The crowds in general seem great, and it is fantastic to see them all in their costumes, and the banter between each other seems great to see, and I would never want anything to change that.

What does however have to change, is the closeness on hills, and summits, where they are clogging the roads, and affecting the actual outcome of races.
That is just unacceptable.

The race should always be about racer v racer, not racer v racer v spectator.

It is great by the way to hear f r on someone who has been there send enjoyed such great times but the sound of it.

Thanks. Yes, that's my point. Because Mavic is the only option available in these critical situations at the business end of a climbing day, where a rider such as Froome will have already used up all his team support, and the team car is way back, then some means of ensuring compatibility with the Mavic system would be of benefit. I know it's a rare situation that they need a mavic bike, but when they do, it's critical.

Sky are probably the sort of team that might look to developing a compatible system, as a marginal gain. (Or persuade mavic to put a Froome-sized and equipped bike on every car)

Before posting, I've just done a bit of googling. It turns out they carry a few different bikes, some with toe clips. Also they carry wheels with campag and shimano cassettes.

My googling also showed me just how many different pedal systems there are - I'd never looked at them in detail as I still use simple metal quill pedals with toe clips. But I assumed everyone has to use system pedals.

But of course they can always revert to toe clips. They wouldn't have the slotted cleat, but would at least have the benefit of being able to pull the pedals as well as to push them.

Was anyone able to see whether Froome's neutral bike had toe clips?

Edit. Now found this...

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/...service_414703

The Tour continues after the Nice attacks with todays ITT already underway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/36801928

The official Le Tour site really is garbage. Can anyone recommend a better, more clearly laid out site with more info?

Such a shame that we are relying on hope, rather than expectations, but hopefully the fans behavior today is better than it was yesterday.

I tend to use steephill.tv.

It's a time trial, so usually people are a lot more dispersed, since all views are equally good.

out of interest, what do you need that isn't on there?

Today's start times for all riders.

It's here - all timings French of course, so they are stubbornly wrong. Out by an hour every single time.

http://racecenter.letour.fr/#/timetrial

Looks like Rohan Dennis is set for a good long afternoon in the Big Comfy Chair, he is first by 43 secs over Steve Cummings.

Ah, no, hang on a sec, this page only shows riders who HAVE started, doesn't have the times of riders waiting to start....

Thibaut Pinot abandonne.

Thanks for looking anyway grassmarket. Seems such an obvious requirement it should be prominent on the official site. For instance, for the same sort of thing for start times of golfers at the British Open today, it's just one click on a prominent link on their home page.

Most importantly for me, what time is Froome due off?

Quite liked this photo of Froome
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cps...miamabulls.jpg

Start times sorted. It's not exactly intuitive but on the left of the page if you click on 'Start times', then click on 'See more' you can scroll down for all start times:
http://racecenter.letour.fr/#/timetrial

Very poorly designed page. It's not clear that 'Start times' is even a link. Froome shows at 16:39 so I guess that's 15:39 BST. This is basic information that should be easily and clearly available on the home page of the official site. If the official British Open golf site can do it so can Le Tour.

I would hazard a guess Froome will start around 3.30pm give or take, he is the last rider to go

Eurosport at it again........two or three minutes of live coverage then ads and a repeat of all the build up stuff and review of yesterday that was on 15 minutes ago

why do they do this ?.......

Be interesting to see how Adam Yates gets on.......I've no idea what his time trialling is like but he'll have to be pretty good at it if he's going to be a GC contender in the grand tours

Surprised to see Rohan Dennis getting beaten so early, he's usually a master at these. Very likely cream-crackered by now, or course.

It's worth noting his victory in last year's opening TdF ITT was the first 'test' win of his pro career (he was the Sagan of time trials in the preceding 2.5 years). Still beat Tony Martin today, in any case (my pick is Tom Dumoulin*).

[* And he smashes the lead at the third checkpoint - right on cue!]

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Incidentally, Vasil Kiryienka is below the top 70 today. Besides last year's Chrono des Nations, he hasn't won anything in the stripes.

Kiryienka like most domestiques will be treating today has a rest day, he has to put his personal ambitions to one side.

So Stannard is ok to continue today after that bad crash yesterday?

It was overshadowed by the farce at the end, but appears he's in the time trial and has started if I'm interpreting the info on letour website correctly.

In fact, he's already finished the time trial so he's aiming to ride to the end of the Tour.

Never in doubt, he is a big rugged man, few grazes and bruises wont stop him

I remember Thomas completed a Tour with a fractured pelvis, they arent like footballers, with the exception of Vardy who played with 2 broken bones most of last season

Quintana is already losing time and is looking like this generation's Damiano Cunego. He doesn't look like winning the Tour again.

In a perverse way I would like Froome to lose time today just to keep the Tour open for the third week but I can see him remaing comfortably in yellow all the way until Paris. There is no-one close to his quality in the race this year.

I thought Vardy was wearing that blue wrist bandage to hide a dodgy tattoo or something.

Lineker famously did the same in the '86 World Cup. Wore a cast, not hid a dodgy tattoo.

I was thinking yesterday when Froome was initially down a couple of minutes at the end that he'd have a good chance today to make it back up. So it would have kept it closer if they'd not adjusted the times.

Would also have prevented all the boos when Froome was re-collecting yellow on the podium. What was that all about?