TdF 2015 - Pyrenees and transitions

The Pyrenees are behind them, nothing much happened apart from Froomey showing his class and taking a lead of nearly three minutes, and today (now, yesterday!) - Stage 4 -  is the second transitional day, by which they seem to mean that it's not a flat boring day, nor is it a hilly or mountainous day. So it's just "a day" of riding, but it has a nasty sting in the tail with a 3km climb to the finish line.

The scenery is very strange - massive dramatic limestone crags and valleys, with - as Carlton  Kirby said - a bit of a resemblance to the Grand Canyon. "But with better food" he said.

Unable to resist, I tweeted to him

..and two minutes later, he read out my tweet! Again! On Eurosport!!! I can't believe he's ignored all my Andy-related tweets for the past four years, yet I make a casual remark about Pierre Rolland, or about garlic, and there he is, happily giving me name checks! It's so maddening, and what must poor Andy think? Well, luckily he probably doesn't know, as he doesn't follow me or read this blog...which I had never thought of as a good thing, before, but now I'm slightly relieved.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Luxembourg:

Andy: (looks miserable)
TinkerJil: (arms round Andy's shoulders) Aw, come on, it's not that bad, she was only talking about garlic. At least she didn't mention Pierre Rolla... oops, sorry, pet!"
Andy: (sobs uncontrollably)

Meanwhile, back in France... we have grown so tired of the relentlessly dull P&P commentary, and LLB is really fed up with Carlton - although personally I am quite keen on the Eurosport commentary, as he's mentioned me three times in the last few days, ha! ha! ha! - that today we are watching the Eurosport footage, as the picture is rather better quality than the ITV4 broadcast, and listening to Radio Five Live, with Rob Hayles, whose commentary I always enjoy, and a chap I don't know called Simon Brotherton.

So far, it seems to be a good compromise! 

Talking of commentary, Jensie as a commentator is a bit of a let-down, I'm afraid to report. It appears that he is spreading himself a bit too thin - instead of being a guest commentator anywhere specific, he seemed to be having five minute slots with half a dozen different broadcasters. So he never seems to get a chance to settle down with anyone, but instead keeps giving short, unconnected statements.  Also, and I hate to say this, but his "talking" style is not as good without his happy smiling little face.

I'd still like to see Andy doing commentary - I have no idea if he would be any good at it, but I would love him to have the chance.  As we all know, he is now promoting a range of sunglasses for cyclists, and he must be progressing well with his plans to open the Bike shop, Schleck museum and cafe, and he has done a couple of those guest appearances on cycling tours.  But I think he would manage to find time to comment on the Tour, if he were invited, don't you?

Getting back to the race, there's always something interesting to see - we see Richie Porte go back to the team car for bidons, and I was just wondering if a hot day is the one time when all the riders are happy to go back for bottles: must be nice to have cold bidons all down the back of your jersey. He starts to work his way back towards the peloton, passing Cav who is trundling along quite happily at the back. Cav very kindly gives him a shove forward, and I am so impressed that he will use up some of his own energy to help a former team-mate.

Then, two seconds later, shock! horror! Porte is at the side of the road, tipping bidons out of his jersey pockets and trying to work his way across the road to the off-side. (Well, I suppose in France it's the near-side, but to us it's the off-side.) What happened? Did Cav shove so hard that Richie's front tyre was ripped asunder? Did Richie fall off? No, it was just a puncture, but not the best of times, with 6km to go, uphill all the way, and another stinking hot day. At least he'll be able to link up with SweetLittlePete, who was not having a good day and was right off the back of the peloton.

The end was a surprise to almost everyone, as Steve Cummings riding for MTN Chewbacca takes the stage win with a fantastic last-minute sprint up the last dregs of the hill, then sped round the final flat section with the two french riders in hot pursuit, but he  pulled out enough of a lead to sit up and celebrate winning on what is apparently Nelson Mandela day, Anusingly, he gave the MTN "hand" as his victory salute,

Meanwhile, everyone and his dog attacked Froome, and everyone and his dog except for Quintana was relentlessly pulled back, and dropped in a heap. Even Contador was going backwards, and was left for dust by Valverde, Bumfluff etc. At the end, though, Froomey steamed past Quintana, making a one-second gap to him, at the line, and a 4-second gap to Valverde. 19 seconds over Contador, mwah ha ha !