Tour de France 2012

f*ck this ungentlemanly sport.

It's getting cleaner

fact!

The Eurosport commentators fancied Kittel so was amusing to see him get dropped off the back. maybe a few more years before he can properly mix it.

Kittel has stomach problems, hence his not contesting the sprint today.

yeah the eurosport commentators were writing him off. To be honest i didnt fancy him for today either.

No, they mentioned him as a possible, just none of them picked him as their favourite.

I had a feeling Cav was hiding his light under a bushel and saving himself for the Stage. Two fairly half-hearted intermediates then presses the gas when it counts.

My thoughts exactly at the Intermediate Sprint.

Psychologically he's in a strange position regarding the Green Jersey. If he gets it he'll have to give it up (assuming he doesn't complete the tour).

he stated a couple of weeks ago he is entering the tour to ride it through

Ah then Kittel has my apologies

I think there was a psychological edge to it. Proven by the fact that on a pure sprinter's stage no-one seemed to be talking about Cav. I think the other sprinters may have been slightly lulled into thinking of him as less of a threat but he was a proper streetfighter today in a manic finish, got the right wheels at the right time and picked both Greipel's and Goss' pocket. Special moment, I was on my feet screaming at the telly. The dogs thought I was mental.

Cav won't abandon while he's wearing green. I'm not sure he'll abandon at all, as there a schoolof thought that says the Tour is actually really good prep of the Olympic race

^^ Oh, I did not know. I last heard vague "I'll see how I feel" stuff.

Greipel was proper unhappy, must have thought he has that

Question: And you, did you take la bomba?
Coppi: Yes. Whenever it was necessary.
Question: And when was it necessary?
Coppi: Almost all the time

It's getting cleaner

someone said the month after a weeks rest coming off the tour is the best form you will have

mmm la bomba

There you go: Cav wants the Champs d'Elysees again. Maybe someof his team-mates will actually help him out then

Interesting in his post-race interview he said that EVB was there to lead him out, but he actually said to leave him as it was so chaotic, and that they hadn't worked together enough. I think even if Sky put a train together for him he wouldn't want it as he's not confident of its ability: he's better off being a cuckoo. The Giro squad was a team built around him and Geraint his lead-out man, shame he's not at the Tour.

Considering both the Orica-GE train and Lotto has members of his old HTC train, they probably get easily confused and think they should be leading him out

He knew what the deal was when he signed for Sky.

I am not sure I would want to lose 4 kilos if it made me look even more like Ed Scoble.

Anyone know what happened with the spectators and children in the road? sounded pretty serious!

Eurosport for the live show, ITV4 for the highlights: seems like a good balance

Anyone know what happened with the spectators and children in the road? sounded pretty serious!

I didn't hear about this - what happened?

Can't imagine how infuriating it must be to ride at a decent-lick then furiously for 5 hours just to find you've been beaten by half a wheel's length. Enjoyed all stages so far, particularly today's mad finale.

Tweet of the day goes to Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel).

Tweet from Cav:

'Funny emotions tonight. Regardless how many stages we win this year, I won't be happy unless we have the yellow jersey in Paris #allezwiggo'

Tweet of the day goes to Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel).

+1 Eeww

Just caught up, cracking stage!

Cav sounds quite sad though in the interview, doesn't he?

Just been listening to the Cyclingweekly podcast (albeit a day late) and while previewing today's stage they talk about Marcel Kittel 'coming through'. On today's evidence more like following through

Greipel was proper unhappy, must have thought he has that

Amazing win for Cav, but that helmet cover still look's gash.

All the ads are really shit and so many of them. Seems like for every 10 mins of racing footage we get around 6 minutes of ads.
The ads all over the riders should be enough

Tivo or Sky box, fast forward. Ahh...

Who was 'writing him off'?
He's the best sprinter of his generation, and one of the best of all time, so it baffles belief that people still seem to think he's suddenly going to lose that. He may have lost a bit of weight but, frankly, he can afford to and more weight does not equal more power (if that was the case hippy would be reigning Tour winner).

It also doesn't equal more pie capacity... it just looks that way.

Tivo or Sky box, fast forward. Ahh...

I miss those days.