Thanks for starting the thread, AppleTree!

I agree with everything you said. Have really enjoyed the Tour so far, at least until today's stage, which was boring in comparison. The England stages were indeed beautiful and dramatic. I felt *so bad* for Froome; what a horrible thing to work so hard and have such a series of mishaps. I saw that he tweeted that it was his wrist as much as anything yesterday; he just couldn't control the bike in the wet conditions with it. I'm sure he's hurting both physically and mentally now.

I'm rooting for Talansky as well, though I'd never heard of him until this tour...I really don't keep up with the pros in between TdF time, and even less now than I used to, in the Lance years.

Love Jens too -- he is so funny! And glad Bobke is still there. We are in the Pacific time zone for the summer and do our rides in the morning, so catch the tour in the evening (Eastern time, which is 5-8pm PDT), so we always get to see/hear him. Great fun!