... Cadel Evans takes Giro d'Italia lead from Michael Matthews, Diego Ulissi wins eighth stage

In tonight's stage, the riders mainly climb for the final 60 kilometers. The final 20 kilometres involves a category 2 climb to the finish ... preview, map and profile ... stage 9

.

Edited May 25, 201410 yr by Macca

Looking forward to tonight, caught up on the recorded sessions today. Cadel looks good but the little Columbian Q is a real danger he looked very relaxed last night.

Can't wait to see the final stage as well, have just got back from Europe and spent a little bit if time in the stunning Trieste. Wonderful place.

Colombian Rigoberto Uran holds a 37 second lead over 2nd placed Cadel ... Uran gained the lead after picking up 1'34" over Evans in the time trial on Thursday. However, Evans was hampered by heavy rain early in his time trial - he's now going from the hunted to the hunter but he might prefer it that way. Nairo Quintana is 3'29" behind the leader but he's likely to make a move at any time.

We'll soon find out as tonight and tomorrow night we hit the Alps ... with the Dolomites to come next Tuesday, Thursday. Friday and Saturday.

6 days of grueling climbs in 8 days will sort out the field. Apart from 5 of the 8 stages involving about a dozen climbs, next Friday's individual time trial is 26.8 kilometres long but it involves a climb of 1589 metres to the summit in the town of "Crespano del grappa" ... the business end of proceedings has arrived.

Once again, a reminder that SBS and SBSOne HD are covering every day of the Giro d'Italia live from about 11pm nightly. The coverage has been superb (as usual)

Sunday's stage features a 20 kilometre long category 1 climb to the finish (Plan di Montecampione)

Stage 14 (Saturday night) ... preview, map and profile

Stage 15 (Sunday night) ... preview, map and profile

.

Edited May 25, 201410 yr by Macca

Absolutely insane conditions tonight.

I've never anything like this ... snow country, almost blizzard like weather.

These blokes are crazy ... live coverage

Don't forget the new Lance Armstrong doco is on ABC tonight. Stop At Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story

Le Tour starts Saturday, can't wait.

Don't forget the new Lance Armstrong doco is on ABC tonight. Stop At Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story

Le Tour starts Saturday, can't wait.

I guess many of us knew a lot of the details already but it was still equally as disturbing to see it all played out again. Having a federal investigation shut down was an eye-opener though - at the time, many probably believed that it should have been shut down. He was certainly a powerful figure. It just goes to show that even in this transparent age, things can still be covered up for a lengthy period of time.

In the end, he's the biggest sporting fraud of all time and it's daylight to the next biggest cheat (in terms of fraudulent "achievements") I feel for the people who bought into him lock, stock and barrel - they must feel so betrayed. Seeing those past interviews with him was difficult to stomach (knowing he was just flat out lying for the most part)

... and yeah, the Tour will be great viewing once again. No real mountain stages until some category 2 climbs in stages 8 and 9 but it hots up after that. Starting off in Yorkshire this time around - Froome is favourite whilst Contador is a highly rated 2nd favourite - I thought Alberto might have dropped away a bit but apparently not so. It will be interesting to see how much Richie Porte has progressed - he showed a bit in last year's tour.

I guess many of us knew a lot of the details already but it was still equally as disturbing to see it all played out again. Having a federal investigation shut down was an eye-opener though - at the time, many probably believed that it should have been shut down. He was certainly a powerful figure. It just goes to show that even in this transparent age, things can still be covered up for a lengthy period of time.

In the end, he's the biggest sporting fraud of all time and it's daylight to the next biggest cheat (in terms of fraudulent "achievements") I feel for the people who bought into him lock, stock and barrel - they must feel so betrayed. Seeing those past interviews with him was difficult to stomach (knowing he was just flat out lying for the most part)

... and yeah, the Tour will be great viewing once again. No real mountain stages until some category 2 climbs in stages 8 and 9 but it hots up after that. Starting off in Yorkshire this time around - Froome is favourite whilst Contador is a highly rated 2nd favourite - I thought Alberto might have dropped away a bit but apparently not so. It will be interesting to see how much Richie Porte has progressed - he showed a bit in last year's tour.

