And while last night the sprinters enjoyed what, for this Tour at least, was a rare day (albeit a wet one) for them for them to shine, the enduring memories of this race do not come from the fast men.

Saturday night’s epic dash up Alpe d’Huez, the 29^th time this 13.8km climb has featured in Ie Tour was as good as you’d want or expect to see.

Everyone expected Nairo Quintana to attack Chris Froome in the hope he could snatch the yellow jersey in the most dramatic fashion, and we weren’t disappointed in what we saw.

Realistically, Froome’s 2:38 advantage was always going to be too much for the white jersey wearer to overcome, but gee, Quintana didn’t die wondering.

After making an initial attempt on the Col de la Croix de Fer, Quintana launched with 12.4km to go on Alpe d’Huez.

After initially struggling to escape the clutches of Wouter Poels and Richie Porte, Quintana broke the elastic, but with Porte staying strong Froome never panicked. He was able to ride mostly at his own pace knowing that Quintana would have to do something incredible to steal the yellow jersey.

And so it proved.

Quintana managed to snatch back 1:22 (plus a six-second time bonus) but was still 1:12 shy of what he needed.

If Quintana had taken back the 2:38, it would’ve meant he’d climbed Alpe d’Huez in 38:11, the 7^th fastest time.

Ahead of him would be Marco Pantani with the top three times, Lance Armstrong with the 4^th and 6^th fastest, sandwiching Jan Ulrich’s climb in 1997.

But Quintana could “only” do a 39:23, for the 22^nd quickest ascent, an effort bested by riders including Miguel Indurain, Bjarne Riis, Alex Zulle, Floyd Landis, Richard Virenque, Carlos Sastre, Iban Mayo, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden.

Looking at that list I’m glad Quintana was the 22^nd fastest.

For all the claims, rumours and innuendo that have swirled around both Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome for the past two years, in historical terms, no one “flew” up that mountain on Saturday night, not even the Colombian.

In 1995, when Pantani rode a 36:50, the stage was 162.5km. Two years later when Ulrich rode a 37:42, it was a mighty 203.5km. And Floyd Landis’ 38:36 in 2006 was at the end of a 187km stage.**

On Saturday night, Alpe d’Huez climaxed a 110km stage.

So maybe that was what gave Quintana an edge or, ssssshhhhh, don’t tell anyone, maybe he had a secret motor stashed in his bike?

Rumours of “mechanical doping” have been around in cycling for a few years, just ask Fabian Cancellara who copped a heap of innuendo after some of his dominating performances in the Classics.

So far, no evidence has been found. Nonetheless, the UCI has checked bikes at the Tour de France. They just haven’t checked very many. Prior to Stage 19, there had only been bike inspections across four stages. Just 25 tests were carried out. Only one of those four was a mountain stage and it wasn’t Stage 10.

For the record, I don’t believe Quintana is a mechanical doper, but to silence the doubters all podium places on a mountain stage should have their bikes inspected.

Before we leave the events of Stage 20 behind, does the ASO have to reconsider its crowd control measure on climbs like Alpe d’Huez?

There are some mythical climbs in Tour de France history, but none captures the imagination like Alpe d’Huez.

Dutch corner and numerous other switchbacks and ramps are so incredibly crammed with fans, it’s a wonder they can step aside when the riders fly past.

Do the riders like the fans so close on the climbs?

Of course they don’t.

Do ALL the fans that cram the roads have good intentions towards the riders?

No, they don’t.

And when you have such a potentially decisive stage as Saturday night, it is simply too much of a risk to have fans get so close to the riders. There are barriers along the route for the final four kilometres, but for stages like Alpe d’Huez, they need to erect them a lot further down the hill, and particularly around Dutch corner.

What do you think the Gruppetto made of Dutch corner?

There were around 25 riders in the final group that crossed the line nearly 24 minutes after stage winner Thibaut Pinot. You could imagine them riding in single file it was so crazy.

Anyway, one of those was Orica GreenEDGE’s Michael Matthews.

Along with Adam Hansen who finished just over two and half minutes in front of Matthews, those two Aussies have just finished the best race of their lives.

Not because they won anything, but because they finished.

Broken ribs and a separated AC joint in your shoulder are both hellish injuries for cyclists.

