There's a steep ramp at the finish so expect a puncheur/classics specialist to take it. Sagan, Vakverde, Alaphillipe?

Looking at the finish I'm sure some of the GC teams could set their GC guys up for this if they so wanted since it's 7.4% over 1.3km

Peleton taking a bit of risk here, 3:30 with 25k to go is very doable for the breakaway.

I reckon Stuyven has got this.

Disaster for Richie Porte, will lose minutes.

Carlton, you idiot!

Froome's got some good gaps

Was that Richie Porte at 1:48?

Froome might be glad of those gaps in the last week, same has last year.

Quintana Aru,and Adam Yates both in the front group at 0.00. Contador lost 48 secs, Porte 1:45.

And there goes Sagan's dry spell in the Tour. He's certainly done justice to the stripes this season.

That also makes it 2 RR world champions (reigning or former) in succession to make their career debut in the yellow jersey.

Why do neutral service seem not know how to change rear wheels quickly? Do they not practice? It is like they have the QR fully open and no idea where it should be before operating the cam.

Porte got a two minute penalty for taking a wheel from an Aussie mate in the Giro. He nearly got the same from neutral assistance.

I imagine the best mechanics are working for the best money for the biggest teams. Neutral service will get the rejects.

He looked like he had never changed a wheel before, either that or he took his time on purpose.

Least Sagan gets a win early - wasn't it last year he was 2nd about 5/6 times!

Been ousted by a new fresh team but not the same without Phil and Paul. I may lose interest in the Tour now.

Who is going to put the hammer down?
And where are the chateaux?

How do they know what wheel to give them? There must be a few possibilities.

It's an interesting tactic over the last year or two with Sky.......Froome has consistently tried to come in near the front of bunch finishes and regularly gets seconds over the other GC contenders

I assume they must have realised by now what the game is........but presumably they've done a risk assessment and decided it's safer to back off

At the moment it looks like a great tactic........those seconds will be invaluable later as it will allow him t follow rather than attack and keeps all his options open on the climbs

But I would be worried that one day he'll end up on the deck as the sprinters barge and shove their way through and his race will be over......

I think they deserve a bit of time to settle in. It's only their third event and they're filling big shoes. Who remembers Ligget's first commentary stints? (I don't, but perhaps he didn't spring fully formed into the role.)

I think Miller is the weaker link. He's obviously trying to research interesting stuff to throw into the mix, but I don't know where he got the stuff about the cliffs in that area. There are sea cliffs two and three times as high in Ireland and Norway. More to the point, he has a rather characterless voice. I'm not a huge fan of the Scottish accent but maybe he could exaggerate it a little. Throw in a few "Cerpently"s. His drugs history is a bit unfortunate, but at least he seems to be using it to do some good, now

I mostly watch cycling on Eurosport with Kirby and Kelly.

Giving up on the Tour because of the commentary team is a little extreme, in my view.

The Tour organisers supply broadcasters with a booklet which lists all the points of interest (scenery, chateaux, farmers' displays, etc) and the distances from the finish line at which helicopter shots of them will be shown.

Could always try something different if you've got a TV and a radio handy..........put the pictures on either channel with the sound muted and tune in to live coverage on Radio 5Live Sports Extra from 3pm

Don't know who the commentators are but it'll be Simon Brotherton with someone, probably Rob Hales

I might give that a go this afternoon if I remember........

I think the radio commentary will be a second or two in advance of the TV pictures, which might be annoying.

And don't forget the Welsh commentary, don't know what they are talking about but there seems to be about six of them and they are never short of a word or two.

I know that there's nothing we can do about it but I find that small information box on the screen, bottom left is a bit small and rather difficult to decipher. Once or twice it reverted to a linear style at the bottom.

The graphics do tend to be all over the place........towards the finish yesterday they still had the guy out front with a minute's advantage and you could see the peloton 10 yards behind him.........

Must admit that with my aging eyesight I can't read the graphics anyway unless I close in on the TV.......

There's a splendid chateau at the end today in Angers, looks like a giant liquorice allsort.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=an...8L8TEDSrM1M%3A

The French broadcaster changed the graphic near the end. During most of the race it showed the gap from the breakaway to the front of the peloton, then it changed to show the gap between the breakaway and the yellow jersey.

It wasn't completely Carlton's fault, the TdF are usually quite reliable with the numbering - 1 is always the leader, 2 would be a chase group, 3 would be the peleton etc. If you keep an eye on it you can see it changing as groups unite and split.

Unfortunately what they didn't do yesterday was to show that once the yellow jersey fell off, there were other groups forming between Cav and Stuyven. But Carlton should have realised that the time gaps were hugely improbable, and if he'd kept his eyes on the screen he would have seen motos going past Stuyven, which is always a sign that he's about to be caught.

OK, now everyone would get sick of it if they did it for the whole 3,519 kilometres, but every now and then the Voiture Balai / Broom Wagon should scare the bejesus out of everyone by playing the music from Jaws or Psycho at full volume.