2013 TOUR REVIEW: Back to reality as the circus leaves town

A brief look back at what was before getting on with the summer; also a look at how my poorly picked pre-tour predictions turned out; and the results of that fictional pure-sprinters competition I made up...

So the dust has settled on the 2013 Tour de France and on Monday I found myself coming home from work and for the first time having to look to see what was on TV. I no longer had a recording of the days stage to keep me entertained for the evening. The withdrawal had set. Nothing left to do now but look back at the memories it created.

All in I wouldn't say this Tour was one of the all-time classics, but there was enough in there to make it fantastic in its own right. Then again, that could be said of every tour. For a fan like myself there is no such thing as a dull Tour. How could that ever happen over three weeks of relentless racing across all sorts of terrain? That is what is so special about the Tour. It is a three week TV drama; a travelling circus, and the story lines develop and take shape as the days go on. Any Tour serves up enough action to write a book about and in this case you had the 100th edition starting on the beautiful island of Corsica, that packed the Alps into the final week and that finished under the lights of night-time Paris, to only add to the magic.

Chris Froome may have taken control by the end of the first week and all but cemented his victory on Mont Ventoux at the end of the second, yet there was still questions about the strength of his Sky team and given the number of riders so tightly packed on time behind him, there was, if not the question of whether collectively they could still attack him often enough in the Alps to finally crack him, then the race to be the final two on the podium. And that played out right to the final climb of the Tour.

But the lack of a Yellow jersey battle going to the wire, as we have seen in some recent years, and general classification attention being on second and third places alone didn't spoil the race. There was still so much else to captivate us: The King of the Mountains competition that went back and forth all through the Tour and was only decided on the final mountain; the battle of the four sprinters, Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan; the desperate hope that a break might survuve; looking for a French stage win; the question of whether the tricky descents might catch someone out; Echelons; Bus-Gate; and of course the sporting arena in which it all takes place ... France.

Shock, Horror: Riders took drugs way back in 1998

That long anticipated list of riders who retroactively failed drug tests from the 1998 Tour de France was published today at the ruling of the French Senate, and from it 18 names have shown up as having had traces of EPO in their system with 16 more being listed as 'suspicious'. The names contained nobody that will have shocked you -- not that anyone being on drugs back then should be taken as shocking -- and so has left me wondering why on earth, fifteen years down the road from that ugly Tour, did we need this coming back to haunt the sport?

Where were you in 1998?

It was a time when bands like the Spice Girls and Boyzone were topping (and some might say destroying!) the music charts, and 'Armageddon' was the big box-office smash. I was sixteen years of age back then and heading down to Dublin to watch the opening stages of that years Tour de France. A long time ago, but not long enough for that French Senate.

Cav beaten on Champs-Elysses; Froome seals the deal

It was the usual run in to Paris in so many ways, but then, in so many other ways it was very unique. Sure there was the usual moments of the various jersey winners posing for their picture at the front of the final stages roll-out, sure there was the obligatory glass of champagne for the Yellow jersey on the outskirts of Paris, and sure the stage still finished with its crit up and down the Champs-Elyeese, but then there was all the new stuff: Finishing at dusk, going around the Arc de Triomphe and someone not called Mark Cavendish winning the stage.

As ever the stage was a slow one to begin with. Everyone was celebrating the fact they had made it through three weeks of hard racing and nursing a few heavy heads and stomachs from their rare treat of junk food and an extra glass or two of wine the night before given the real work had been completed. That jersey picture was taken, the glass of champagne drank, and even Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez -- second and third in this tour -- spent about ten minutes on the front of the peloton trying to light a cigar.