Matthews could barely breathe for a week, while Hansen could hardly grip the handlebars. Just how they both managed the cobbles on Stage 4, let alone, all the mountain stages that followed is beyond me. Such was Hansen’s pain he rode the Team Time Trial on his road bike and even until a few days ago, couldn’t climb out of his saddle to sprint.

When I copped a separated AC joint, I didn’t ride at all for a month.

No question, Aussie riders are the toughest.

Chapeau times two.

Also chapeau to Alberto Contador, the man who tried and failed.

I’m not sure anyone really believed it was possible to win the Giro and Tour in the same year, but Alberto obviously thought he could.

And while Contador continued to talk up his chances, and we saw flashes of his brilliance, they were only fleeting and he never really threatened Froome’s grip on the Maillot Jaune.

This Tour proved conclusively the “double” can’t be done.

Contador expressed no regrets and refused to concede the double iefused to concede that it’both ed. a mountain stages impossible, but I reckon unless they take all the mountains out of the Giro, or insist on the same riders doing both races, then it ain’t gonna happen.

“I don’t think it’s impossible to do the double but it’s really complicated because nobody has the experience on how to prepare it”, he said.

“However, I prefer having tried than being left with a desire to do it.”

“The main problem was the requirements of the Giro. I think that this Giro was very hard from the beginning due to Astana’s performance and left me exhausted every day with long time trials and the final week, which was marked by extraordinary efforts,” Contador added.

As a result, although my mind wanted to proceed, my body needed more rest.”

I don’t know about Contador, but after three weeks of super-late nights glued to the TV, my body, and eyes are also due for some R&R.

As are yours, I’m sure.

**Despite what we now know about Lance Armstrong’s career, his fastest Alpe d’Huez time in 2004 (37:36) wasn’t included in this piece because the stage was a 15.5km time-trial.

Don’t answer, because clearly, he had a dream day.

Tejay van Garderen, the rider who had been the Yellow Jersey’s most consistent challenger abandoned. Alberto Contador crashed descending the deadly roads of the Col d’Allos losing two minutes and Nairo Quintana rode aggressively but wasn’t able to put any time in the race leader.

One Alpine day down, three to go.

It looks like Froome is unbeatable, and his team just reinforces that invincibility, but no one can give up especially with seven climbs on tonight’s parcours.

We saw the strategies Tinkoff-Saxo and Movistar tried last night, placing riders in the break,  only for them to sit up and wait for their team leader ahead of the final climb.

It didn’t work today, but if in the days ahead those two teams can mount a series of attacks on the climb and force Froome to follow, perhaps they can wear him down.

Perhaps.

If not then the Tour de France will end in a procession and a second, damp squib climax after Nibali’s dominating win last year.

It’s a good job then that Peter Sagan is still in the race because he’s fast becoming something of a cycling phenomenon.

At a guess, I’d say 99.9% of Roar readers never saw Eddy Merckx race his bike.

Give me a second guess and I reckon 99.9% of Roar readers would happily travel back in time to see Merckx race, if it were in any way possible.

To watch someone win 35% of races they entered over a six-year period between 1969-1975, to win multiple grand Tours, stage and one day races, and to be the best sprinter, climber and GC rider in a Tour de France, beggars belief.

A palmares like this could never be assembled today because of the evolution of cycling since the Merckx era. No modern professional cyclist rides as much as Merckx did, or chases as many objectives in a race.

If, somehow, they did ride like that and win in the manner Merckx won, then doping would be the only way to explain such a complete dominance of the sport.

And what sort of treatment would a rider receive if we use what’s happened to Chris Froome recently as a guide?

Merckx won his first pro race, Milan-San Remo as a 20 year old in 1966, but clearly, his best years were between 1969 and 1975.

Peter Sagan has just turned 25, and while he’ll never rival Merckx for wins, watching him during the past two and bit weeks has made me wonder whether there are some similarities between them, and whether more will evolve over the next few years?

For a start, physically they are quite alike.

Merckx was 1.85m and his race weight was 74kg.

Sagan stands 1.84m tall and races at 73kg.

For pure aggression, they also appear similar.

Sagan may not be winning very much, but you can’t say it’s not for the want of trying.

After another stage in the breakaway and another failed attempt to win, Sagan now has recorded 21  second places in 2015 and he’s finished in the top five another 15 times.

He’s also won eight races.

A slice more luck, or power and  some of those second places become wins and people would’ve been talking. Not in a way that casts suspicion over the credibility of a rider, but rather, marvels at Sagan’s aggression, power and consistency.

