All eyes on Paris for the Tour de France final

I've been watching this year's Tour de France almost in disbelief. Could it really be that we have British riders in first and second place in the yellow jersey race with another, the cycling world champion no less, winning two stages and going for a third of this race on the Champs Elysees later today? His audacious attack on Friday from quite a long way out provided a thrilling end to the stage.

I don't need to pinch myself, because it is in fact all true. Let's just hope that the procession to Paris is traditionally uneventful. I don't want to say that Bradley Wiggins is the victor until he's actually over the line. 

Brad and the Team Sky he leads have dominated the race. Italian Vincenzo Nabali has made a couple of spirited efforts to take the shine off them, to no avail. I've felt sorry for defending champion Cadel Evans who's had few really bad days. I'd have liked to see him really give Bradley something to think about. 

I have to be honest and say that I'm not over keen on Chris Froome, Wiggins' second placed team mate, who's been telling everyone who'd listen that he'd have been able to win on his own. I was quite satisfied to see Wiggins give him quite a spanking in the time trial yesterday, beating him by a minute and a quarter.

I'd been all about the likes of Mark Cavendish, Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans up until now, with a special soft spot for Thomas Voeckler who should win the King of Mountains title today. The latter is a plucky Frenchman who's never won the yellow jersey competition despite having two long spells in it in 2005 and 2011. I like his humour, humility and general attitude. 

The sayings of Bradley Wiggins

Being a bit of a newbie to cycling, I'd never really paid that much attention to Wiggins. 2009 was really the first year I watched the Tour. It was the year I was ill and Stephen Glenn got me into it. Brad finished 4th that year, but he didn't do so well the year after and then broke his collar bone in 2011 that I haven't had the chance to get to know him really. However, his extended run in the yellow jersey this year has given him loads of media exposure and he's made me laugh and cry so much with his sayings. Who could fail to be moved yesterday when he was talking about his family and his grandad? Earlier in the week, he'd had a press conference on the rest day and very bluntly said, as Mark Pack pointed out:

It's so nice to be recognised for achieving something as so much of British culture is built up on people being famous for not achieving anything.

Then there was the comment about mountain climbs going up and being on tarmac. My personal favourite, though, was when he was talking, in French, to the French media who were asking him what it was like to meet President Hollande after Friday's stage. He made out that he'd no idea who he was and that he thought he was someone off the French version of Big Brother. The ensuing laughter shows that the French media get him.

I just wonder if massive sideburns will make a comeback now. I'm sure they can't be necessary for aerodynamic purposes, but Brad's are pretty impressive.

So, mid afternoon, I'll be cheering on Cav to win the final stage and Wiggins to make history as the first British winner of this iconic race.There won't be much rest for them because next week, they will hopefully be repeating their success in the Olympics road race and time trial.

High drama in the Tour de France #tdf

You might remember that last year I wrote about my growing interest in the Tour de France. It's basically all Stephen's fault for sparking my interest the year I was ill. My big regret is not discovering it sooner. What a combination of bravery, drama and adrenaline! I love my F1 but the Tour takes excitement to a whole new level.

I still can't get over the fact that the top 8 riders are within 5 minutes of each other after 18 days of hardcore cycling. And, at the time of writing, the day before the final time trial, we really don't have a clue who is going to win.

There is literally nothing like watching a group of a couple of hundred cyclists speed along a narrow road together with spectators within touching distance, dressed in all manner of weird costumes. This year's tour has had its heartbreakingly dramatic moments. An early new hero of mine was Johnny Hoogerland. Early in the race, the driver of a French tv car decided, crazily, to go keep going no matter what rather than use the brakes that had been helpfully provided. This resulted in injury to two cyclists. Poor Johnny Hoogerland was catapulted into a barbed wire fence and the poor guy was seen, still cycling, being patched up by a medic in a car riding alongside him. What was even more remarkable was his forgiving attitude towards the driver whose recklessness could have killed him - saying that he probably felt bad enough himself.

Another hero of mine over the last two weeks has been Thomas Voeckler, the current overall leader. Every single day since he acquired the yellow jersey on stage 9, he's said that he's not going to keep it for long - and, certainly, people who know more about cycling than I do tended to agree with them. He was definitely going to lose it in the Pyrenees, and absolutely incontrovertibly he would lose it yesterday on the brutal and unforgiving climb to the highest ever stage finish at the top of the Galibier. Voeckler may well have believed the commentators himself, but he has been brave and brilliant and managed to hold on by the skin of his teeth. His lead went down from 1:45 to a mere sliver of 15 seconds. There's a lot of me that wants him to pull off a race win because for sheer tenacity he deserves it.

