for stage wins now?

I reckon G could handle the mountains if looked after... He'll lose time of course, much as Brad would, but his TT is way up there..

I was just about to respond to Brave's suggestion that Thomas take over as leader. He's not a good enough climber to finish in the top 20 of the Tour. He might develop that skill, but at the moment Sky would be better off backing EBH and/or Rigoberto Uran as their GC hope. But realistically, they should focus on stage wins from now on.

intermediate sprint points taken then..

Cav going for sprint (told you so andyp)

Come back from meeting, tune in again to immediately hear about Wiggins. Proper shame.

I thought I heard Sky say that EBH was new leader.

well done Cav though, took that easily!

God.. I'm proper gutted about Wiggins.. More than I thought I could be...

Me too

It's bike racing, crashes happen and people break bones. He'll be back.

Thanks for the clarification andyp..

If EBH can get that 2nd group back to the peloton then he'll be in with a chance of not losing too much time. Sounds like Geraint isn't in the peloton lead group either, so SKY will have to take the initiative to get back on to the main bunch. Possibly losing a min on the big names..

EBH 20 secs behind peleton...

They'll ease a bit after the sprint so he should get back on.

I wish all of France was that flat. In September it would be very nice.

I hope the most exciting part of this stage isn't that crash. I would like to see self-confessed sentimentalist Cav get his stage, but I also want to see some exciting racing at the end.