Cycling Live

Tour de France - Dunkerque - Gand

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Live Comments

  1. 0km** - No surprise then that Quickstep take the win, though everyone thought it would be Tom Boonen. That wraps up our coverage of today's second-stage. Join us for more live comments of the third stage tomorrow.

  2. 0km** - Fabian Cancellara has hurt his arm, Fred Rodriguez is also hurt. Let's hope none of the riders are forced to abandon the race because of this accident, though I fear it is inevitable given the speed of the crash and the sheer number of riders involved.

  3. 0km** - The two Quickstep boys left Erik Zabel for dead. They won by a big distance ahead of Filippo Pozzato, Robert Hunter, Romain Feulli, Robbie McEwen, Erik Zabel, Heinrich Haussler, Oscar Freire and Sebastien Chavanel respectively.

  4. 0km** - Gert Steegmans takes it!!! He leads them home with Boonen in second!!

  5. 0.4km - McEwen's too far off the front, only a massive burst to trump even that of yesterday would save him now!

  6. 0.8km - Quickstep still at the front, McEwen and Zabel are both still there along with Freire and a quartet of T-Mobile riders!!

  7. 1km** - Quickstep hit the front, Boonen is at the back of the train, Zabel on his wheel!!

  8. 2.3km - A huge fall in the peloton!!!! A massive fall!!! There's only about 30 or so riders contesting the sprint now!!!

  9. 2.5km - The breakaway is swallowed as Quickstep take over from Liquigas at the front!

  10. 3km** - Lampre now hit the front of the peloton. The Quickstpe team are trying to force their way through, as are T-Mobile for Cavendish.

  11. 4km** - Perez has gone clear, though in all fairness the chances of any of them getting to the finish are next to zero.

  12. 4.5km - Sieberg and Herve have put their foot down. They want to stay away for as long as possible, but now a counter-attack from Perez!

  13. 6.3km - The gap has fallen right down to 23 seconds now. THe breakaway is about to come to an end.

  14. 8km** - The Predictor Lotto team have been at the head of the peloton for 64% of the last 10 kilometres, while Credit Agricole have also done a lot of work, spending 24% of the last 10km in front.

  15. 12km* - All the Astana riders have moved towards the front left of the peloton to avoid becoming involved in any crashes. A fall for Vino, Kashechkin or Kloeden would harm their chances in the GC.

  16. 14km* - The faces at the front of the pack are grimaced now as the pace has increased. Quickstep's Bram Tankink is leading them through at the moment.

  17. 19km* - Here's a rundown of the top sprinters. 2007 wins and Tdf wins in brackets - Robbie McEwen (Predictor Lotto 5/12), Tom Boonen (Quickstep 4/4), Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole 0/4), Daniele Bennati (Lampre 5/0), Oscar Freire (Rabobank 6/3), Erik Zabel (Milram 1/12), Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile 6/0), Robert Forster (Gerolsteiner 2/0), Francisco Ventoso (Saunier Duval 3/0) and Stuart O'Grady (CSC 1/2).

  18. 20km* - The gap closes to 1'52" as they go under the 20 kilometre banner.

  19. 28km* - The gap is falling fairly rapidly now. It has fallen to 2'12" with 28km to go. The sprinter's teams have picked up the pace in the peloton.

  20. 36km* - A fall in the peloton! Frank Schleck has gone over going round a roundabout. These are difficult conditions. Inigo has held back and will help him back to the pack. He has a cut on his elbow, but seemingly nothing more.

  21. 44km* - The sprinter's teams and CSC are biding their team with the three escapees. They don't want to reel them in too early, or more attacks could come. The gap remains around the three minute mark.

  22. 48km* - In all, 27 nationalities are represented at this year's Tour. Spain is the best represented country with 41 riders, followed by France with 36 and Germany with 19. South Africa (Robert Hunter, Barloworld), New Zealand (Julian Dean, Crédit Agricole) and Portugal (Sergio Paulinho, Discovery Channel) each have just one rider.

  23. 49km* - This stage of the tour is taking in sections of some of the Spring classics: the Tour of Flandres, the Het Volk and the Ghent-Wevelgem.

  24. 50km* - 3'22" is the split with 50 kilometres of racing to go.

  25. 60km* - The pack is getting closer and closer to a storm. THe skies are turning dark grey, and the rain is already coming down.

  26. 62km* - Predictor-Lotto's Wim Vansevenant has gone ahead of the peloton, and is waving to the people of this, his hometown region. The peloton are quite happy for the Belgian to enjoy his moment.

  27. 63km* - The answer is Germany's Dietrich Thurau. In 1977, he won the prologue and held onto the yellow jersey doggedly until the fifteenth day of racing. In those days of course they had half-stages, so it was actually on stage 19 that he lost it.