But he's not the only brave one. Luxembourg rider Andy Schleck, last year's runner up, took some criticism the other day for having a bit of a gripe about the final descent of a stage being too dangerous. Do you know what? Anyone who's been through 16 stages of the Tour de France is entitled to be a bit grumpy in my view and, as someone who much prefers going up to coming down, I sympathise. I don't like walking down a hill, but coming down a hill laced with spectators and hairpin bends at up to 60 kph along with a couple of hundred other cyclists is the ultimate in craziness to me. Whatever you think of him, and I like him, his bravery yesterday, breaking away from the main field with 60 km to go, and winning the stage, was amazing. He has to be at least on the podium - and he's owed a victory from last year.

Cadel Evans, who set the pace in the group behind Schleck yesterday, which helped Voeckler to hang on, ironically, is another contender. He's ridden a good race too. He and the other two would be my ideal podium.

I, unusually, managed to catch a load of yesterday's thrilling stage live. You seriously didn't know from one minute to the next who was going to win the stage or who was going to be wearing the yellow jersey at the end of the day. It was fantastic - and apparently it rates as one of  the most exciting stages ever. I was gripped by it.

The defending champion, Alberto Contador, is lagging a bit behind but still seems to be a danger. He can't be written off. I find it hard to warm to him after last year when he took advantage of Andy Schleck's mechanical failure on the Tourmalet. It's not his fault his drugs cases haven't been resolved before now, but it's possible he could win the Tour and have his victory taken off him.

The riders I have most sympathy with today are the sprinters. They are not best suited to this sort of Alpine torture - the second assault of the Galibier in 24 hours has to go down as cruel and unusual punishment, surely - and our Mark Cavendish lost 20 points (but thankfully not his place in the race due to the number of people who had the same issue) of his lead in the green jersey competition for toiling in after the cut-off time yesterday. Let's hope he can hang on until Paris and win that competition.

Today's stage ends at the top of the Alpe d'Huez. By tea time, we may have a clearer idea of who's going to win this thing. The only thing I can say for sure is that I'm an ABC (anybody but Contador) girl.

Tour de France: can Andy Schleck deliver karma for Contador?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how I'd developed a huge interest in the Tour De France and since then, my interest has been enhanced by what has been a thrilling race.

The highlights for me have been:

• Mark Cavendish's struggle to find early form and his return to win 4 stages despite the loss of his main lead out man Mark Renshaw.
• Renshaw's disqualification for headbutting one opponent and blocking another - which, to be honest, seemed a little harsh in the circumstances.
• Watching Lance Armstrong in his final Tour and reliving the moment when he ended up riding through a field on a previous tour. which was recreated on the same road this year
• Seeing British rider Geraint Thomas wear the white jersey for best young rider for the first week

It's amazing that so far the riders have completed around 3500 km - that's somewhere around 2200 miles in old money - and the cumulative time difference between the top 2 riders is 8 seconds. How closely matched can you get? It comes to less than a sixth of a minute after 88 hours of cycling.

It's taken me a while to get used to the Tour vernacular. It is a bit weird to hear a person being referred to as "the yellow jersey" and to get to grips with the protocols and unwritten rules of the cycling world.

One of those unwritten rules is that you don't take advantage of a rival's mechanical problem to further your cause. It appears that this is one of these rules that is honoured in the breach after Spain's Alberto Contador sped past Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, whose chain had fallen off. It took him a minute or so to sort that out but by then, even after he had stormed through the field, his 31 second lead had turned into an 8 second deficit and he had to hand his yellow jersey over to the Spaniard.  The boos directed at Contador on the podium showed how the crowd felt.

This episode meant that Schleck had to attack on the last climb on Thursday. I watched that very scary climb up the Col de Tourmalet with my heart in my mouth and applauded both riders for the way they stuck to each other like glue. The Contador of last year would have shaken off Schleck, but he was not able to do so. He tried to attack and just couldn't get rid of him. Schleck won the stage by a whisker.