It was a parade, a closing ceremony if you will, and everyone was reveling in the moment that they had made it. For Froome it was the chance to realise his dream of winning the race, for Sagan it was enjoying the repeat of the Green jersey, for many others it was the satisfaction that they had simply finished it. Take Canada's Svein Tuft. A 36-year old veteran cyclist who was riding his first Tour. He finished dead last as the 2013 Lanterne Rouge. His job was as a domestique: He worked for the team, he helped them win the team-time-trial, he spent time on the front of the peloton relentlessly over the first week when his Orica GreenEdge team were passing the Yellow jersey among themselves, and he suffered over the mountains. Finishing last isn't a disgrace in the Tour. It's respected because you still finished and so he too could enjoy the moment.

Quintana cements his potential as a future Tour winner with stage win, KOM title and Young riders crown

If you weren't sitting on the edge of your seat screaming and yelling for Jens Voigt to shut his legs up as he so often does himself, hoping upon hope that somehow the pace behind would relent allowing him the kind of buffer he would need going into the final climb to win what would have been an epic solo victory for the 41-year old German, then you're probably not a cycling fan. It was a big effort as he left everyone else in his breakaway group in his wake on the penultimate climb of this Tour -- including King of the Mountains chasing Pierre Rolland and a few other noted climbers -- in a bid for a great victory. It wasn't to be though and when the general classification favorites upped the anti on the climb to Semnoz, everyone in front was swept away and it was Nairo Quintana, a pure climber out of Columbia who had already sealed the Young riders competition and who at 23 was marking himself out as a future winner of the Tour, who broke clear to win his first Tour de France stage and with it seal the King of the Mountains prize.

It was a fantastic stage to bring to a conclusion a fantastic week in the Alps. From Pierre Rolland continuing where he had left off the day before in going after as many King of the Mountains points as he could, to Voigt's big effort, to Quintana winning solo as he so deserved, to Froome crossing the line moments later to all but carve his name into the Tour de France winning trophy, it was a great finish.

You know, when they put this stage together just a day before Paris the race organisors must have hoped that the Yellow jersey battle would have come down to this climb and not just the King of the Mountains prize and had you been told before the Tour started that Froome would come into the day with more than a five minutes lead you might have thought it would be a dull finish to the climbing, but as this Tour has proven throughout: Just because someone has a pretty commanding lead in the general classification -- even from the earliest days of the second week of the Tour, it doesn't mean the racing itself can't be great to watch and indeed even the battle at the sharp end of the overall standings have proved intriguing to the end.

Rui Costa wins again

Where have we seen a finish like this before? I know, it was three days ago in Gap. Same man, same kind of victory and both brilliantly executed. It's hard to believe that three days after infiltrating a break and then riding away from them near the end his rivals around him let him do it again, but that's exactly what Rui Costa did for his second stage win in what turned out to be a tough mountain stage with a very tricky descent into Grand Bornand.

It was especially tricky because of the weather. Late on in the stage but with the final climb to come the rain started falling in a deluge. There was thunder overhead and before long it looked as though they were rehearsing for the night time finish into Paris such was the darkness. The TV camera's may have made it look darker than it was, but as the clouds descended over the Alps and the rain fell, the cars following the riders had their headlights on and the shine of it was reflecting on the wet roads and the riders freshly shaved legs.

What the conditions did do was open an opportunity for someone confident in their descending to go for the win and it was Costa who seized it. He flew down the wet descent to the point where I was often cringing as he swung into a corner that at any moment the bike was going to go from under him. But it never did. It was a brilliant display of bike handling and by the time he reached dry roads again his lead was secure and he came home 48 seconds ahead of veteran Andreas Klöden who beat home scatterings of riders from the earlier break.

French win at last; Froome gets penalty, blows, still increases lead ... Why haven't they done a twice up Alp d'Huez stage before!?

It was the stage that sent a gasp around the media centre when the Tour de France route was unveiled in Paris all them months ago. Two trips up the fabled Alp d'Huez in the one day. It looked iconic, it was sure to be epic, it would be the stage we'd all be looking forward to. And it was. It was everything we could have hoped it was and more. Drama from the beginning, action up and down the mountains, a throw of the dice by Alberto Contador on the descent we were waiting to see, a heroic effort by Tejay Van Garderen that fell just short, the sight of the Yellow jersey of Chris Froome attacking and then ... wait for it ... blowing, Froome getting a time penalty for taking on food too close to the finish, and the French timing it perfectly -- literally and emotionally -- in the guise of one Christophe Riblon to win their first stage of this 100th Tour de France.