  28. 66km* - Andy Jones has suggested Eddy Merckx, as has Andreas Margaritis, Bryan van den Bos reckons Jaques Anquetil in 1961, Arnoud Beldman thinks it's José-Maria Errandonea, and Dave amusingly suggested the Credit Lyonnais stuffed lion. Mona Firoozpour even suggested Lance Armstrong. Unfortunately, those are all wrong.

  29. 70km* - If you haven't come up with an answer to the prologue question below, then you'll need to get your skates on. I'll publish it in my next comment. Meanwhile, the pack are slowly closing in on Herve, Sieberg and Perez. The gap is now 3'20".

  30. 79km* - Good news for hungry riders, the peloton has hit the feeding zone.

  31. 84km* - WESTENDE SPRINT: 1. Sieberg (Milram) 6 pts and 6", 2. Hervé (Agritubel) 4 pts and 4", 3. Perez (Eusktaltel) 2 pts and 2".

  32. 84km* - The leaders' advantage continues to fall. 4'50" is the latest split.

  33. 89km* - And if you fancy having a browse at Dave's message board, do likewise with this link: http://uk.messages.eurosport.yahoo.com/Cycling/Competitions/forumview?bn=UKS-CY-Tour+de+France

  34. 92km* - If you want to follow the commentary of the Tour from our rather excellent man on the road David Harmon, then copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/embedvideo.html?p=index#

  35. 94km* - Here's a little teaser for you: Who has spent the most number of days in the yellow jersey after winning the prologue of a tour? Answers to ukfeedback@eurosport.com We'll post your musings right here.

  36. 95km* - Agritubel sporting director Manu Hubert: "It's very good for the team to get into the spotlight. We were looking at the weather forecast this morning, and there's a little less wind than we had expected. Of course, there's very little chance of the escape staying out until the end."

  37. 100km - 5'50" is the latest split with 100 kilometres of the stage remaining. Cancellara and the CSC team are looking comfortable at the front of the pack.

  38. 115km - The peloton have been taking it easy over the last few kilometres and the gap has extended to 4'30".

  39. 117km - After briefly seeng their lead cut to two minutes, the lead trio have kicked on again and are 2'50" ahead now.

  40. 121km - Cedric Herve takes the 6 points available for crossing the first intermediate ahead of the two others. Perez picks up four points, with Sieberg taking two.

  41. 121km - Robbie McEwen's triumph yesterday was made all the more remarkable by the fact he injured his wrist in a fall just over 20 kilometres from the finish. "We treated his wrist problem just as a knock so he's cleared to start. Then we'll see how it goes," said his osteopath.

  42. 121km - 45.5km/h is the average speed over the first hour of racing.

  43. 128km - Of the three escapees, Euskaltel's Ruben Perez is the man best-placed in the general classification, 48 seconds behind Cancellara, in 53rd place. He is now in the virtual yellow jersey. Sieberg (Milram) is 131st, 1'05" back, while Hervé is 187th, 4'15" back.

  44. 131km - The gap has now extended to 2'40". The CSC team are at the front of the peloton, protecting the yellow jersey of Fabian Cancellara.

  45. 144km - The lead trio have extended the gap back to the peloton to over one minute now.

  46. 147km - Sieberg, Perez and Herve are now 45 seconds clear of the pack. Their lead is increasing.

  47. 150km - No sooner have we entered Belgium, than the first attack of the day has come! Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Cedric Herve (Agritubel) and Marcel Sieberg (Milram) have broken away and opened up a 20 second lead on the peloton. It was Sieberg who made the move.

  48. 150km - Ag2r's Jose Luis Arrieta is the next man to suffer a puncture.

  49. 150km - No attacks so far today. The peloton is still together.

  50. 161km - An overcast start to the start of the stage today. Some rain fell earlier, but the roads have dried now. Temperatures are not expected to rise any higher than an agreeable 15 degrees. Nothing like the heat of yesterday in Kent.

  51. 165km - Discovery Channel's Leif Hoste had a puncture just before the start of the stage, though is now safely back in the peloton.

  52. 168km - We're underway in stage two!! There are 188 riders left in the race. The only rider to crash out yesterday was Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez of the Agritubel team. He suffered a collarbone injury after going into the back windscreen of the Caisse d'Epargne team car early on in yesterday's stage.

  53. 13:25 - Follow the progress of today's action via our gps system. Simply copy and paste the following link into your browser and away you go: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cy/tdf/gps/index.html

  54. 13:25 - Welcome to eurosport.yahoo.com's live text coverage of stage two of the Tour de France from Dunkerque to Ghent.