Arctic Tour of Norway instead, then. Extra narrow finish today with Kenny Van Hummel winning the sprint.

It was a dank and miserable day up there !...........

Should be better from tomorrow as they move further north with the remaining 3 stages being on some islands off the coast

Stupid camera motorcycle at the Race Of Norway! Big pile up as the peloton caught up with it!

at least one of those guys looked badly injured..........the one who was lying face down in the road and not moving.........

Indeed. I think it was an Argos-Shimano rider. Hope he's OK. The Eurosport team were, I think, rather 'charitable' in not apportioning blame to the motorcycle. Look pretty clear to me........

Seems like they're at it again..........according to Radio Times there's no live coverage of the final two stages of the Arctic race

It's on right this second at that point of the race.

Does anyone know if ITV4 are showing the Vuelta?

Highlights only, no live coverage this year (according to @itvcycling).

Cheers John.

Highlights it is then, unfortunately.

Will there be live Vuelta on Eurosport? I've ventured into the realms of Sky TV for the first time in my life and am trying to work out what I'm likely to now be able to watch!

Yes there's live coverage on Eurosport. Unfortunately, Carlton Kirby is doing the commentary.

At the final stage of the Vuelta a Burgos this afternoon, Samuel Sanchez and two others were driven of the road by the down draft of the tv helicopter. http://i.minus.com/ibfOLjtlwtEaO8.gif

The power of the rotors can be seen on the vegetation and the riders unzipped jerseys.

A similar event happened a couple off years back in China when the 'copter swept an advertising barrier into the riders path.

It left Nibali, Quintana, Basso and Arroya to contest the last couple of kilometres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ULx...e_gdata_player

Eneco Tour starts today in Belgium and has stages in Holland

The Tour last 7 days

The last couple of days in particular feature some of the short but sharp climbs that we see in the spring classics and it's that kind of rider that should be up in GC, though there are a few likely bunch sprint finishes as well

Likely lads - Gilbert, Spilak, Moser, Chavanal, Boom

Sky Team -

- Bernhard Eisel
- Mathew Hayman
- David López
- Gabriel Rasch
- Ian Stannard
- Chris Sutton
- Ben Swift
- Bradley Wiggins


Never too sure these days what Eurosport are going to do but they have scheduled live coverage every day of the race

TV starts today at 2.00pm on ES1

Phew...........we get a break from Carlton...........

Declan Quigley and Brian Smith in the box

That's a relief

Petacchi is riding his first race after coming out of retirement

It's said that they brought him out of retirement to lick the lead out train into shape for Cav............

Although Cav is sitting this one out it should be interesting to see what OPQS do on today's stage.............which should be a bunch sprint finish

And Renshaw wins the stage...........Cav's former lead out man who's rejoining him at OPQS next season

Good opportunistic win............got in the right place at the last corner, sprinted 30-40 lengths clear with his team-mates at the front of the peloton holding everyone up and slowing it down............

brilliant tactical victory !

GB's Alex Dowsett has quit the race after a crash (appears to be one or both wrists injured)

Bit unfortunate as it was his first race as a team leader with Movistar..........he would have been a big rival for Wiggo in the time trial

Hopefully he'll recover in time for the Tour of Britain in which Movistar are sending a team and presumably he'll be team leader.

By the way Eurosport are saying that they are covering the Tour of Britain ?......don't think they did last year, wasn't it only on ITV4 ?

It'll be the first time for sure - however ITV4 may have exclusive rights for Britain, so it might be shown internationally but not in the UK

as I said earlier in the thread Eurosport seem to have lost the rights to quite a few World Tour races so they seem to be scratching around amongst the 'below top level' races for something to show...........

and of course both ES and ITV4 show the Tour live so I suppose they could both show other races at the same time ?

If you think about it all Eurosports races are shown on the domestic TV in the country of the race...........that's where they get their pictures from !

Oops! Theo Bos:http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net...gif?1376417381

Vacansoleil, like Euskadi Euskatel, have released their riders from contractual obligations as they cannot find replacement sponsors for next year. With Saxo looking for a replacement for co-sponsor Tinkoff, times are getting tough for cycling teams.

Lastras (Movistar) has been chucked off the race for holding on to the team car.

He was the oldest rider on the start list............they could have given the old boy a bit of leeway !

Interesting sight just now that you don't see very often...........a tractor pulling a big trailer had somehow got on to the course and had to be ushered off the side of the road so everyone could get past

Interesting comments about Wiggo............it appears that he's in the process of putting on a stone in weight to increase his power for the time trials

I wonder if that's another indication that he won't be riding another Grand Tour ?

By the way................he's now intending to ride the Tour of Britain as warm up for the World Champs time trial

Teams announced for the Tour de Grande Bretagne

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23669294