Yes, a lot of it we already knew. But the extent of Armstrong's intimidation and influence was quite disturbing. And did he ever legitimately win a race without some sort of cheating? A real shame the damage he's done to the sport.

Don't forget Quintana. Was a real revelation last year and is coming off a win in the Giro.

JJ the little Q has been left out of the Tour. Movistar are leaving him for the Vetula.

Disappointing as even though he rode the giro he dominated it so thoroughly I thought he was a chance to push Froome for yellow. Next year he will be hard to stop.

Sad to see Impy from OGE has tested positive for something in South Africa.

Cards13 watched the LA doco last night.Looked horrible for cycling.Such a shame for a sport.

Edited July 3, 201410 yr by jazza

JJ the little Q has been left out of the Tour. Movistar are leaving him for the Vetula.

Disappointing as even though he rode the giro he dominated it so thoroughly I thought he was a chance to push Froome for yellow. Next year he will be hard to stop.

Sad to see Impy from OGE has tested positive for something in South Africa.

Doh! I was looking forward to seeing Quintana.

And another positive drugs test in cycling? I can't believe after all this it's still happening.

yes I was the same Jack, really looking forward to seeing the little Q have a real crack this year. Without him I fear a Sky domination again.

And of course Impey has denied it all.

Yes I missed that Jazza, too busy catching up on Game of Thrones.... will be chasing it up on iveiw when the good lady wife is out.

Yes, a lot of it we already knew. But the extent of Armstrong's intimidation and influence was quite disturbing. And did he ever legitimately win a race without some sort of cheating? A real shame the damage he's done to the sport.

Don't forget Quintana. Was a real revelation last year and is coming off a win in the Giro.

If last night's show is anything to go by, it doesn't look like it. I get the feeling that the Armstrong story isn't done with yet. There's still the possibility of some court room drama and then there's the question of all the money he's made from the sport. Those he crossed won't be letting things go too easily either.

Anyway, what is noteworthy is that pro cycling seems to be relatively clean now (as compared to the Armstrong era) Much of what we've recently witnessed is of a retrospective nature rather than being more of a current issue.

The sport has taken a monstrous hit but because pro cycling is so big, it will recover it's immense following. The crowds at this year's tour will be huge as always. In other words, it's business as usual.

That's not to say that cycling is squeaky clean but with the blood passports now being in operation, taking PED's as a pro cyclist is now extremely high risk. 'Testing' for peptide use seems to be available as well now.

... Official Site

... Tour de France preview (BBC podcast - 77 mins)

Yup watched it as most have said, nothing new but what I really liked was seeing and hearing from the others; LeMond, Kimmage, Walsh, Hamilton etc (who I have read of) but was interesting to hear from them in some more detail in some cases. Kimmage I loved!

In saying all of that f the cheats, cant wait for tonight!!! Love how Cav has set his whole year on tonight, winning stage 1 in his mums home town. Will he beat the big Greip?

This site - cyclingnews.com gives quite a good overview for each stage of the tour.

Live coverage can be found here ... letour.com (stage 1)

While I'm here I'll post up today's profile but I'll mainly just post up the "profiles" when we're in the Alps or the Pyrenees (which will happen from about stage 8 onwards)

It looks like SBS will cover the tour from about 8.30pm on Saturday and Sunday evenings and ... from about 10pm weekdays. I'm presuming it's live on the SBS website as well.

Yep. the SBS website is pretty good for viewing Le Tour. It live tracks the profile, leaderboard etc. SBS Tour Tracker

Don't forget about Sagan Cards, he must be favourite for the green.

Yep. the SBS website is pretty good for viewing Le Tour. It live tracks the profile, leaderboard etc. SBS Tour Tracker

Don't forget about Sagan Cards, he must be favourite for the green.

Ha yea true JJ he is the ultimate everything rider. Can do a bit of everything well but not 1 outstanding. In saying that he is only 24!!!

