To be fair, Froome went down before the cobbles and the conditions are no worse than they occasionally have to ride in. I suspect that Froome's issue was that his bike handling ability was impaired by the injuries he was carrying and the rain was just too much in the circumstances.

Contador is two minutes behind Nibali at the moment

could set things up nicely for the first mountain stages........forcing Contador to attack

Does anyone know why those blokes on the side of the road are holding bicycle wheels up in the air along the cobble sections? Are they offering spare wheels or is there some other reason?

Is Froome intending to ride in the Commonwealth games ?

Maybe he wants to try and be fit for that. (I know Cav was intending to participate)

Anyone seen anything about that fella that got knocked over in Docklands when he was stood in the road taking a photo? He was lying on the side of the road last we saw.

this is brilliant from Astana and Nibali........they've now dropped Sagan and cancellara

Just 3 Astana riders and Lars Boom at the front of the race now.......

gap to Contador is still growing

The team cars are not allowed down some of the cobbled sections so they are there for punctures.

One of the 3 astana riders has dropped back to the Sagan group

Thanks

Poor Froome. He's had rotten luck this tour.

Yohoo. The first of two Dutch wins today!!!

Don't the team GB guys have to made a decision soon if they want to ride the track in the Olympics this year and look to spend time riding and competing in that?

I think they may well focus on the Vuelta for him now.

I'm really impressed with the Tour de France commentary team.
They appear to have done their homework, not just on the participants, but also on the topography and notable buildings along the several stages, focused on by the helicopter camera.

Makes a change from the highly paid BBC London Marathon commentators, who seem to know naff all about our capital city, given the frequent silences when the helicopter camera does the same during that event.

Sorry to burst your bubble but they are given a "speaker's handbook" which gives them detail about every notable landmark km by km.

Can't really agree with that - most of the crashes (including Froome) happened before they even got to the pavé sections. Those sections themselves didn't seem (from what was shown on the coverage) to cause too many problems.

I think Froome was spooked and nervous and that's never going to end well.

Thanks, I hadn't thought about that

Marcel Kitten 151st place today.

i think he should have had wiggins in as the plan B

You would have thought the London Marathon could do the same especially the length of time it has been going and it is the same route each year. Or is it perhaps a case that there is one nut the BBC presenters can't be bothered with it ?

When they do the presentations at the end for the yellow, green, white jersey etc they also get something else eg a Lion for the yellow jersey, a toy for the white jersey.

Does anyone know all the things given for each jersey and whether they get to keep them eg Does Nibali now have four lions or do they keep recycling the same one every day ?

Thanks

I know they get to keep the toys - Chris Boardman mentioned he has got at least a couple of lions lying round the house that his kids play with.

No bubble burst, because my point was that the BBC commentators of the London Marathon, are so up themselves that they can't be assed to explain to viewers, though I'm sure the information must be available.

Doh!


Thanks for that. It's not as if they haven't the time. Brendan Foster has the frequent habit of saying the same thing, three different ways in succession, when he's running out of things to say, just to ensure there isn't a moment where there's no speech to accompany the video.

Now that Froome is out it's as simple as ABC.....

Anyone but Contador!!