Ironicaly after a start in the U.K. where record crowds packed the route for 3 days, there are now only 2 British riders left in the tour and only one from England. (Simon Yates)
This will go down as the Tour of Favourites attrition. Now Contadour has abandoned after a bad fall. That is the two top favourites out and the second places rider from last year Qunitana chose not to start, even though he was the hot favourite to win, after winning the Giro (Tour of Italy) in the Spring.
Cavendish of course crashed out on the first stage, when he so wanted to win to obtain his first yellow jersey. At least he was man enough to admit the accident was his fault, he panicked when there was no opening for him in the Sprint and tried to force his way through. Where were his lead out team that where supposed to take him to the line?
Anne and I went down to the start of stage 3 at Cambridge, to see the riders up close at the "sign in" ceremony, and learnt the riders has stayed overnight at hotels in Peterborough so we could have seen them without leaving our town. But it was a nice day out and we enjoyed the Tour ambiance.
But cycling can be a cruel sport. Tony Martin the time trial genius, after an epic stage victory resulting from breaking away on his own for over 50 K, the next day took on an ambitious objective. He towed the young Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski up to the break then towed the whole break to the penultimate of 7 climbs before almost falling off his bike with exhaustion. It was hoped the young rider could then attack and win the stage, possibly taking over the yellow jersey. Sadly he was depleted after hanging on to Tony's wheel for 50 K and got caught by the peleton, also losing his White (Best young riders journey). Let's hope he can win it back in the following days.