...but bad news for Cav, who was put out of his misery by coming in over one hour after the Time Limit dropped.

Yeah he clearly wasn't on form this year after a few big crashes early in the year. I really hope that's not his last Tour, but he's not getting any younger.

Big day today, having ridden the Croix de Fer and Alpe d'Huez last September I'm looking forward to watching it!

... and not only that, they've just gone up the "shoelaces". Stupendous despite being a mere blip on the profile.

Quote from: njee20 on July 19, 2018, 11:22:56 AM
Yeah he clearly wasn't on form this year after a few big crashes early in the year. I really hope that's not his last Tour, but he's not getting any younger.

Since Cav became a Dad he's certainly mellowed. I saw him come over the line and get jostled by a paparazzi and, in the past, he'd have gone back for him!!

Only just got in from spending heaps on a motorbike so will have to make do with highlights tonight.

He and Peta already have kids together; Delilah was born in 2012 (conceived during the previous year's TdF, I've no idea how he had the energy. #lad), and Frey in 2015, but I agree that he seems utterly besotted with Casper in a way he never seemed to be with the other two!

Superb race today, but again I am aghast at some of the antics of the rabble calling themselves cycling fans

Agreed, Nobby. Do we know why Nibali came down?

According to Gary Imlach poor old Nibali was caught between a motorbike and a spectator where the barriers pinched the road width.
I did notice the motorbikes were being used to try and shepherd some of the idiots away from the riders.

Quote from: Newportnobby on July 19, 2018, 09:17:26 PM
Superb race today, but again I am aghast at some of the antics of the rabble calling themselves cycling fans

I quite agree.  Although I am a quite keen "cyclist" myself - 3000 miles a yearish, I find it difficult to engage with cycling as a sport; I watched today's race but the end was an unprofessional shambles with smoke bombs, flags in riders faces and that bloke trying to knock Froome off.  May not watch any more stages.

Yours grumpily Jon 

And that's after banning the sales of alcohol! It's always been that way, it's impossible to control all of it, and you'll always get a few morons. Mercx was denied a sixth win after a spectator punched him in the kidney back in the 70s. Virenque(?) hit a spectator and crashed in the closing metres on Alpe d'Huez in the 90s. Sadly a small minority's of people are utter morons, at least it's a much smaller number than those watching football!

Still, great race, those closing kilometres were superb. Dumoulin looks very strong, he must be ruing the fact he didn't make up time on the cobbles. Stellar victory by Thomas though, I still stand by my opening comment that I hope Sky don't throw it all away by using Thomas to support a slightly off-form Froome. He's clearly strong, but not like previous years.

Well you just have to look at Paris after the World Cup 

And London, where jubilant fans thought smashing up an ambulance first responder car was appropriate celebration.

But at least in football nowadays spectators don't come on the pitch and foul the players!

Sure they would if they could!

The French do have a particularly acute dislike of Team Sky and Froome in particular.

Mind you, violent spectators are nothing new. In the 1904 Tour Maurice Garin was harassed by a car whose occupants told him that he would be "dealt with" before he got to St. Etienne. The story comes from Geoffry Wheatcroft's excellent book "Le Tour" which is well worth a read.