Carlton on ES has said that Pinot left the race because he couldn't face the prospect of the dangerous final descent..........apparently he said something like 'some people are scared of snakes, some people are scared of spiders, I'm scared of descents'..............

It's the same descent today where Lance did the famous cross-country on a switchback a few years ago............

Big breakaway group of 26 men have got 6 minutes

the lead has shot up from a minute about 20 minutes ago...........the peloton are happy with who's gone up the road and have let them go

could be a win from the breakaway today though presumably it will break up in due course as 26 is too big

Same here, those early C4 programmes did make quite a good effort to explain things though. These days ITV4 largely expect the viewers to know what's going on, which I suppose is fair enough. I do get comments from some people saying that they don't watch it because it's too complicated though.

I remember seeing the Paris stage for the first time and being amazed that they'd got there from the Alps so quickly (I thought they rode all the way) and surprised at how much of an anti-climax it was after the excitement of the mountains.

They're misconstruing the Pinot withdrawal. He said he had a phobia about descending last week after he got dropped at Ax 3 Domaines. He left today because he has a throat infection.

The peleton just got held up at a train crossing! How often does that happen?!

That needs to be introduced into F1, too......

Fairly often. It happened at the end of Paris-Roubaix a few years ago... Boonen got DQed because he went through before the barriers went back up.

Not often on the Tour but I have seen it before a couple of times. I guess it's not possible to plan the route of every stage to completely avoid level crossings but I'm rather surprised that the train schedule wasn't amended for the Tour.

Didn't it happen on the TdF last year, as well? I could swear.....

I always think it funny if you see the breakaway - because they are stopped as well ... so they are in the middle of the road just twidding their thumbs.

Are they stopped? (I wasn't watching TV coverage at the time). They gained nearly a minute during the peleton's hold-up, so doesn't sound as if they were stopped...

This years Milan-San Remo was funnier where they got on buses for half the race and the peleton had to wait for over 7 minutes when they restarted the race so the break could get away

It probably depends how much of a lead the breakaway has and how far there is to race.

I think certainly if the gap is somewhere about a minute between the first group and the chasers both will be stopped.

If there is no chance of the breakaway being caught before the end, I suppose stopping them is a bit pointless.

They were already 7 and a half minutes ahead, they won't be caught. Don't think they were stopped.

But yes, I can see why they would have been stopped if they only had a slender lead.

Level crossing hold ups are not that uncommon.............I've seen a few

I reckon there was one last year.............I think it was on the same stage as the tacks were put on the road ?............was that last year or the year before ?

Carlton suggested that the team put out the 'sore throat' excuse without knowing that Pinot had given an interview in which he said it was due to is his fear of descending..........

Obviously the team would like to hide the fact that their team leader had a fear of descending..............though Sean said it was pretty obvious just from watching him

Last year ... wasn't that when Brad held the race up to wait for Evans?

Actually, I remember seeing a report from the first week this year when Sky said a couple of riders punctured from tacks as well.

They showed him during a stage a few days ago getting treatment from the doctor's car, so he's been ill for a while. Reckon they just looked at the stage finish today, thought about that quote last week and 2 +2 = 5.

Two races going on today...........the breakaway group has 11 minutes with 11K to go.............

Back in the peloton it has split up on the final climb with only 8 riders in the lead group with Porte, Froome, and the top GC riders, don't think anyone important has been dropped

Getting really exciting now

Of the people near the top of the GC Ten Dem has been dropped........

Rui Costa comes home alone...............well done that man !

Can't be easy to get the tactics right in a 26 man group !

GC men on the big descent................Porte has got back after being dropped on the climb

Contador is trying to get away but Froome is sticking to his wheel................ooh..........Contador and Froome both go off road..............and are now behind the rest of them

Porte comes back...............we now have Porte, Froome and Contador chasing the other GC contenders...........can see them up the road, only a few seconds,

They've caught them...............in fact I think the front group slowed down and waited for them once they got to the bottom of the descent