2008 Tour de France thread.........

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

120km - The peloton, being led by Caisse d'Epargne, Cr

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

115km - The gap hovering at 12 minutes now.....

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

110km - The gap is down to 11'23"

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

104km - Sporting Director Jonathan Vaughters on his Garmin-Chipotle team's Tour debut: "We're coming in with an open heart and an open mind. Most of them did the Giro, and the Giro was so much harder from a staff standpoint that the Tour is actually easier from that perspective. We started off thinking we were going to be a TdF team by 2009 or 2010 and obviously that's been a bit faster than we expected."

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

101km - As Vaughters talks to David Harmon and Sean Kelly, one of his riders Martijn Maaskant suffers a bit of bad luck, in the form of a puncture. The Dutchman, whom the team has nicknamed "Sleepy", is back on his way into the peloton though after a quick wheel change.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

100km - The gap is under ten minutes now....

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

86km - The average race speed after three hours of riding is 38,2 km/h.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

80km - Let's take this occasion to remind ourselves who is in the break-away group: William Frischkorn (Garmin Chipotle - H30), Paolo Longo Borghini (Barloworld), Romain Feillu (Agritubel) and Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis).

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

71km - Gap down to 8'19 as the pace has noticeably accelerated at the front of the peloton.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

68km - 'The Longo Borghini Rocket' is starting to slow down, as the Italian is doing less and less work for the break-away group.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

61km - Liquigas have really picked up the pace at the front of the peloton. We're wondering what the Italian team's motivation is to catch this break-away? The gap has now just dipped under seven minutes.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

58km - OH DEAR!!! A huge union protest is blocking the route!! Some group called CGT are blocking the road, and being cleared off by police as the four leading riders have somehow managed to break their ways through the mess!! This could be there chance to stay away!! Tour Director Prudhomme is begging the protesters to leave before the peloton hits that patch!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

57km - Protests along the Tour route are not a rare occurrence and CGT, or La Conf

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

54km - The peloton is now through safely! The protesters have been moved off of the roads, and cordoned off on the sides. Good work by the police, and maybe the peloton still has a chance to catch the break-away.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

42km - The gap still at 6'39 and whether or not the peloton is able to pull back this deficit is going to be a very close call.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

40km - Emma Davies is on the air making her predictions. She is someone to be listened to, having correctly predicted Thor Hushovd's victory yesterday. She says "This is more of a Mark Cavendish finish" discounting a puncher like Gert Steegmans. Emma also saying that Julian Dean is someone to watch out for if this goes to a final sprint.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Exciting innit?

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

37km - David Harmon: "I'm going to stick my neck out and say that all four of these men will get to the line before the peloton." Harmon predicts that Samuel DUMOULIN would grab the win in that event. The gap is down to 6'07 and shrinking, but is it shrinking fast enough?

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

30km - Gap below five minutes and 30 seconds now... Longo Borghini (Barloworld) has found his second wind and is really doing his part to keep this break-away, away.... This finish is going to be as close as they come.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

28km - The four men being aided by the weather, have picked up a tailwind somewhere along the way and were cruising at 60mph at one point!