I have grown tired of the first week of the Tour. For me the first week of the Tour is often something to get through so we can get to the good part:  enduring the sprint stages to get to the stages of the Pyrenees and Alps, where the Tour will be won or lost.

Sort of like getting through a dinner of meatloaf when all you really want is to get to the dessert of chocolate cake.

Initially I am just happy for the Tour to begin so those first few sprint stages are exciting, but after a while (stage 6) they become boring. As horrible as it sounds (is), sometimes the only thing that livens up the stages of the first week are the crashes or if the breaks succeed which they rarely do. Otherwise you watch a few hours of tempo riding for the last few seconds of excitement.

Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen don’t help. I have heard every liggettism and sherwenism there is and most if not all of their anecdotes – twice. I find them boring or irritating most of the time. I watched Stage 1 online with Eurosport and enjoyed their coverage and commentating, but Steephill.tv cut many of their feeds afterwards. I just checked again and see they have added more, so I will give them a try tomorrow for Stage 7.

There was something newsworthy about Stage 6, no breakaway. One rider jumped away at the start, but with no help the peloton easily brought him back to the fold.

Besides crashes there is one other thing that can liven up a flat stage: crosswinds. Stage 6 had them, but the peloton was so tightly packed the crosswinds had no impact. The peloton were also motoring at a high rate of speed. Orica-GreenEdge did the majority of the work at the front, while the favorites fought to stay in front because of potential splits from crosswinds and/or crashes.

The stage did come down to a sprint among the strongest sprinters. Andre Greipel (Lotto) got the best leadout and consequently took the win finishing ahead of Peter Sagan (Cannondale), who is still winless, and yesterday’s winner Mark Cavendish. Cavendish crashes going around a roundabout about 30k from the finish and didn’t have enough punch left to beat Greipel. When that became evident, in typical Cavendish fashion, he sat up finishing 4th behind Sagan and Marcel Kittel.

Geipel’s win was especially sweet for his team as they lost their GC contender Jurgen van den Broeck due to injuries sustained in a crash yesterday. In other good news, the first yellow jersey ever for a South African rider was captured by Oricaa’s Daryl Impey. Nice OricaGreenEdge was able to share the yellow jersey among teammates.

Maxine Bouet, also abandoned the Tour today due to injuries suffered yesterday. Bouet was on my Fantasy Cycling Challenge team so that leaves me with one less rider. Hopefully my team will not be decimated by injuries like it was last year. Serious business this fantasy team stuff.

Stage 7 is another lumpy stage with a fairly big lump, a category 2 climb as well as a couple of category 3s and a category 4. It still looks like a stage that will end in a bunch sprint since the last 12k are downhill to the finish. Sagan has to be eyeing this stage for his first stage win of this Tour. This time last year he had already won 3.

Stage 7 Profile:

The real fun begins Saturday when the Tour goes into the Pyrenees with an HC category and a category 1 summit finish:

Stage 8 Profile:

Just like days of old, the relatively flat Stage 5 came down to a classic sprint and with a perfect leadout from his team, Mark Cavendish finished first, capturing his 24th Tour stage win.

The usual suspects contested the sprint: Cavendish, sprinter/Mr. Everything Peter Sagan (Cannondale), plus the hulk of a sprinter Andre Greipel (Lotto) as well as Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) and a Ferrari (Lampre). When things line up the way they did today, Cavendish is simply unbeatable.

There was some doubt whether the sprinters would get to go for the win with the break holding their own. The 6 man break built a lead of over 12 minutes at one point before Orica-GreenEdge with a little help from their friends (sprinters teams) managed to reel them back in several kilometers from the finish.

Being the first week of the Tour, there were a couple of silly crashes, the last one just yards (meters) from the finish. No one appeared to be seriously injured.

There was no change in any of the jersey competitions: Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) yellow (overall), Peter Sagan (Cannondale) green (sprint), Pierre Rolland (Europcar) polka-dot (climber) and Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS) white (young rider).

The most memorable thing about Stage 5 was the unfortunate fact that Ted King was not allowed to start the stage and continue in the Tour after he finished just 7 seconds outside the time cut (winning time set by Orica-GreenEdge) in yesterday’s team time-trial.

Tour officials could have reinstated him as they have many times in the past when riders don’t finish a stage within the time limit. Why they chose to do this to King is beyond understanding. They had the discretion to reinstate him prior to the start, yet chose not to stating rules are rules. I mean 7 seconds, come on!

