Sir Dave Brailsford has apparently announced that his next target in the sport is to win the Tour with a French rider........be interesting to see who they sign up in the close season

Can anyone think of a French rider who's anywhere near being a contender ?

Rolland ?

Romain Bardet is talked of as the next big thing from France but they do tend to have a 'next big thing' every few months and obviously they usually fall by the wayside.

Pierre Rolland is the only one probably but I'd love it if Thibault Pinot could do it.

Huge crowd in Saffron Walden............did someone say the people of east Anglia weren't interested ?

Be a bit difficult to judge the crowd in central london as there's probably 2 million people on the streets on a normal day......

Just heard on the travel news that the Euro Tunnel is closed due to an electrical fault

Think most of Le Tour are booked on it this evening.....

News story on the BBC's web site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-28194074

Oh......I just assumed that tomorrow was a rest day as they all transferred to France but it isn't !

It's Le Touquet (that's the airport ?) to Lille

The commentator on ES has said that they're flying from City Airport in Docklands......though obviously all the big trucks and team busses etc would go through the tunnel

I thought they would have been going by ferry.

As an avid user of Strava (who jealously guards the one KOM that I currently have!), I shouldn't laugh, but I was checking out the Strava data for the last two stages. Needless to say, the fine cyclists of Yorkshire have had their leaderboards smashed to pieces by the TdF peloton!

FWIW Phil or Paul used the word "ferry" earlier this afternoon in commentary but it was a very casual mention so I wouldn't read too much into it.

It is of course possible I guess that different elements of the Tour will use different methods of transport.

I was just thinking it's been too long without a crash.

Thanks. Could be a bit tricky timewise

Wonder what crops were in those fields that looked blue ?

any farmers here ?......

Lavender, probably.

Lavender? Or purple sprouting broccoli.

Lavender smells fantastic........I buy lavender scented clothes washing liquid just for the smell !

I bet a whole field of it would be amazing !.......

A Google search for:
lavender essex
brings up quite a few hits, so it looks like it is grown there. But the cultivation of lavender is one of the many subjects where my ignorance is complete, so if anyone knows better....

here's a picture of a lavender field in Essex........this must be what it was

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pict...s.html?image=4

Ohh that Tour almost comes into Cheshire!

Do they have a cycle race in Hong Kong? All these new London skyscrapers remind me of there for some reason.

Get out of the bloody road, you morons!!

Would love for the break to win it. Obviously, that's very doubtful.

https://vine.co/v/MPbPzrJVBI2

he gets a broken arm for it

Looked to me as though OPQS ran out of steam.

Went too early as in the opening stage, but Kittel is as dominant as Cavendish used to be on the flat stages.

Missed them down my end as the commentators gave us a 10 minute virtual tour of London and a history lesson on the tower of London, when they cut back to the race they've already passed through my area! As i live near the route i was going to walk to the location they were cycling through but the bloody commentators gave me no indication of how far they were from my area!