Loving this already, old Gab Gate is in Whitby tomorrow night (the fish and chips were rubbish!) where I stopped in over New Years in 2008, and they are heading near Gordes where the goodly wife and I stopped in April on the honeymoon. Love seeing the scenery as much as the racing.

Amazing finish, going to have to watch it again to see who did what but seeing both Gerrens and Cav both eat the road was not a great way to start the Tour. Cav looks gone and I'm sure will have a lot to say about it but his team went waaayyy to early and left him exposed when the real sprint came.

Interesting to see Froome finish so high on a sprint finish...

The Poms Fing love the event with huge huge crowds turning out in Yorkshire.

Yeah, disappointed for Gerrans and Cavendish. Doesn't look good for Cav's tour with a dislocated collar bone. Was still a spectacular finish.

The crowds were nuts. I couldn't believe what I was seeing!

Yeah, disappointed for Gerrans and Cavendish. Doesn't look good for Cav's tour with a dislocated collar bone. Was still a spectacular finish.

The crowds were nuts. I couldn't believe what I was seeing!

Yep, it's not looking good for Cavendish which would be a real shame ... being able to ride again after a dislocation (and damaging the ligaments) would be some feat - we'll find out soon enough. Gerrans looks like he'll be able to continue. Kittel and Sagan fighting things out was a good sign though - Rogers and Froome weren't far behind either.

As you said, the crowd numbers were amazing. Estimated at a million plus - it was great viewing.

Tonight's coverage starts from 8.30pm on SBS ... cyclingnews.com stage 2 preview ... letour.com live coverage

Noticed that tonight's stage has a number of smaller category climbs so here's the profile ...

The crowds look even bigger today.

England has gone Tour crazy. The crowds have got on the bandwagon that's for sure.

I missed the first half of the race yesterday, so I didn't realise that Gerrans had crashed again. If it wasn't for bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all.

Mark Cavendish ruled out of Tour

I guess it's no surprise that Cavendish is out. But it's interesting that team OGE were a little disappointed that the UCI didn't do anything about it.

While Gerrans could continue in the Tour, his team asked the Union Cycliste Internationale race jury why it did not even recognise Cavendish’s error, especially as he admitted several hours after the incident that he was to blame for the crash.

Cavendish telephoned Gerrans on Saturday evening to apologise for the crash. The apology was accepted, but Orica-GreenEDGE believe the UCI jury should still have taken a position on the incident.

The heat was on in the final few miles. Was a great race in the end, Nibali taking his opportunities. I was surprised that Sagan didn't go a bit harder for the finish line (finished 4th?). Maybe he was knackered after the race to the finish, or he was happy he'd done enough to get the green.

Wow, England has been terrific. These early stages have been a little more exciting than usual thanks to a few undulations. The crowds have been nuts. The British are obviously either starved of entertainment or really love their cycling.

Kittel might make it 3 stage wins tonight ... he looked strong again last night and will be hard to beat. Local favourite Arnaud Démare should be thereabouts at the finish though.

Here's a stage 4 preview from ... cyclingnews.com

Jean-Christophe Péraud says...

This is undoubtedly a stage to put a smile on sprinters' faces. As a GC team, we will have to be careful about the win to make sure we don't get trapped behind a split. It will be a waiting day, where teams will be focussed on leaders and keeping them fresh

SBS tour tracker & live coverage from the official site

The English detour of the Tour is over. The riders are back on French soil for stage 4 from Le Touquet-Paris-Plage to Lille Métropole. It's a flattish stage, dedicated to the sprinters who will have another scenic location for speeding.

The race will go through the heart of the Four Days of Dunkirk with the intermediate sprint located in Cassel. This is not England anymore but a region of France where cycling is highly popular, so the huge fans' party is far from being over

Froome crashed early today... Looks sore on the left wrist and shoulder... Big for tomorrow with 20ks of shitty wet cobbles!!! Expect some sttacks on him at some point today and defiantly tomorrow.