ToB starting tomorrow.
Andre Greipel to win or can Sky provide a Brit in 1st place?

Is Wiggins riding it? If so I think he may try and pull out all the stops to try and win and rescue a little bit of his season.

He is yes. He really needs to be looking at winning this like you say.

He needs to do something soon - been a disappointing year for him.

Be interesting to see how the Rapha Condor Sharp team get on in this with a 1-2 in the last race of the 2010 domestic season in the Richmond Grand Prix.

Nah! I don't see how or why he needs to win it outright. TOB is a sprinters tour. I'm sure his main aim will be to support Henderson or Downing to win the GC.

Sky need to win this tour more than Wiggins does. Therefore having the likes of Wiggins and Cummings forcing the pace at the right times will fracture the peloton into pieces leaving Sky to take the Win.

The only worry is Griepel who will be wanting to use this as a spring board into the worlds. The TOB not really being what you could call a mountainous tour will suit him nicely.

Agree with Fungus. I think if Wiggins was seen to be going all out to win the ToB then it would simply serve to illustrate how disappointing a year it's been.

Looks like Sky are backing Henderson rather than Downing. Well planned stage from them yesterday.

Have to laugh at Hugh Porter's track-obsessed commentary on the ITV4 highlights.

Very good points actually. Must admit after I'd typed it I thought similar, but couldn't be bothered with an edit

Fail for Team Sky today then road.cc/content/news/23600-tour- ... -race-lead

Fail for Team Sky today then road.cc/content/news/23600-tour- ... -race-lead

Well planned attack on stage 2 but they had nothing on stage 3. Seemed Henderson wasn't up to the challenge of the Black mountain and they didn't have another option after Wiggins & Thomas had buried themseleves the day before. HTC certainly produce more than their fair share of sprinters, Cavendish, Greipel and now Albasini.

Just to add, Constitution Hill looked brutal!

We have a climb from Keighley to the village where I live known as the Twines.

Is about a mile and a half long. The first mile is cobbled and rated at 27% with sharp hairpin bends.

I can only manage about a quarter of it before I have to climb off it's brutal. It's terrifying to decend.

I'd love to see a pro peloton have a crack at it for a hill top finish in a stage.

Just catching up on days 2,3 and 4 now. Thank god for sky plus ( though I already know the results lol)

I think the tour could be so much harder. I'd love to see a good couple of days in Scotland and the lakes. Can you imagine if they made them ride the Fred Whitton route? That would be absolute carnage, but awesome to watch. You could have a great 2 week tour to rival many other events outside of the Giro, TDF and Vuelta.

I suppose the problem in hosting it would be ensuring that there is enough money to back such an event. Then of course it clashes with the Vuelta. And with the worlds round the corner do some teams/riders see it as a nice competition which will help maintain form without being as hard on them? Leaving them that little bit fresher for the worlds?

I think the main issue is funding, they basically take the stages to where the local authority will pay for them to put on the race.

I suspect there'd be opposition to the road closures as well?

all these foreigners don't like the steep british climbs hence all the whinging they've been doing this week. taking a stage to the lakes or highlands (which as has been said would never happen because no local authority will pay to have an event in the middle of nowhere and all sweetspot want is a profit) would mean no one decent would ride it, anyone who did would get off and walk when they got near anything like hardknott pass

rlAlberto Contador tests positive for steroids!!rl

Really don't know what to think of this.