Tour de London

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

The lead has now risen to 7m56s.... I'm guessing it won't last....

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

96km - Astana general manager Marc Biver: "Klöden has suffered more in terms of his confidence, while Vino has suffered more physically. Andreas was already stung by criticisms in the German press. The fall has certainly not helped him. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't finish the Tour. If there are significant time losses in the Alps then we will probably rethink our strategy."

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

93km - Barloworld's Enrico Degano has pulled out after his fall in the feeding zone.

[Greg_Dyke]

If he loses more than 5 seconds a km, then he will be caught...

 

incedently, I make you 2 posts away from 500 in this thread Westy

 

congrats

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

89km - The peloton continues to gradually eat into Wiggins' lead. 6'50" now the gap.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

82km - 5'52" now the gap in a quiet day's racing so far.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

80km - Francis Van Londersele (Cofidis sporting director): "Bradley said this morning that he would try something, but the plan was that it would be as part of a group of riders. Sylvain Chavanel has recovered well frmo his two breakaways. Our objective is to fight for the stage win. Having the polkadot jersey is also good."

 

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

79km - KLÖDEN IS IN TROUBLE! He has been dropped by the peloton. His team-mate Gregory Rast is trying to tow him back.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

77km - Tour de France organisers have decided to strip Erik Zabel of the green jersey he won at the 1996 Tour de France. The German, then riding for the Telekom team, admitted to using EPO in that year.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

71km - Erik Zabel and Tom Boonen both sprint for the remaining 4 points and 4 bonus seconds at the second intermedite sprint in Cormatin, and it's the Belgian who gets there first.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

70km - The peloton was exactly 3'30" behind Wiggins going through that sprint.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

65km - Kloeden is right at the back of the peloton and looking pretty uncomfortable.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

with 40kms to go Wiggins in 5m35s ahead and has just completed the 3rd climb of the day!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

63km - Wiggins has clearly put the hammer down again. He has stretched out his lead from 3'30" up to 5'20"

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

58km - It took Wiggins 7'10" to reach the top of the Col de Brancion, while the peloton needed 6'45". Wiggins picked up the three points for the first man over the summit, while Juan Manuel Garate edged out Sylvain Chavanel for the two points.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

50km - The gap between Wiggins and the peloton is exactly 5'00" with 50 kilometres to go.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

49km - Bradley Wiggins suffers a puncture! He hurls his wheel into the grass bank on the side of the road, waits for his mehanic to put another wheel on, then is swiftly on his way again.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

44km - The sprinters teams and CSC are both content to keep Wiggins on a manageable leash. They don't want any more attacks coming. 3'40" is their deficit.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

40km - Fabian Cancellara's achievement of preserving his yellow jersey since the prologue is made all the more impressive when you bear in mind the number of days that the race leader after the first day kept the jersey in the past. Number of days the race leader after first day has held onto yellow jersey: 2000, 3; 2001, 2; 2002, 0; 2003, 2; 2004, 2; 2005, 3; 2006, 2.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

36km - The gap has dropped to 3 minutes with 36 kilometres remaining.