And with that, I’m gone. It’s been a blast. I’ll be back for more tomorrow – see you then I hope. I leave you with some words from Geraint Thomas …
Yeah, it was great. It was just a really special feeling today. Start of the stage the weather wasn’t great, but the morale from having the jersey made that a lot easier. We were all in a decent position and a couple of guys came past a bit quick and they crashed, and when it’s like that you’ve got nowhere to go. A few of us came down. We were all up pretty quickly but we’re all physically fine I think. I’ll take every day in yellow as a bonus. Tomorrow’s another day. Like you saw today with the crash anything can happen, so I’ll take nothing for granted. We’ll keep doing our job for Froomey and hopefully that’ll keep me in yellow as well.
… and a picture of Taylor Phinney:
Et voici le premier porteur du #MaillotaPoisCarrefour @taylorphinney 🇺🇸💪 #TDF2017 ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/hXPCJZCVN8
— Carrefour France (@CarrefourFrance) July 2, 2017
Updated
Chris Froome has now spoken to reporters, and he’s OK:
No injuries, thankfully. I just lost a little bit of skin on my backside. But that’s the nature of the race. We knew, it’s slippery conditions like that. Today there was just a touch of wheels or someone slid just a few wheels ahead of me, and at those speeds you can’t avoid it. Luckily everyone’s OK and we got to the finish without losing any time on our rivals.
Looking good G! 🙌 #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/4xguqsMtZA
— Le Tour de France UK (@letour_uk) July 2, 2017
Here’s a news story on Kittel’s victory:
Geraint Thomas remains in yellow for another day, but Kittel’s 10-second bonus for winning the stage means he is now just six seconds behind.
Fourth place is pretty good going for a guy recovering from glandular fever.
Cav fourth there, not bad given where he's coming from
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) July 2, 2017
Marcel Kittel speaks:
I don’t know what to say. I’m super happy that I got this victory today. It was an incredible start in Germany. So many people. And for me, it would be wrong to say I had no pressure, it all comes out now and I really wanted to have this win. It was for me a big goal for me to start in Germany and win at the end of that stage. If we’re honest and look to the plan, it didn’t work at all. The good thing was I came pretty late, I could jump from the wheels. I just thought, OK, I need to take my own way, and I was just jumping from wheel to wheel and in the end I could go to the front, and I am super relieved.
The last 45 minutes or so of that stage, from the big crash onwards, veered from the fascinating to the exhilarating.
.@marcelkittel: "I dont know what to say....It was an incredible start in Germany with so many people" #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/UdWnYTm1mW
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 2, 2017
The top five:
- Marcel Kittel
- Arnaud Démare
- André Greipel
- Mark Cavendish
- Dylan Groenewegen
Arnaud Démare came second. Full results to follow imminently.
And Kittel is off his bike, and in tears!
Marcel Kittel wins stage two!
60 seconds of massive drama ends with the German Marcel Kittel with arms outstretched, celebrating.
Into the final half-kilometre they go. Cavendish is there, Greipel is there …
The Phinney/Offredo dream is nearly over, and we’re going to get the mass sprint that we had anticipated. They are caught, with 1.1km to go.
Jack Bauer had the lead of the peloton for about 90sec, in which time they massively munched into the lead of the front two. With 2km they’re now just 10sec behind.
3km to go, and the front two are seeing their lead shrink fast now. It’s down to 20sec!
4km to go. The lead is 31sec, and the peloton is running out of road.
Lotto’s Adam Hansen is at the front of the peloton. Another 2km have gone and the lead is now 32sec, with 5km to go.
The peloton has finally got their act in some kind of order, and are chasing hard. The lead is down to 37sec, with 7.2km to go.
Yoann Offredo has had his own dramas: here’s a Cycling Weekly story about an incident in April when he was hit and headbutted by a man with a baseball bat during a training ride.
10km to go now, and the lead remains intact at 50sec. Phinney’s recovery is remarkable, and there’s a possibility that a truly romantic chapter will be written today.
