Stage 1: Mark Cavendish crashes in sprint finish
After that things were not looking great for him:
His diagnosis ended up being acromioclavicular severance. Really disappointing to have to drop out after only the first stage.
In good news, Jens Voigt was in the break and managed to get the polka dot jersey!
Stages 2-4: Nibali takes yellow, Kittel wins two stages, more crashes, including Andy Schleck and Chris Froome. An incident in which a spectator that was in the road trying to take pictures was hit by someone from Team Sky ended up causing Andy's crash. The spectators need to get out of the way!
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| Andy ended up getting knee surgery |
Stage 5: the cobblestones
Everyone was talking about how crazy this stage was going to be because of the cobblestones. If you read about my reports on the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix you will have seen how brutal the cobbles can be. And then it also rained to make it even worse There were crashes left and right. It was hard to watch sometimes. I felt really bad for these guys.Chris Froome (2013 TdF winner) crashed twice after having crashed the day before and injuring his wrist. It was pretty sad to watch him finally give up because he was in so much pain. Turns out he had a fractured left wrist and right hand. Ouch!
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| Doh! |
Nibali did really well on this stage and kept his yellow jersey.
Stages 6-8: more crashes and abandons, Nibali stays in yellow
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| Andrew Talansky goes down hard |
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| Stage 7, Luca Paolini: so what exactly was he doing on his phone? Photo by Graham Watson |
Stage 9: Tony Martin is a beast, a Frenchman gets yellow for Bastille day
Tony Martin rode almost 60 km solo to take the stage win.
Stage 10: Nibali wins the stage and is back in yellow, Ted King abandons, heartbreak for Contador
Before the stage start Jens Voigt was honored with a yellow jersey for each of his kids.
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| Jens has a lot of kids |
Alberto Contador crashed on a mountain descent (doing about 35 mph), spent 5 minutes with the doctor and team, and then got back on his back and continued riding. He kept losing more and more time on the other GC contenders. After about 10 or 15 km he patted his teammate Michael Rogers and the back and pulled over to the side of the road. That was the end of the TdF for him. Turns out he had a broken tibia. I'm not a big fan of Contador, but hats off to him for being so hard core.
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| heartbroken |
Stage 11: Andrew Talansky off the back but doesn't give up
Talansky was suffering from previous crashes and off the back by about 30 minutes. At one point he stopped to talk to the team manager for about 5 minutes. It was obvious he was in a lot of pain but he still got back on the bike and road to the finish lines and into the hearts of everyone watching. Despite finishing so late, a lot of people stuck around at the finish to cheer him on. He was very emotional post-race and said he did it for his teammates.
Stages 12-14: Nibali extends his lead in the Alps and wins his third stage and when you gotta go you gotta go!
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| Always adorable: Peter Sagan |
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| Steephill TV |
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| Poor Jack |
Stages 16-18: three days of mountains, Nibali dominates again
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| Michael Rogers takes a bow as he wins Stage 16 |
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| Stage 17: Majka wins the stage and hopefully the polka dot jersey |
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| Nibali shows, once again, he isn't in yellow just because Froome and Contador dropped out |
Stage 20: individual time trial
Stage 20 was a huge deal because the second, third, and fourth place guys in the general classification were only separated by 15 seconds.
Tony Martin wins the stage, as expected, and there is some shifting in the general classification. Peraud is very emotional (around 1:10) when he finds out he moved up to second spot in the general classification. There has been a lot of man crying this year's Tour de France!
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| Peraud is 37 year old and the first Frenchman to be on the podium since 1997. |
Stage 21: the end
Marcel Kittel gets the stage win, his fourth in the TdF.
Vincenzo Nibali was in yellow for all but two days of the tour and he won four stages. One of Nibali's main domestiques, Jakob Fuglsang, was injured in a crash but stuck it out to help Nibali win. Peraud crashed at 43 km to go and had to chase back so he did not lose his podium spot.
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| Jakob Fuglsang all bandaged up |
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| Peraud crashed but was able to make it back to the peloton |
The laterne rouge this year was Ji Cheng. Ji is the first Chinese citizen to ride in the Tour de France.
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| Photo by Reuters |
This was Jens Voigt 17th and final Tour de France. Instead of the peloton letting him lead out on the Champs Elysees, he attacked on the second lap. The TdF organization put together a really nice tribute here and his post-race interview is here.
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