Grassmarket

And there Martin goes, huge attack for Yellow! What did I tell you, he is the new Pantani!

Someone took a bottle there! Carapaz?

Wout van Aert drifts off the back: his super-hearing has told him that he needs to rescue the crew of a sinking ship in India, so needs to look for a place to change into his Kryptonian costume. Will be back to pedal in within the time limit. Alaphillipe out the back! Pogačar & Roglič go!

Maybe not, he has messed up that descent badly. Stars of the TdF invite themselves to your barbecue!

Maybe, strikes me as a kind of Bauke Mollema - will follow all day but never attack.

Years since last French Tour de France winner: Thirty-five. Thirty-six. You know that feeling you get when you are about to bite into a bar of chocolate and you drop it & can’t find it again....

Ah, celebrity guests. No-one knows who they are because they are all wearing masks. Was that Prince Albert of Monaco? Or possibly Rick Savage, bass player with Def Leppard? No, it was Professor Peter Higgs, discoverer of the Higgs Boson. Ilnur Zakharin emerges as a big contender for the win today.

Well that didn’t work out - Bennett got 2pts, Sagan, like Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest, got zero, so more work to be done. Now, big climbs! Nizzolo abandons.

Anyway, he gets an easy ride today - large breakaway group of ordinary French riders showing off for the weekend crowd take the big points, so Sagan & Bennett will scrap for single figures.

Yesterday & today mate, you have already missed Day 1. Will be on the iPlayer.

The bees do 99% of the work, to be fair.

There were supposed to be two meets in China, but for some mysterious reason they found it difficult to make up a decent field....

Livestreams on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUtND8H4BQaFsQlWxakWX1Q Commentary is funny - one guy speaks in German, another follows in English. Educational! Heats going on just now.

The thing is, the TdF is not a true objective test of sporting skill like the Olympics. It’s a commercial promotion like boxing. If the second best heavyweight in the World is a Nicaraguan, and the fifth best is an American, you know the American is going to get the World Title fight before the Nicaraguan, because he brings in more money. Sad but everyone knows it. The aim of the organisers is to maximise revenue for sponsors, so they are going to design courses & tweak the rules to create the biggest viewership.

More live athletics tomorrow on YouTube - the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial from Chorzów.

More details about today’s Triathlon from Hamburg. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/triathlon/53257978

Not his fault all the others are rubbish!

Exactly! It exists to create excitement in the middle of each stage, not just the end. The best sprinter in the race always wins 3-4 stages anyway. And that is why today was a great stage, something happening every 10km.

We have seen a great DL meet this year - Monaco - and a few really bad ones.

We are off in Brussels. Women’s Hour Record up first. They are up on the record at 53. Smurfs are observing mask discipline. Hassan wins, utterly ridiculous that the lapped runners did not get out her way. Send them home on the bus! Nafi Thiam a no-show in BRU - injury. Kipyegon misses the Women’s 1K WR. After 20mins Farah is not really imposing himself on the WR. Duplantis going for 6.15 - not far off first time. Farah still falling off after 40mins, will need a big last 800m. Duplantis XXX Oho Farah moves ahead again. well up now, but still has to beat Abdi who is getting a free ride. Well done Mo, got the WR in the end. Suspect he won’t have it long if the other big names chase it.

2nd place in the intermediate won it for him

It might work once, but you’d never get a chance to win a race again. Unwritten rules.

Other question is if the licensing downgrade relates only to spectator capacity. Because that will obviously be moot.

Would be worried about the time limit today, some will be at risk.

Wout van Aert again! Alaphillipe protests.