Sagan also suffers because riders follow him into the break, but then refuse to work with him when the finish is in sight.

Regardless, watching Sagan ride is a joy.

He sprints as well as anyone, time trials like a demon, cleverly engineers himself into breaks, and excels on the punchy climbs. And when he reaches a summit, Sagan descends—as he did on the road to Gap—with seemingly no fear.

It was a shame that Alberto Contador crashed last night because Sagan stopped to help him, costing the Slovak champion a chance to put on another descending master class.

Based on Merckx’s record, Sagan has just begun the best years of his career.

He already has 67 professional wins and just needs to reach Paris to claim a fourth consecutive Green Jersey.

On what we’ve seen with his impressive but frustrating five 2nd places at the Tour, is it just a matter of Sagan getting a break-through victory, before he becomes a relentless winner?

A mini-cannibal, even?

It was sad to see six riders abandon the Tour de France last night including Tejay van Garderen, World Champion Michael Kwiatkowski and Aussie Nathan Haas.

Van Garderen was ill, while Kwiatkowski had been looking decidedly average for a number of days, but I can’t say for sure about the others.

Is the because of the rest day, or the largely unrelenting heat, or a combination of both?

Regardless, to lose six riders in one stage, when a crash isn’t responsible is quite strange. Clearly, the race will be poorer for their absence, particularly the Rainbow jersey and BMC’s van Garderen.

After what we saw last night, we can only wonder what tonight will bring.

It’s a given that everyone will spend at least some of the day on their bikes because doing nothing will be too much of a shock to their bodies, but getting a little extra rest will be just as important.

Chris Froome’s GC rivals will need to execute their rest day strategy precisely if they’re collectively going to avoid what we witnessed last week.

No one could’ve anticipated how devastating Team Sky’s attack on the stifling 15.3km climb of the Col de Soudet would be. Every rider with ambitions of winning the 102^nd Tour saw his hopes evaporate on Stage 10, just like the relentless heat sapped their energy.

We wondered at the time whether Froome was just too good, was it the heat, or the shock of a serious climb at the end of a flat stage following a rest day?

Was it all three?

Some even wondered (aloud) whether it was more “evidence” of doping, or perhaps even “mechanical doping?”

A week later, we’re still wondering.

A week later, we’re also still wondering whether anyone or anything can expose a fatal crack in Chris Froome’s seemingly impenetrable armour.

Nothing that’s happened in the Pyrenees and the transitional stages that have brought us to the foot of the Alps has made us any wiser as to why Froome is so far ahead of anyone else.

All we know is what the bare numbers say, and they say he’s better, 3:10 better thus far.

At this point in last year’s race, Vincenzo Nibali was 4:37 ahead of his nearest rival Alejandro Valverde, and he increased his margin to 7:10 by the time we reached Paris.

He did that with a solid 3^rd at Pla d’Adet in Stage 17 and then a dominating solo victory on Hautacam the following day.

Neither stage was raced in hot weather, but it will be on Wednesday, as the hottest Tour de France in years rolls on.

Based on what we saw in Stages 10 and 11 that can only be good news for Chris Froome and bad news for his rivals.

And with an extra day in the Alps compared to the Pyrenees, what are the chances that Froome’s lead will soon rival Nibali’s from last year?

So like last year, what we’re left with is the battle to fill the podium.

Realistically, and of course barring a mishap these are the only contenders for the Paris podium.

The next best-placed rider is Robert Gesink at 6:23 and right now that looks a bridge too far.

With so much climbing, including La Toussuire on Friday and Alpe D’Huez on the penultimate day, it’s hard to see Quintana losing his 2^nd place.

Tejay van Garderen occupies the other spot, and BMC hasn’t really put a foot wrong thus far.

Sean Lee highlighted his consistency on Sunday, and there’s no reason to suggest that will change, except that I think it will.

I have a hunch that Contador will seriously challenge TVG because he won’t be able to match the Spaniard on those climbs.

Contador hasn’t looked in peak condition at any time in the first two weeks, but I think in the third week, he’ll rediscover his best form. It won’t be enough to overtake Froome, but should be sufficient to pass an impressive but ageing Valverde and wrangle the final podium position from Tejay’s grasp.

Before they get to Alpe d’Huez though, there’s several other stages to ride, including tomorrow’s from Digne-les Bains to Pra Loup.