Maybe it's just perception, but every time I watch the Tour go up the slopes of Alpe d'Huez, and aside from promise that next time I'll be there, I could swear the crowds are bigger than ever before. Often it maybe just seems that way, but this year I think it genuinely was. When it came down to deciding which mountain stage people would take in I think they quickly settled with this one given that the entire days wait to see the race arrive would be worth it because they'd get to see them all twice. It was a stroke of genius by the race organisors and give its success I think it's something we might see again in the future.

The crowds packed in. There was the famous Dutch corner, and to rival it the newly founded Irish corner, and with everyone else standing ten deep with a gap wide enough for the riders to move through in single file only, it was everything you imagine about the Tour. Yes there was the idiots who felt the need to run along side the riders and on some occasions almost knock them off, but let's face it ... nobody was knocked off and that running is just another part of the Tour's special culture.

Froome wins third stage; increases lead in GC heading into the high Alps

Chis Froome loves his calculated risks and once again he took one on this stage and it paid off. He changed his bike, like quite a few others did, once he crossed the second of the two climbs in today's time-trial and the time lost in doing so was less than the time he made up in using the slick aerodynamic machine as he powered the final kilometres, overturning a 2 second deficit to Alberto Contador at the 6.5km check (top of the first climb), a 20 second deficit at the 13.5km check at (bottom of the second climb), and an 11 second gap at the 20km check (top of the second climb) to win the time-trial on the line by 9 seconds over the Spaniard. The result was Froome's third stage victory in this Tour and puts him 4 minutes, 34 seconds ahead of Contador who himself lept up into second overall as they get ready for three brutal day in the Alps.

Contador has said he's feeling better by the day and fully intends in bringing the race to Froome over the next three stages, and why not. He's said he doesn't care about finishing 2nd or 12th, it's the win that he would prefer, and so that should set us up for some fantastic racing. Of course, the 4'34" he needs to overcome does look a little much but stranger things have happened in the Tour and all it takes is one bad day from Froome -- indeed, one bad climb by Froome -- or some unsavoury incident on one of the descents and everything could change. Not that we want something like that to swing the balance of the race, but all it takes is some of the weather we seen today and the race could be thrown into chaos before the weekend.

That weather was meant to upset the times of the GC favourites going later in the day. It started to lash with rain and hail and you couldn't help but think the leading time set by Tejay van Garderen right before the rain came was going to stand for the afternoon as the rest were slowed by the wet descents, but either the top ten went super fast on the climbs or the rain didn't affect the course in the way it looked like it might as one by one the times began to fall. Alejandro Valverde looked to have rode the time-trial of his life when he charged over the line but it was soon bettered by Joaquim Rodriguez, then Contador and finally Froome. Indeed Rodriguez himself put in a blistering ride for a man not known for his strengths against the clock but that only proved how big a factor the two category two climbs were on the stage as well as the descents for which Rodriguez is a specialist.

His heart must have been broken when he seen Contador roar up the finishing straight and beat his time by less than a second but will have been glad to see Froome power home on his time-trial bike ten seconds quicker than him. Easier to go to bed knowing you were beat by ten seconds than half a second.

Rui Costa wins as the only man in the picture; while Contador attacks, Froome reacts and both almost crash

Rui Costa of the Movistar team was the man who emerged from the large breakaway group, attacking alone on the last climb of the Col de Manse and dropping like a stone into Gap to finish with the solo victory as the only man in the photograph. A fantastic ride by the 26-year old from Portugal giving the Movistar team their first victory of the Tour.