Taylor Phinney, 38 months ago (May 2014) #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/qLmRAejrEV
— Neal Rogers (@nealrogers) July 2, 2017
Thomas Boudat, one of the breakaway four, has now been caught. Phinney and Offredo are now the only survivors, with a lead of 50sec with 13.3km to go.
This photograph sums up the stage so far. It looks, though, like it might conclude in dryish conditions.
Yoann Offredo has joined Phinney at the front. It appears to have stopped raining now, but the roads are heavily puddled.
Phinney wins a sprint against Laurent Pichon for the top of the climb, secures the polka dot jersey, and then speeds up and heads off all alone at the front.
Updated
The front four are now just 27 seconds away from the peloton, but are on their way up the Côte d’Olne and Taylor Phinney is seeing polka dots now.
Michal Kwiatkowski waited for Froome and is now helping him back to the peloton again. Froome has several rips and tears in his shorts, but otherwise seems fine.
Froome has changed his bike, and is back in action.
Froome is back in the peloton but has his arm raised, calling for assistance. He seems to be pedalling fluently, so presumably it’s a bike problem.
Everybody has got up, saddled up and are back in the race, but that does not mean there will be no long-term repercussions from this crash – we’ll see at the end of the stage, I expect.
Here’s some video footage:
Just stage two of the #TDF2017 and already the usual carnage. pic.twitter.com/MBV35aYI8I
— Andrew Scaglione (@5NEWSAndrew) July 2, 2017
Romain Bardet and his AG2R La Mondiale team have joined with Team Sky, and they are working together to catch up with the leaders now.
There's been a huge crash in the wet with 30km to go. Lots of @TeamSky riders went down. @chrisfroome is back up and racing #TDF2017
— Team Sky 🚲 (@TeamSky) July 2, 2017
At least 30 cyclists came off their bikes.
⚠️ Énorme chute à l'avant du peloton, beaucoup de coureurs ont chuté, dont Chris Froome... #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/r0xAkTlVnf
— Equipe FDJ (@EquipeFDJ) July 2, 2017
Obviously ITV were on an ad break at the time.
Grosse chute à l'avant, Bardet et Froome touchés / Heavy crash at the front, Bardet and Froome involved #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/eNJyBUCvAq
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 2, 2017
Crash! There has been a significant crash at the head of the peloton, with Chris Froome among those affected!
The peloton is passing through Henri-Chapelle, which places them 39.5km from the finish. The front four are precisely one minute ahead now, with the second mini-climb of the stage still 20km away.
A few riders are struggling to keep up with the peloton at the moment – and Thibaut Pinot and Tony Gallopin are both among them.
Still monitoring the incoming photographs, where this one caught the eye. Is the caption – which appears exactly as EPA sent it – some kind of parody? Is some kind of football/cycling cross being attempted? Pedalball?
There are just 50km to go. Here’s a nearly-live picture demonstrating the absolute filth that Belgians are forced to call summer.
🇫🇷 #TDF2017
— LottoNLJumbo Cycling (@LottoJumbo_road) July 2, 2017
50 km to go! The four-men breakaway has a lead of 2'24" on the bunch. pic.twitter.com/t6vWyWGaZt
“I’m out of the loop here – where’s Phil and Paul coverage of the Tour?” wonders Colleen. “Watching is so uninspiring without them.” Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen have been demoted by the Australian broadcasters SBS, where this year they will be restricted to “guest appearances”, but can be found on NBC in America. “Paul and I are absolutely devastated that we’re no longer doing the blow-by-blow commentary for SBS,” Liggett told AAP t’other day.
The leaders are in Aachen, and have safely negotiated a short but slippery and potentially nasty cobbled section.
The front four are not for catching, or at least not yet – their lead is back up, to 2min 25sec. Until the final sprint, this is all about whether Phinney ends the day on a stage in the polka dot jersey, or if some mean unromantic hound overtakes him before the Côte d’Olne, now 35km away.
It is raining again. Encouragingly, the Belgian border is about 5km distant – perhaps it’ll be different there?
