It's been quite le Tour de France. Crowds, excitement, weather, awesome racing, it has been incredible.
1) Location
The race started in the UK. It started in the UK, in Yorskhire, and had three stages, two in Yorkshire and the final from Cambridge to finish on the mall in London. The race started in London in 2007 and I believe has been through the UK twice before. The crowds were epic and highly complimented, some of the biggest crowds that the tour has seen.
Stage 2 had some excellent routes over tough climbs in Yorkshire, with Nibali making a great attack and taking yellow. Great stage.
Stage 3 finished in London, after starting in beautiful Cambridge, passing through Essex, before joining London, passing the London 2012 Olympic park, touring through London before turning past Buckingham Palace and finishing on the mall. We took the chance to enjoy it and were on the mall, at the 250 metres to go spot. The crowds were incredible, and the organisation was phenomenal - big screens everywhere, and a huge fan site in Trafalgar Square. It was also excellent to walk around central London with the roads closed.
Nibali receving the yellow jersey
2) Crashing
Sprinters have led the day. Kittel won sprints on day 1 and 3, but day 1 will probably be most remembered for Mark Cavendish leaning in on Simon Gerrans and causing a crash which saw him out of the tour with a separated shoulder.
Chris Froome, the clear favourite, had a small crash on day 4, but on day 5, the much-feared cobble stage, he crashed twice and had to abandon. Apparently he had broken his wrist on day 4, and the falls on day 5 made it impossible to continue. Although day 5 was the cobble stage, Froome abandoned before he reached the cobbles, although it was noticeable that the entire peloton was very twitchy.
Alberto Contador - the second favourite - was looking strong, despite losing small time and big time to Nibali on stages 2 and 5, respectively, before going down with a nasty injury on stage 10. Race TV did not catch the images, but allegedly he was gunning it down a descent and lost the bike. He tried to ride on for 20 km, but abandoned, later discovering he had a broken tibia. There was some post-accident debate on whether Contador's bike had catastrophic failure (
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/news/timeline-details-alberto-contadors-tour-ending-crash_336328) but later it seemed that the bike got twisted and snapped whilst the Tinkov-SaxoBank team car tangled with the Belkin car.
No more crashing please.
3) Weather
The weather in the UK was superb, absolutely superb. Chapeau. There has been a lot of rain in France, and this week crazy heat. Tough.
4) Racing
Nibali has imperious, winning 3 stages, and looks odds on to win, if he can get through without making any mistakes. Behind him, Sky's Richie Port has cracked again and disappeared. Garmin's Andrew Talansky climbed off after suffering numerous crashes, but chapeau to him making it through and finishing a really tough stage when he could have climbed off and ended it there (
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/rest-day-tour-france-resumes-110256541--spt.html;_ylt=A0LEVxGhesxTZkcAcnNXNyoA). Otherwise it has been an absorbing contest in the top 10 with notably some french juniors pushing through (Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, Jean-Cristophe Peraud) plus USA's Teejay Van Garderen.
A week to go, I am loving it!