If you were to open your text book of cycling stage racing to page five under the heading 'Transition Stage' and note the description, that is exactly what you got here in stage sixteen. Indeed, one click of the link at the bottom of the page (if you're reading the digital edition, that is) and you'd be taken to this stages video highlights, such was the expectancy of it.

The break went clear early, a huge group of riders, plenty of whom are made for these kind of stages, and they built a large enough lead to ensure they wouldn't be caught but not large enough that they wouldn't be chased either and fought it out for the win. It was Costa who made the winning move and try as the chasing quartet may, they couldn't bridge across to them. With the number of Frenchmen in the attacking group this surely served as their best chance yet to win a stage in this 100th edition of the Tour, yet they couldn't find a way to get it done and the French had to settle with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place positions, 42 seconds behind Rui Costa.

Time is running out for the French to get a stage win and if they don't it would be the first time they went without since the 1999 Tour. A national crisis is brewing.

How my pre-tour predictions are shaping up...

I meant to run this yesterday during the rest day just as I had the first go of it at the first rest day, but other things came up and so here it is today. Before the Tour started I picked my top ten for the overall as well as the top three in the other competitions, but as I said last week, it's as well you didn't place your bets off the back of those picks. I think only Joaquim Rodriguez is riding in and around where I had picked him and while the Alps have still to come and could yet shake up the overall it's unlikely we'll see many of my predictions fall into their respective placings. Still, with the joy of hindsight let's look back at those inaccurate picks.

The Darkness on the Edge of Town

Why I reckon Chris Froome is clean; and why cycling should be cut a little slack

It is the rest day in the Tour de France and so naturally without a doping scandal to go with it, the media are out in force questioning Chris Froome and his epic performance on Mount Ventoux, desperate to try crack the Sky rider like no rival has been able to do on the road in the hopes that he breaks down and admits it all, saying that he is on drugs. The questions about his performances have been coming thick and fast and they're the same questions every couple of days. You can see why he's getting fed up with it ... I'm getting fed up reading about it, though it's no shock that he's sticking with the denial. I mean, if he says he isn't cheating the first time, do you expect him to change that point of view with a week to go in the Tour?

But that's the Tour de France for you now. No performance can go without question and the doping angle, of which cycling has aired that dirty laundry in public in order to try and right its ship remains the sinister story that the scandal driven world we live in gravitates itself towards. Drugs in cycling here in the 2013 Tour is best described by the words of Bruce Springsteen as, the darkness on the edge of town. It's subject is there, we know its there, and nobody can help themselves but to go looking for it in spite of the great action we're witnessing in front of us, for real, in this Tour.

It was always going to happen though. It happened with Bradley Wiggins last year and it's the doubled edge sword with being successful in the sport of cycling here in the second decade of the twenty-first century. On one side Froome must be delighted that he is living out his dream and going full steam ahead to win his first Tour de France, yet on the other side he must wish he was the worlds best Tennis player instead. Free to exploit your talent and free from questions. Heck, in Tennis he'd be free from a lot of the testing he must endure also.

Then again, the amount he is being tested and questioned will eventually prove rewarding for him if those tests remain clean and he finds a way to prove to the media and some elements of the fans that he is indeed clean. There will be no doubting him then. But how does he do that?

A weekend of superb racing at Le Tour

Looking back at three days of wild action, from Echelons to a break succeeding, to drama on Ventoux

Coming into Friday Chris Froome looked comfortable. He had a big lead in the Tour and as I had written earlier that day, it was rare that such a lead had been squandered in the past. Still, we held out our hopes that in the final week of racing we might still had something to keep us on the edge of our seats and that maybe someone could find a way to challenge Froome and make a Tour of it. Well, writing here on the rest day, it's clear that Froome looks stronger than ever after a dominant display on Mont Ventoux on Sunday but an epic battle on Friday proved that his rivals won't just let him romp away with the Tour if they can help it.

Friday was a flat stage and one that was meant to be the last feeding ground for the sprinters before Paris. I was expecting a stage in which we'd see the early break go clear as has been the way of it on flat stages, before being rounded up late leaving Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Andrew Greipel and Peter Sagan to fight out the win in a dash for the line.