An uphill finish will cause some time gaps, but it’s only 6.2km @6.5% so will be a fast ascent.

What could be more enthralling and definitely more dangerous is the descent of the Col d’Allos that precedes the finale to Pra Loup.

An 18km, highly technical plunge on a patchwork of roughly laid bitumen, laced with sheer drops, walls and off-camber corners, will ensure most riders take only minimal risks.

This col was raced during the Criterium du Dauphine, and AG2R’s Romain Bardet gained more than a minute over Chris Froome on the descent, before going on to win the stage. If you haven’t seen it, as Molly Meldrum would say, do yourself a favour, because it’s beyond spectacular! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U36X0gsdrgQ

As we saw in the Dauphine, Chris Froome wasn’t overly keen to take risks on this descent, and if he needed any reminder why, he got it last night when teammate Geraint Thomas smashed his head on a pole and flipped over a fence on the road into Gap. So expect Froome to lose time.

As we also saw last night Vincenzo Nibali is one who will most likely benefit, but others may also fancy their chances.

It won’t be enough to alter the destiny of the Maillot Jaune, but it will shake things up a little.

For all of Froome’s GC rivals and so many other accomplished climbers to collapse so dramatically on Stage 10 and then fail to arrest any of their deficit the following day was almost surreal.

Surely what happened couldn’t just be attributed to SKY power led by the incredible Mr Froome?

I reckon overnight we saw proof that it wasn’t the only sky power at work.

Last night, in pouring rain and temperatures that plummeted to the mid-teens, we saw a number of riders revive their Tour campaigns, and maybe even their chances of beating Froome.

I’m sure no one really likes racing in the rain, which in the high mountains often becomes hail, but Joachim Rodriguez, Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali and to a lesser degree Alberto Contador all seemed much more comfortable than Froome once the heat was washed away.

Yes, Froome didn’t lose any time last night and yes, he’s still going to be incredibly difficult to beat, but if the weather does get colder and wetter, just maybe the road to Paris will be a little more fraught.

Does anyone want the Polka Dot Jersey this year?

For a long time now we’ve become accustomed to seeing someone make a concerted effort to be the King of the Mountain but with the Pyrenees now behind us, no real challenger has emerged.

Going into Stage 12 Chris Froome lead the Climbers Classification, but he clearly has bigger fish to fry.

Teammate Richie Porte was second, but clearly is there to support Froome.

Rafal Majka and Nairo Quintana were equal third, but the Pole is there for his struggling team leader Alberto Contador and the Columbian hasn’t yet surrendered his GC dream.

On the final, gruelling day in the Pyrenees in searing heat then pouring rain, we saw Michael Kwiatkowski give it a shot, but he didn’t secure the KOM lead before being passed by stage winner Joachim “Purito” Rodriguez.

Purito didn’t get enough points either, but he is now second in that competition.

So maybe the veteran Spaniard wants it, but as the next four days are nothing more than Category 2, 3 or 4 climbs, he and the other pure climbers will put their guns away for a while.

I hope Rodriguez does target the KOM because at 13:45 on GC he is well out of the reckoning, and in the Tour there’s nothing quite like seeing a true “mountain goat” at the peak of his powers.

Lance Armstrong, who asked you?!

Why after Stage 10 did you tweet this?

“Clearly Froome/Porte/Sky are very strong. Too strong to be clean? Don’t ask me, I have no clue.”

Yes, you probably don’t have a clue but, really who did ask you? Was it some one important that compelled you to answer?

It’s a shame that we can’t watch performances like Froome put on in the Pyrenees without thinking suspiciously about what we’re seeing.

Lance, you say you get asked questions by your Twitter followers all the time about riders and whether they are clean or doping, but why do you have to answer?

Surely, you know that people will forensically examine every word you write or say when it comes to doping suspicions, so why even put your toe in the water, so to speak?

Sorry, but I don’t get it.

Maybe you just have relevance depravation syndrome.

Face it, you’ve had your time and have done more than your fair share of damage to the sport.

If others want to, then that their decision, but the only time we want to hear from you about it is if you’re in front of a judge.

A stage like we saw last night must’ve been super hard. As already mentioned it began in 35-degree heat and ended in pouring rain and 20 degrees colder.

Imagine being in the Gruppetto as they slugged up the final 16km climb in weather like that, when the whole object of the day was nothing more than survival?