Given King’s circumstances, a shoulder separation suffered in Stage 1 which didn’t allow him to ride a standard (faster) time-trial bike nor ride as aggressively causing him to quickly fall behind his team, it was unfair to penalize him so severely in his first ever Tour.

To make it even worse King is a class guy, and an apparently clean guy who is a workhorse for his team, particularly Sagan. It isn’t like he finished minutes behind either, just 7 seconds and now he’s out.

I imagine if it happened to a French rider or one of the GC favorites or favorite sprinters they would have shown them leniency and allowed them to race on.

Such leniency and understanding is exactly what Ted King deserved.

Four days into the Tour and the team that has made the biggest splash is Orica-GreenEdge. First their bus, then yesterday Simon Gerrans gets them their first ever Tour stage win and today Gerrans picks up their first ever yellow jersey when the team won the 25 kilometer Team Time-trial.

Not a bad week for the young Australian team.

Down by a few seconds at the mid-point, they finished the stage 1 second ahead of Omega Pharma-Quick Step and 3 seconds ahead of Sky.

I could not be happier, I love it when the upstarts beat the big guns.

The top 10 for the TTT:

Stage 5 Profile:

The best part of today’s stage for this fan was the scenery.

The Tour is known for showing off the abundant beauty of France, but the island of Corsica takes it to a new level. I don’t think I have ever seen water that blue. The clear turquoise water and white sandy beaches, the cliffs and canyons of Stage 3’s route was breathtaking.

The racing wasn’t too bad either.

We had the usual break, a group of five guys. Like every early breakaway of the Tour so far, Europcar had a rider. Presumably he was there to capture points in the climbing competition since his teammate Pierre Rolland started the stage with polka dot jersey – and shorts – and bike. Personally I think it is  a little early to devote so much to showing off the jersey when it is unlikely even someone of the caliber of Rolland, will keep it. But that’s the French for you.

Like yesterday, the route was lumpy, lumpier actually, causing the sprinter favorites to fall out the back, all except for Peter Sagan. Holding the yellow jersey, Team Radio Shack was stuck with doing the majority of the work in the peloton. Team Sky was near the front, Cadel Evans (who I happen to think looks like a contender in that he has no pressure on him whatsoever) also stayed near the front as did Alberto Contador and Saxo-Bank.

Things stayed that way until around 20 kilometers from the finish when Simon Clark attacked his break-mates as the peloton was hot on their tail at about 1 minute out. Rolland took off chasing down Clark and passing him. Fellow Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel gave chase as did 2 other riders eventually and for a short time the 4 were in the lead until the closing peloton was ready to make the catch. They swallowed up the group and then the mad dash to the finish ensued.

I was positive Sagan would win. He had a teammate leading him out and even when Simon Gerrans and his teammate passed them on the right charging ahead I wasn’t worried. No way would Gerrans beat Sagan in a sprint to the line.  No way.

Wrong. It makes me think Sagan was injured from his crash on Stage 1, otherwise he should win fairly easily.

Today’s stage finished with no major crashes, no bus incidents and no revelations of doping – a successful day at the Tour.

Particularly successful for one Jan Bakelants of RadioShack. Bakelants was in a group of six riders in an attack just a few kilometers from the finish who managed to separate himself from the others and then managed to hold on to take the win and the yellow jersey. I hoped the fast approaching peloton would catch him resulting in a bunch sprint, but they ran out of road.

Stage 2 was another day of frustration for the sprinters. It was a lumpy stage and except for Peter Sagan, too difficult as they were all dropped from the main group on the climbs.

French team, Europcar was very aggressive, attacking at different points of the stage with various riders, including Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland. I liked their tactics and that their efforts were rewarded with the polka dot jersey for Rolland.

For the craziest, nonsensical move of the day the award goes to the guy most pick to win the Tour, Sky’s Chris Froome. For no tactical reason whatsoever Froome attacked apparently to chase down Europcar’s Gautier, why no one knows, but his attack kind of fizzled out and he was thankfully swept up by the peloton.

The winner of the Tour de France has to have patience and the ability to stay focused on the overall plan. Which means attacks come and go, but as a favorite your only true challenges come from other favorites, not riders hunting for stage wins, those you have to let go. I thought the move made Froome look silly. His riding makes him look silly too.

Stage 3 is the last day for the Tour on the incredibly beautiful island of Corsica. Another lumpy stage, it looks like the kind of day for a guy like Sagan or a one day classics kind of rider. I like the terrain of the first 3 stages, not your typical pancake flat opening stages we usually have.