So if you'd told me that morning that the day's winner would be Cavendish from Sagan as was the case, I'd have shrugged that off with little surprise. But this was no ordinary win for Cavendish, indeed it might well be his finest Tour de France stage victory, coming after a monumental day of fighting cross-winds in a stage that became a battle of cycling know how, tactics and positioning.

German television hypocrites

After twelve days of racing -- eleven stages if you don't count the team-time-trial -- German riders have won five of the stages. Three different Germans in all -- Marcel Kittel on stages 1, 10 and 12; Andrew Greipel on stage 6; and Tony Martin in the individual-time-trial -- yet nobody in their own country will have seen this new generation of German cyclists thanks to the generation before them as well as hypocritical television broadcasters.

Off the back of a number of doping scandals involving German riders, from Jan Ullrich to Erik Zabel and the entire Telekom team for that matter, German TV pulled the plug on Tour coverage several years ago. And it wasn't just the German riders it was the sport itself. They lost their patience for drug problems in the sport and walked away.

On the face of it you might think that is quite admirable ... and it would be if they did it for sport entirely, but it appears the only sport they gave up on was the one that was doing the relevant testing and taking the punishment of cheats seriously.

Marcel 'the next big thing' Kittel wins again; and I manage to avoid the result all day

I did it. I managed to stay off Twitter and Facebook and the various cycling websites for the entire morning and afternoon yesterday to avoid hearing what was going on over in France. It allowed me to return home after a short bike ride of my own without a clue as to what was going to happen when I sat down to watch my recording of the days action. It was great.

All through this Tour I've followed live updates on the Cycling Weekly website, I've been on Twitter and have even hopped on to check out a live stream of the final 10 kilometres or so. It means when I get home and sit down to watch the recording of the entire stage, hours upon hours worth -- and I watch it all -- I do so in the knowledge of who is going to win, and worse, how they are going to win.

Sure I might get to see how it's won but it's not the same as lying back on the sofa with a hot cup of tea or a cold beer and really enjoying the flow of the race, seeing it build into something unscripted.

What happens when you lead the tour by at least 3 minutes after 11 stages?

Eleven stages are in the books and for the first time we're more than half-way to Paris. Chris Froome has a daunting 3 minutes, 25 seconds lead over his nearest rival following yesterday's dominant display in the individual time-trial in which only Tony Martin -- a non-GC threat -- could take time from him. Many think the Tour is all but won and that everyone else is fighting for second. Indeed it certainly looks that way given that the five behind him are separated by just 45 seconds, something that might see them fight one another for podium places rather than try reign in Froome together, but what does history suggest?

Well history is on his side. 15 times in the last 50 years someone has carried a three minute lead or greater after stage 11 and on 10 occasions that same man wore the Yellow jersey into Paris.

Martin hangs on for win; Froome smashes his rivals

The stage result was predictable enough. So predictable that even I predicted it right. Tony Martin won and that makes it a staggering two stages in a row that I've got the prediction right after Marcel Kittel's win yesterday. He trounced the 33 kilometre course to the beautiful and scenic Mont Saint Michel in a staggering 36 minutes, 29 seconds for a mind-blowing average speed of 54.271 km/h.

Martin is the master at the time-trial, but he went so early on the day that the television camera's weren't live to catch him and as a result was made to sit at the finish for some four hours waiting to see if he'd win. That's because Chris Froome, the last man on the road in his Yellow jersey made him wait right until the final hundred yards to confirm the German had indeed won the stage.

Froome won't mind too much at falling twelve seconds short of Martin's time, despite beating him by a single second and then two seconds at the two respective time-checks out on the course. The headwind into the finish caught up with Froome but it caught up with the men he was most concerned with more as he took huge chunks of time out of them all.

Who is the best pure sprinter in the 2013 Tour?