The breakaway foursome now enjoy a lead of less than two minutes. 1min 37sec, to be precise, and shrinking fast.
In Liège, journalists, trailers, coaches and apparently parents are gathering, ready for the stage’s conclusion.
Just ran into @petosagan's dad. Lovely guy. #TdF2017 pic.twitter.com/8kR0CxjUs3
— cyclingreporter (@cyclingreporter) July 2, 2017
It seems a little mean for the Tour to pass so close to Holland without even popping in. The riders could practically toss a used water bottle into the Netherlands as they cross the border between Germany and Belgium just after Aachen, which is a little under 20km away from where the leaders are now.
The character in this sketch should rest assured that there is one town in Germany where his hotel-nomenclature dreams could certainly come true.
@Simon_Burnton Still sniggering... https://t.co/02nvBxjYvb
— Duncan Meadows (@djemeadows) July 2, 2017
The riders have just picked up some refreshments, leading to comic scenes of fans scurrying and scuffling to claim the empty bottles and assorted debris they throw off the side of the road.
On the plus side, it’s no longer raining and the roads they are currently riding on are bone dry.
The peloton has now passed through the German town of Titz. Stop sniggering at the back.
There is precisely 100km to go. The front four’s lead remains strong – 2min 43sec at last count – but it may now be time to start reeling them in.
Impressive crowds here. Is this Mönchengladbach? Wherever it is, they like cycling.
🇩🇪 😍😍😍😍😍😍 🇩🇪 #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/PldVVjAgQ8
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 2, 2017
Full results of that intermediate sprint in Mönchengladbach:
- Thomas Boudat, 20pts
- Taylor Phinney, 17pts
- Laurent Pichon, 15pts
- Yoann Offredo, 13pts
- Alexander Kristoff, 11pts
- Sonny Colbrelli, 10pts
- Michael Matthews, 9pts
- Arnaud Démare, 8pts
- Peter Sagan, 7pts
- Marcel Kittel, 6pts
- André Greipel, 5pts
- Mark Cavendish, 4pts
- Ben Swift, 3pts
- Rick Zabel, 2pts
- Mike Teunissen, 1pt
And Boudat takes the 20 points for crossing the line first, with Phinney’s back wheel sliding on the wet road at precisely the worst possible moment, leading to him coming second. The weather looks thoroughly foul now.
We have a sprint coming up in a minute or two, as the leaders enter Mönchengladbach.
The rain is now heavier, and the leading group’s lead is leadier: 2min 47sec at last count.
The weather isn’t helping anyone today: the riders are pedalling into a brisk headwind, in light rain.
Photographs of today’s action are now starting to stream into Guardian HQ. Here are a couple of highlights:
The front four’s lead is shrinking now – down to under 2min 30s at last count.
I like the sound of that jar. I could do with one myself, really.
@Simon_Burnton Great to see Phinney up in front: class guy. Pinot will spend day putting pennies in his Thrilling Heroics jar to spend soon.
— MaliciousA (@MaliciousA) July 2, 2017
Earlier today Luke Durbridge posted a fan’s video of the crash that has now ended his tour:
https://t.co/dVCiBQC1ai via @youtube my slide #TDF2017
— Luke Durbridge (@luke_durbridge1) July 2, 2017
The leading four have a 3min 13sec advantage over the chasing pack, with a shade under 150km to go.
One person who is no longer involved in this year’s Tour is Luke Durbridge, the Australian Orica-Scott rider, who started today’s stage despite a bad crash yesterday but has now withdrawn.
#TDF2017: After an incredibly brave attempt, Durbridge has been forced to withdraw from his injuries suffered yesterday. Heal up Durbo! pic.twitter.com/lgTGQ8xgJy
— ORICA-SCOTT (@OricaScott) July 2, 2017
Here’s the leg in question. This is his first Tour, and it’s remarkable that he’s here at all:
The New York Times published an article about America’s three Tour de France riders yesterday that includes a jaw-dropping picture of the scar on Taylor Phinney’s left leg, legacy of a horrific crash in 2014 that left his leg broken in several places. A doctor told him that he would probably never run again; he was on crutches for nine months. It’s worth a look – find it here.
