Tour de France

A fascinating weekend with Thor Hushovd hanging on to the yellow jersey on the clim up to Super-Besse Sancy on Saturday and break away riders winning both stages. Congratulations to Thomas Voekler for getting into a break away to Saint-Flour and taking the yellow jersey; he'll be desperate to hold on to it until Bastille Day and may well be able to keep hold of it for a while in the mountains.

A special mention on a day of crashes for Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha who were both in the five man break away when they were taken out by a French TV car. Flecha had a heavy fall and plenty of road rash whereas poor Hoogerland - who is one of the most attacking riders in the peloton and well worth following - was flipped off the road into a barbed wire fence. Fortunately both were able to limp to the finish but the guy driving the car isn't going to be on the Tour after that piece of driving. Worth doing a search on you tube for the incident and you can get the sense of outrage from the Dutch commentary. David Harmon and Sean Kelly on Eurosport were absolutely scathing about the incident.

A final mention for Alexandre Vinokourov who broke his femur on a damp descent and had to be carried out of a tree lined ditch back up to the road by his Astana team mates. A flawed figure who is all too typical of contemporary cycling but his courage should never be doubted. He was desparate to wear the yellow jersey for a stage and nearly secured that on Saturday when he attacked on the stage to Super-Besse; by Sunday evening he was nursing a broken bone and the end of his Tour career. A well deserved rest day before the inexorable move towards the huge mountains of the Pyrenees where we'll really start to see who is the best cyclist.