You would think the simple answer to that question is Mark Cavendish given his years of success in the bunch gallop and given that he's the man everyone looks for when the finish draws near and everyone's altogether, but that might only have been the answer before the Tour began as Cavendish hasn't quite been himself so far this year. Peter Sagan might be leading the Green jersey points competition, but let's face it, he's picking up points on stages the pure sprinters have no chance on and as a result is walking away with it. To me the points competition rewards the most consistent rider rather than the best sprinter. No, as things stand Marcel Kittel is the best sprinter at the 2013 Tour and here is why...

Cav takes down Veelers in crash that overshadows Kittel's brilliant win

It was only a matter of time before someone hit the deck in the final few hundred metres of the dash for the line. Unfortunately it happened to be Tom Veelers, but given the way all the sprint teams have been lining up for the dash to the line in this tour, I wasn't shocked. Still, it didn't take long for those of us on the moral high ground of our arm chairs to wade into social media with fingers of blame pointing in all directions. Was it Mark Cavendish's fault, or did Veelers move off his line? It certainly took the attention away from a fantastic second stage win for Marcel Kittel, but if you ask me, the blame for the accident lies with neither man.

What did shock me about the crash was that only one man went down. It was an amazing escape and I was delighted he wasn't hurt, but this has been coming. Going into the final few kilometres of these flat stages we're no longer seeing one lead out train control the front of the pack, but rather three and four of them. Cavendish has one with his Omega Pharma Quickstep team, Kittel has one with his Argos Shimano team, Andre Greipel has what seems like the best one thus far with the Lotto-Belisol team, and even Peter Sagan's Cannondale boys are getting in the mix.

The upshot of everyone wanting to control the front is lines of teams across the road and it's causing chaos.

A look at how my top ten projections are panning out (not well!)

Heading into the first rest day I thought it would be a good time to take a look at my predicted top ten before the tour began and see how each of them are doing. No doubt about it there have been a few of them who have come in well below expectations, replaced in the top ten by some who have gone way beyond what anyone thought they could do. But that's the Tour de France for you, that's what makes it so special. You never know how a persons body is going to react until they're thrown into the race and often there are surprising results. I'll also take a look at my predictions for the other jersey competitions and how they are shaping up. Suffice to say, I hope you took my only decent advice and didn't go laying any bets based on my pre-Tour projections!

Sky crumble; Froome survives; Martin becomes first Irishman since uncle in '92 to win a stage

When I woke up this morning I was well aware that this saw-tooth of a stage would be well underway. Perhaps already having crested the first couple of climbs, but confident that the real action was still waiting for me when I ambled into the living room and turned on the television. How wrong I was, because as I slept someone out there in the fast moving peloton of the Tour de France had lit the match and the race had exploded into life.

As it turns out the race wasn't even on the TV. They were showing the F1 and the build up to the Wimbledon final instead, but it was being live streamed on TSN's website and so I didn't have to miss the action. As I sat down on the sofa I had to my right the lights going out to begin the German Grand Prix and to my left a shrinking peloton of men, only one of which was a member of Team Sky, heading up into the mountains.

Somehow, somewhere, down the road the rivals of Chris Froome and Sky had managed to isolate the Yellow jersey with half the stage still to go. It was exactly what they had to do after the beating they had taken the day before and now, if they played it right, they could badly expose Froome. This would be a true test of his abilities and if he came through it we'd know just how good he was looking to win this race.

Froome blows the Tour de France to pieces

It was the first day in the mountains and it could well be seen as the decisive day. It was the day that Chris Froome, after a week of waiting, stepped forward and showed his rivals just what he was made of. Stage eight was the day that Chris Froome pulled the pin on the proverbial grenade and lobbed it into the shrinking peloton of contenders on the climb to Ax 3 Domaines, blowing the race to pieces and riding off alone to win the stage and take the Yellow jersey. It was epic stuff.

