Grassmarket

Wow, absolutely textbook moves from Cavendish bring him the win! Must admit I did not think he had a chance in this company, but years of experience paid off! On the rails & blocked, big gap in the middle, moves into it, gets into the wind, no-one can match him.

Starting again on Saturday - we've got the Paris Diamond League in the afternoon / early evening. Programme and competitors starting to fill up here Programme (diamondleague.com)

I think it is only Cuba now that insist on that. I remember that Wilson Kepketer was not allowed to run for Denmark because Kenya refused to let him go, but once all that sweet Middle Eastern money started flowing they really abandoned all principles.

And to just kick sand in Vingegaard’s face Alameda steals the bonus seconds for third from him!

Vignegaard held it for a while, but looks like the other pursuers are onto him now.

And there we go! P & V off on their own Pogačar gets 8 seconds at the top, so a downhill ITT now.

Off we go up the Galibier with 40km to go. Breakaway group with 2’22, but surely the peloton will have ambitions. Got some early casualties - Simon Yates, Pidcock, Carapaz____

First win for !

Van der Poel crashes with 6k to go, will lose about a minute.

You've got to go back to the 70s to find a time when we had multiple contenders.

It's complicated, but there definitely was a time not so long ago when we had a whole pack of useless makeweights whose only ambitions were to get to a Major, go out in the first round and maybe scrape the odd Commonwealth medal. And they kept on doing it year after year. My compromise proposal would be that we are generous to young athletes just making the transition from age group to senior, but if you've already been to an event, didn't do much, and don't have a realistic hope of making a final, then you can watch on TV. Lots of other countries have far harsher rules - New Zealand and the Netherlands to name but two. And they've been doing pretty well.

Sorry I jinxed you by watching the last three minutes of the game.

Pretty amazing when you consider that the old record belonged to Armin Hary who set a then world record of 10:00 as far back as 1960!

Big controversy in as 400m Hurdler Alastair Chalmers gets DQed for a false start in the final, runs under protest and.....hits the Olympic Standard with 48.53! Latest is that the Meet Jury have reinstated him, so his time stands and he'll go to Paris.

Over at Athletics Weekly they’re saying the Jury have reinstated Chalmers so unless the French appeal (not ruling it out ) he’s in!

Vingegaard needs a bit of a slap, he contributed nothing to the break.

GPS timing in disgrace!

Pog time! Gonna take time on everyone but Vingegaard.

Looks like the peloton have learnt from yesterday & have started the catch early. No, they are not bothering, so there’s attacks off the front that nobody’s bothering about. Murderous climb to come….

YES!!!

Damn, if it was a twisty medieval Italian town the break might survive, but long straight roads mean last 200m heartbreak.

Well, if I were planning to move to I’d definitely buy a house in the flat bit. This late acceleration is going to make things a bit hairy for the Cavendish gruppetto at 30 minutes already. Can’t see the breakaway making it now with 12k of flatness.

Wow, AND in the same Tour!

40k to go. Breakaway has 90 secs, so looks like a sprint from the very diminished peloton. Think Abrahamsen has bought himself a good stint in the KoM jersey.

UAE go to the front & start grating the peloton down like parmesan cheese.