The four riders in the breakaway group are Taylor Phinney, the American Cannondale-Drapac rider who won that point for the Tour’s first climb, Thomas Boudat, Yoann Offredo and Laurent Pichon.
This news came over from Reuters this morning, regarding Team Sky’s jerseys and the strange little bubbly bits on the arms:
Tour de France chiefs said on Sunday there was nothing untoward on the Team Sky jerseys after rival teams complained that they had been designed to illegally boost aerodynamics.
The British team put four riders in the top eight of Saturday*s opening time trial, with Geraint Thomas taking the race leader’s yellow jersey.
Little bubble pads were seen on the upper arms and forearms on the jerseys of several Team Sky riders, including that of defending champion Chris Froome.
“It is an actual part of the jersey, it was not added,” race jury president Philippe Marien told Reuters.
International Cycling Union (UCI) regulations state: “Garments must not be adapted in any way such that they diverge from their use purely as clothing. The addition of any non-essential element or device to clothing is prohibited.”
“We summoned the team’s sports directors to check the jerseys. Nothing was added to them,” said Marien.
Reuters learnt that at least two rival teams had complained about the Team Sky jerseys ahead of Sunday’s 203.5km ride to Liège.
The performance director of one team, who declined to be named, said they had tested the same kind of jersey and it gave riders a gain of at least one second per kilometre.
Team Sky sports director Nicolas Portal said on Sunday: “There are other teams who have been using it.”
So they’ve been racing for approximately 42 minutes, and there are another 170km to go.
Hello world!
And so, after yesterday’s time trial, comes a first proper race stage, a 126.5-mile flat-ish sweep from North Rhine-Westphalia to Wallonia that looks a bit like this:
Our stage-by-stage guide has this to say about today’s stage:
After a slog south-west through Germany, this skirts the Ardennes rather than using any of those spectacular, steep hills, so it should end in a bunch sprint on the long Boulevard de la Sauvenière. A first chance for André Greipel, Marcel Kittel and company to rub shoulders with Mark Cavendish.
And the city of Düsseldorf adds the following, which clarifies the plans for the start of the stage, which took place (slowly) at precisely 11.03am BST. They started actual racing about 32 seconds ahead of schedule, at 11.29am:
The publicity caravan, which will process from the Burgplatz along the stage route through the city at 10:00 on Sunday, 2nd July, will mark the start of the 2nd stage of the Grand Départ. The race proper is set to start at 12:03. The eight kilometre-long “neutralisation” (where the riders cycle ahead slowly and are not timed) will start at the Burgplatz and proceed through the Altstadt (Old Town) in the direction of the Medienhafen (Media harbour). At the “Living Bridge” spanning the harbour basin racers will stop, before continuing through Düsseldorf city centre for the official start in the Fischerstraße. Only when they are there at 12:30 will the racers be expected to get up to full speed.
After the first few level kilometres through the state capital they will ride in the direction of the “Galopprennbahn” (race course). From Grafenberg the course will run through Gerresheim and into the town of Erkrath. The 2nd stage of the Tour de France 2017 will then wind through Neandertal up to Mettmann, before the riders cross Ratingen and from there return to Düsseldorf. It will follow the Rhine crossing over the “Theodor-Heuss-Brücke” bridge, before the riders leave the Düsseldorf City area at the 57-kilometre mark at 14:00.
I’d love to tell you more about what Liège has planned for the conclusion, but their website refuses to load on our perhaps slightly creaky office computers. What I can tell you, though, is that America’s Taylor Phinney won the first King of the Mountain point for being first over the stage four Côte de Grafenberg, at the head of a four-man breakaway otherwise populated entirely by Frenchmen. There’s another point up for grabs a little later at the Côte d’Olne.
Anyway, and perhaps most importantly, welcome!
Updated