Some people will complain that the dominance was so great that the race is in the bag, but let's face it. Such dominance is sometimes brilliant to watch, especially when it is the attacking and aggressive sort that we seen today. Regardless of what kind of tone this sets for the rest of the Tour, today's stage had me on the edge of my seat. The action was plenty and it came early and it continued over both climbs all the way to the summit. It was the day that the heavy hitters finally came out to play and the day we finally got a weeks worth of questions answered. The first day in the mountains is always special and tonight we know better than never before what shape the 2013 Tour de France is taking.

Those who complain about the level of dominance and what it might do to the Tour will claim that Froome and Sky have made the Tour boring, but let's take a look at that for a moment. Last year people complained because Bradley Wiggins played the Miguel Indurain game -- taking time in the time-trials, and marking his rivals where required in the mountains. They called the Indurain years dull because of his conservative tactics and they likened it to Wiggins. These people pointed a finger at Andy Schleck and his brother for being too negative and never attacking when the opportunity to seize control of the tour presented itself. They were equal in their criticism of Cadel Evans for being a follower rather than an attacker. They didn't like that Alberto Contador was getting it too easy. Yet there will be complaints with regards to the competitiveness of this Tour because Chris Froome was none of those things and actually seized the moment ... attacked and went for it ... left his rivals behind in a display of climbing brilliance and rode away.

Cannondale team time trial away from the sprinters and Sagan finally gets his win

It was a hilly-ish stage today and because the sprinters had been somewhat satisfied the past two days I thought a break might be allowed to go away as everyone else kept their powder dry ahead of the big mountains tomorrow. But then, I had also to consider the fact that Peter Sagan had yet to win a stage, had finished second on three occasions, third on another and with his Green jersey rivals Mark Cavendish and André Greipel sniffing close by, he might want to do something before those mountains arrived. The stage profile was ideally suited to a man of Sagan's abilities, though had you told me he'd go win the stage today -- as he did -- I'd have bet on him getting into a break and winning from that, much as he did during the spring classics. As it turned out though we got one almighty pursuit across southern France in an epic battle for the Green jersey.

It all kicked off on the first major (I say major, but it was a lump in the road for what's to come) climb. Sagan's Cannondale team went to the front of the race and put the hammer down and one by one the pure sprinters slipped out the back. By the time they rolled over the summit they had more than two minutes lead on a large group forming behind and the race was on.

Cavendish who was in the third group put his Omega Pharma Quickstep boys on the front and chased down the second group on the road containing André Greipel, and as both their teams set about chasing down the leading peloton, Cannondale remained on the front setting a vicious pace. Clearly those sprinters wanted one more shot at win after all, though I reckon most of their fear was the idea that up the road from them was Sagan riding away with all the points and their hopes of getting close to that Green jersey again.

Impey the first(ish) African to wear Yellow; and I am happy to admit I'm obcessed with the Tour de France

Before I get started, a quick word of congratulations to Daryl Impey who today became the first African* to wear the Yellow jersey when he finished on the right side of a small finish line split in today's stage to move ahead of his team-mate Simon Gerrans into the race lead. All he had to do was finish seven places ahead of Gerrans, but the three second gap between the 16th and 17th ensured he moved ahead on time also.

*According to Phil Liggett, Impey is the first South African born rider to wear Yellow, but not the first African born. That would be Richard Virenque who apparently was born in Morocco. You learn something new every day. Saying that, Virenque may have been born there but he is French. Impey grew up in Africa and that's good enough for me.

So it was while sitting watching this quiet stage in which the entire peloton stayed together for almost the entire day setting up a bunch sprint that Andre Greipel won, that I realised just how obsessed I am with the Tour de France. The stage itself was far from anything memorable. Mark Cavendish crashed and had to chase back on and that might have left him a little tired to properly contest the sprint he finished fourth in, and Impey took Yellow, but aside from that it was lots of scenery and lots of admiring how the commentators fill hour after hour with interesting talk when nobody is doing much.