That epic climb is well worth watching:



One of the things that amazes me is how the riders can concentrate with spectators coming so close to them as well as motorbikes and cars which provide them with nourishment and support along the way. They are literally inches away from them. I'd be annoyed about people invading my personal space to that extent in real life, but in the middle of a race upon which my career depended it would be unbearable.

While you might think an 8 second deficit might be overcome easily in today's final time trial, most commentators seem to think that because Contador is a better time trialler, Schleck's chance has gone. I say that that seems so last year. It's clear to me that Schleck has had the better race and but for some mechanical misfortune would still be leading by a margin. To me, whatever happens today, he will be the real winner of the Tour de France 2010 - I hope he can find the form to be the actual one too.

I've loved the unpredictability of the race - all the jerseys have been fiercely contested and have changed hands several times. The scenery is absolutely amazing. It's made me want to visit France, which I've never done. Whether going through flat, forested areas, through vineyards and pretty towns, to mountain top villages with very scary drops, this Tour has showcased France beautifully.

I am looking forward to the climax of the sprinters' competition on the Champs Elysees tomorrow - with Mark Cavendish still in with a chance of winning.

Then it's a long wait to next year's start in La Vendee.

Tour de France: how I became fascinated by young men on two wheels!

The short answer to that question is that it's all Stephen's fault!

Last Summer, when I was so poorly that I could only rarely stay out of bed for a whole day, Stephen came to visit me. He is a huge Tour de France fan, so being a polite hostess, we watched it. I liked the scenery, even if I didn't really have a clue who anyone was or what was going on. There were even some times when I watched it when he wasn't here.

Stephen's enthusiasm wasn't the first time I'd come across Tour fandom. My friend Alex loves it, and Lance Armstong in particular and she and her husband have actually been in Paris for the final stage, which must have been an amazing experience.

This year I decided I was going to follow it from the start, to have half a chance of understanding it, so I set up the infernal wickedness of Sky Plus to record the highlights every day and go the iPhone app. Not the one that gives you the GPS positions and the live updates which costs £5.99, but the free one which gives maps of the stages and brief details of the teams.

It just goes to show that you don't need a V8 engine to be exciting. The first 4 days have been absolutely thrilling.

First up on Saturday was just a wee taster. A short time trial through Rotterdam. Yes, I know that's not what you'd call a well known French city, but the Tour often starts outside France. It even started in London one year. The weather was far from Summery which meant that Britain's Bradley Wiggins ended up further down the field than he would have liked.

Day 2, on Sunday, and the Tour went on to Brussels. That was not without its dramas when some idiot decided it would be a good idea to take their dog along to watch and said dog decided that running out to play with 200 racing bikes at full speed was a good idea. That could have been really nasty, but, thankfully it wasn't. Typically, British people being soft on animals as they are, people were e-mailing into the ITV4 highlights show asking if the dog was ok. The ride continued relatively uneventfully until a killer hairpin bend on the outskirts of Brussels. Imagine 200 racing bikes coming down a hill, along a wide straight boulevard into a reverse sharp right hand bend. The potential for carnage is every bit as high as you might think and Mark Cavendish was caught up in it, although he was thankfully able to continue.

The third stage saw the first climbs of the Tour. I know enough French to realise that the word Col is synonymous with pain to a cyclist and there were a few of them that day as the peloton headed towards Spa, home of one of my favourite F1 tracks. In the long ago days when I used to climb hills, getting up was generally bloody hard work but that was nothing compared to the trauma of coming down. It played merry hell with my knees and it's not great when you have zero sense of balance and are coming down on virtually vertical gravel. After one particularly gruesome Sunday afternoon, I decided that the Burn of Sorrows had earned its name.

Anyway, it was on the damp descent from one of the climbs that the crashes started to happen. There was one particularly spectacular pile up that seemed to involve most of the peloton. For whatever reason, they decided that enough was enough and they weren't going to participate in the sprint finish and all cross the line together. I'm not sure to be honest why they did that - surely it's not the first time they've come down a mountain in the wet?

After dogs, bends and mountains, what more could the organisers do to inflict pain on the peloton? Ah yes, make them cycle on cobblestones on day 4, 13.7 miles of them. Still nursing bumps and bruises from the day before, I can't imagine that bumping along the long cobbled roads of northern France can have been in any way pleasant. Lance Armstrong seemed to enjoy it though - it was losing time on the main roads that caused him to slip down the leader board.

Anyway, four days in and I'm hooked and looking forward to the final 17 stages.