Hair de France

Marcel Kittel gets the Blip-nod given he won the stage, though I'd been hoping I could use Cav.

Up at 5am (well, 4.57am as my body clock gave me a kickstart before the alarm went off), three hours on the train to Leeds, and the fun of being part of the atmosphere of a Grand Départ. I'd travelled down with friend Ondine, and wandering from the station it was clear there wasn't going to be much chance of seeing the actual roll-out, given the crowds were already 20 deep. Instead we wandered round past the start line, making our way up to the team buses, finding a space with just one line of people in front of us at the railings, and the riders making their way slowly and separately to sign-on. In some respects it was a better way to see the riders, and managed to spot most I was looking for (annoyingly missing Jens Voigt till he was 20 yards past).

The whole place was absolutely buzzing, and there was something special about being there, even if the roll-out was watched on a big screen while stuck in crowds that simply stopped flowing.

Heading back home on the train (in time to sit in the garden in the sun with a G&T) I popped the tv coverage on on my phone. Naturally the connection died with 300m to go in the sprint, having just seen a crash, and realising that Cav might be down. The latest good news I saw is that the suspected broken collarbone isn't, but may have been dislocated, and it'll be confirmed before stage 2 if he can continue. Fingers crossed.

Happy I decided late in the day to go and see the race. Just seemed ridiculous to be such a fan and not go.

p.s. just look at that hair. He's got a bit of a boy band look going on anyway, but seriously, that hair when he's about to put a helmet on over it for five hours?

Crowds
Kevin Reza all smiles
TommyVoeckler gurn
Cheery Dumoulin
The most French Frenchman in the Tour