Cav wins with ease in thrilling sprint

The headline here that Mark Cavendish won today's stage 'With ease' is perhaps slightly mis-leading. If you look at an overhead shot of the final 250 metres and in particular the final yards over the line then, yes, it does look easy given that he was second wheel behind his leadout man and burst around him to win the stage by at least a bikes length. But it was far from easy if you watched the lead in to the sprint through the final two kilometres. If anything it was mayhem.

Never before have I seen so many leadout trains going into a sprint. Given the success of Mark Cavendish it's no surprise that everybody wants one, but it was amazing to see them all there in action as the race came to the final few thousand metres. Then as things really came to a head the race split onto two sides of the road.

Andre Greipel's Lotto team had it's train on the far side, while Cavendish had the Omega Pharma Quick Step train on the near barrier. Both men at the head of the train were pushing to keep pace with one another and as it swept left onto the final straight it was the OPQS boys who timed things right and came out of the corner with their man at the front and Cavendish on his wheel.

Orica Greenedge romp to fastest TTT ever putting Gerrans into Yellow

For the longest time it looked as though the Omega Pharma Quick Step boys would win the day having set the fastest time and the fastest average speed in team-time-trial history, but then the unlikely winners in Orica-GreenEdge arrived up the Promenade des Anglais in Nice at an average speed of 57.841 kilometres per hour to beat them by three quarters of a second and put their man, and stage two winner, Simon Gerrans into the Yellow jersey.

The Australian team certainly send their nine riders over the finish line with greater effect than they do the team-bus, and their average speed was enough to beat the 57.324 km/h set by Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team back in 2005. And before you start to panic by drawing a link between that team and their shady past and this Tour, remember that Orica-GreenEdge put their marker in over a 25 kilometre course that was completely flat on a beautiful day on the South coast of France. By comparison the Discovery Channel time was set over a much longer 67.5 kilometre course.

It was a fantastic stage and for me watching it brought back fine memories of being in Nice. I arrived there two years ago to the day on my honeymoon, which left me wondering whether I got married two years too early or the tour arrived two years too late? Wouldn't my wife have been delighted when having rolled into town and upon wondering what the large crowds were all about I informed her that, "What a coincidence, the Tour just so happens to be here also." Nice is a nice city, it's got a fantastic beach and in the old part of town there are some quaint little restaurants squeezed into those little narrow cobbled streets.

Sagan beat into second again; Gerrans wins; Bakelants stays in Yellow and wins the Tour of Corsica

With 92 men within one second of him coming into today's stage the odds were surely stacked against Jan Bakelants staying in the race lead through today's lumpy stage up the west coast of Corsica, but stay in Yellow he did as his Radioshack team kept the days break within touching distance and the teams of the fast men that had managed to stay with the front group brought in any last minute stage hopefuls to force a bunch sprint. Simon Gerrans surprised Peter Sagan with the win but for his two second place efforts, Sagan moves into the Green jersey he'll likely keep until Paris, while Bakelants clings onto Yellow with the number of men within a second of his prize now reduced to a mere 71.

Baring his Radioshack team winning tomorrow's team-time-trial back on mainland France, Bakelants will lose the Yellow jersey but you have to admire him for hanging onto it through today's stage. When previewing this Tour and the opening three days I didn't think the leading group would have been as big as it was by the finish. I knew the big favorites likely wouldn't attack one another but I thought things might split up more.

I guess in the knowledge that there were three more Sunday's worth of racing ahead of them likely reminded a lot of the better riders to hold tight and keep their powder dry until later in the race. The two hilly stages on this most beautiful of islands allowed for plenty of attacking action by men seeking out a stage result, especially by those who might have lost enough time the day before and who wouldn't be a threat to Bakelants Yellow jersey. Still his Radioshack team set the pace for most of the day and the break were never allowed to get far up the road.

I thought we'd be leaving Corsica with Sagan in Yellow and but for the length of two bikes yesterday, we would have, but Bakelants's big effort on Sunday came with a great reward and he comes away as the unofficial and unrecognised champion of the three days Tour de Corsica!