well fan for life

Froome increasing his lead on Martin. I hate this mudslinging caper, but I can't help but smell a rat.

Get onto Eurosport, man! I can't hack the ITV commentary on the live coverage. Also, Froome quicker than Martin? It'll be interesting to see if this sticks.

With it being a relatively flat course, which isn't very technical I'd put money on Tony Martin to win the stage. Froome will leather time into his GC rivals though.

I don't think it was entirely Cav's fault. It looked like he was trying to skip onto the next wheel, but looked like Veelers was peeling off right instead of left. Cav only shouldered him to counterbalance veering his bike off to the right. It's racing, I don't think the commissaires will get too heavily involved.

That was quality from Dan Martin. Excellent riding. I reckon he's Garmin's man for leading at Grand Tours now. His win in Liege-Bastogne-Liege was tremendous earlier in the year.

I actually think the track side of it is a far cleaner game. Track cycling can be broken right down to find improvements as there aren't really that many variables. You don't have the French attacking non stop for the sake of it on a Velodrome. Also, this Tour is won now. I was really hoping for a competition, too.

Can we all just take a moment to watch Pierre Rolland's impression of everyone's favourite Frenchman, Tommy Voeckler?

Some lead out from Impey. That was excellent vision to see that gap. Fantastic riding.

I get the feeling that he is the best climber in this Tour, but he could end up losing it through some stupid, ill-informed attack. Hats off to Geraint Thomas. Hairline fracture on his pelvis, and he's still riding. Dead last mind, but fair play to the guy.

He said after that "he knew the descent was tricky and technical, and thought it would be a good time to push on and take the descent at his own pace". Aye, nae bother. I get the feeling his support car were going wild at him. What a ridiculous attack.

I love big Tony. I was hoping he could continue, if only to absolutely destroy Chris Froome in the TT. I think the Tour organisers just gave everyone the same time to avoid the headache. At the time of the crash, I don't think anyone was 100% sure on where the finish line was. Cav wasn't happy. And I heard Greg Henderson ranting on the radio last night. He was saying they were told the sprint was at 3k, then when it came through that the finish was moved back to the original place his team had already used 3 men of their lead out. What a day.

The Castlemilk Family Day. Family, my arse. It's just pissed up schemies cutting about shirtless. Fucking horrendous day.

Cav celebrating the win.

Millar, Swift, Cavendish and Kennaugh.

Cav just past the finish line on lap 8 or 9 I think. The Death Star.

That seemed to be the difference. Those first 6 are some of the absolute top table of World Cycling, the difference was frightening between them and the rest was massive. Fair play to Luke Rowe who put a decent dig in to try and catch the leading 4. I clocked Peta Todd standing about as well. Fair play, Cav. You've done alright. . I also had the pleasure of meeting Laura Trott and Ned Boulting who were milling about.

Cracking day out watching the men's race this afternoon. I've got a few photos that I'll post up once I've got them off my camera. Right from the off the race was split into the decisive groups. After a couple of laps there was Omega Pharma's Andy Fenn and Ian Stannard off the front, then we had a group of Ben Swift, Pete Kennaugh, David Millar and Mark Cavendish with a group containing Luke Rowe slightly further back. The first 2 groups merged and that was always going to contain the winner. I think at one point they had a 9 minute lead on the peloton. Ben Swift and Andy Fenn withdrew after getting dropped, and Cav was looking very, very comfortable at the front. The last lap I was following on Twitter, Stannard attacked, then Cav attacked, then Millar had a decent dig just before coming into Glasgow Green. He never had enough of a lead to make it stick though. As soon as Cavendish nudged the throttle on the final sprint Stannard and Millar never really contested it. As comfortable a win as he'll ever get. Really looking forward to the Commonwealth games now.

It would be ballsy of Sky to ditch a Knight of the realm. I see the rumours flying about that Rigoberto Uran looks to be heading to OPQS. Probably sounds sensible. They're lacking a proper GC contender at the moment, and Uran deserves to be a team leader in his own right.

Went out yesterday and done about 15 miles. I haven't touched my bike in about a fortnight and in this time I have been in Ibiza & celebrated turning 22. Neither of these things have involved healthy living. I can honestly say I have never felt so bad on a bike. I was effectively sweating 2 weeks of drink out my system. Back to taking fitness seriously I think.

OPQS confirmed their team today. It's the same story as the Giro. Cav is their man and everything is geared towards him winning the green jersey again. Will be great to see their lead out now you can add Sylvain Chavanel and the absolute tank that is Tony Martin to it.

Read like a fucking book. Finding the Dauphine difficult to be enthused about, cannot take to Chris Froome at all. On the Wiggins front, he's done this before. Forced out of the Tour through injury, so he just needs to readjust his goals. The obvious candidates being the Vuelta and a proper shot at the Time Trial World Champion's jersey.

When I hear about players being fantastic for the youth teams and being "the next big thing", I instantly think of Adam Coakley. Adam Coakley had apparently scored for fun throughout our entire youth set up. Everyone was talking of him as being our next big youth player. However, upon playing for the first team we found out he couldn't score with a hooker. The moral of the story is, wait until you've actually seen them play at an a decent level.

I don't really know what to make of the rumours, he had his knee bandaged up before his crash at the Giro, and then was forced out of it with a chest infection. If he has any fitness, he'll line up for Sky. But while the mountains are more suited to Froome, it'll be interesting to see what happens if Wiggins gubs him in the time trials.

There's a kind of straight road between Eaglesham and Jackton that is brutal with a headwind but fantastic with a tailwind. Last week I had a tailwind on it and was flying along at about 28mph without putting any great effort in. The other day there was a headwind and it felt like my tyres were made of treacle.

David Millar abandoned with a chest infection as well. I think the fact there is 200 or so riders in such close proximity in such foul conditions that viral things spread so quickly. I've had a chest infection in the past and climbing a flight of stairs is a mission, so I don't even want to imagine what being on a bike for 5-6 hours would be like. I think it shows how much it affected Hesjedal and Wiggins when they were both dropped on relatively flat stages. I think Nibbles has got this though. Uran and Evans need to attack like maniacs this week to make any contest of it.