Imagine being a bruised and broken Michael Matthews riding in that weather?

Well he did that last night and he finished the stage.

“Bling” crossed the line in 163^rd place, 39 seconds and 12 places ahead of Lampre-Merida’s Davide Cimolai.

Matthews sits last (175^th) on the GC almost 11 minutes behind teammate Svein Tuft in 174, but it’s wonderful to see him still riding, and the odds must surely now be on him reaching Paris.

If Matthews does finish the Tour it’ll be as good as anything he’s ever done on a bike.

Are we about to see more horrific crashes or just even more dramatic racing?

Thirteen riders failed to make it through to the first rest day, three of them from Orica GreenEDGE.

And if you’ve ever seen a crash more spectacularly bad than the stage 3, 76kmh mash-up that ended Fabian Cancellara’s Tour, I’d like to know about it.

The Tour resumes tonight and Stage 10 finds the peloton 800km south of where the Teams Time Trial ended in Plumelec.

This is the first of three days in the Pyrenees, three days of summit finishes.

Tonight it’s 167km from Tarbes to La Pierre-Saint-Martin with a 15.3km schlep @ 7.4% to end the stage.

Tomorrow the Tourmalet is on the menu before the final climb up Cauterets (6.4km at 5%) and on Thursday, Plateau de Beille (15.8km @ 7.9%).

The race could look completely different by then.

Recent history suggests that Chris Froome, barring illness an accident is unlikely to lose his race lead between now and Paris.

Last year, Vincenzo Nibali kept the Maillot Jaune for all but one day after claiming it on Stage 2.

In 2013, Chris Froome was unchallenged after Stage 8, and in 2012, Bradley Wiggins held Yellow from Stage 7.

But that doesn’t mean Froome won’t be challenged.

Despite a poor first nine days, the defending champion Vincenzo Nibali, says he’s relatively unconcerned at his 2:22 deficit.

“I don’t think I’ve found the right form just yet but I’m still confident for what might happen now.

“Now the Tour of the climbers starts and I’m confident.”

Nairo Quintana is next “worst” placed, trailing Froome by 1:59 but feels there’s plenty of time to make up the difference.

“It’s clear that we (Froome, Nibali, Contador and Quintana) are four favourites, but I knew Froome would be very strong as he’s been demonstrating. I think he is the strongest right now.”

“I hope that little by little we can recover that time. Today we’ve picked up a bit on some rivals. In the mountains, we have to try to make up some more.”

Alberto Contador doesn’t look at his best either and may never reach his peak in this Tour after what he expended at the Giro.

“We’ll see how everyone is in the mountains. I believe that a lot is still to happen in this Tour and everybody will have bad days. Hopefully we will have none.”

That leaves the man no one really considered but is now demands attention and some respect.

Tejay van Garderen is just 12 seconds in arrears and as much as was possible until the Team Time Trial, was flying under the radar.

Not now though.

As we saw with Cadel in 2011, BMC has been tactically flawless and the team oozes quiet confidence.

And not having yellow allows them to keep going as they have been. That said, van Garderen was disappointed at not claiming yellow after Stage 9.

“It’s all about momentum. I think we gained a lot of momentum in this first week.”

“In a perfect world we would’ve taken the stage and the yellow jersey but we’ll take the stage.”

Surely though, with so much of the race left, the pressure of defending it is best left to someone else.

It’s just a matter of van Garderen not letting Froome out of his sight, which he managed pretty well, but well not enough to stop Froome winning the Dauphine.

Of the rest, the best placed is someone who Tour TV commentator Paul Sherwen has talked up on a regular basis.

Sherwen is closely watching Rigoberto Uran Uran, and given how well Etixx-Quickstep have done thus far, then why not give him an outside chance. Like BMC and not discounting the demise of Tony Martin, they’ve had a great week.

With two consecutive second places at the Giro (2013-2014), Uran knows what‘s needed to succeed at Grand Tour level.

He sits in sixth sport at 1:18 but does the Columbian have enough riders to support him in the high mountains?

A couple of days ago I wrote about how well Andre Greipel was doing in the Green Jersey competition albeit with only a slender lead over three (consecutive) times winner, Peter Sagan.

Well Sagan is back in the jersey, just three points ahead of Greipel with Mark Cavendish another 51 points adrift.

Given how few chances there remains for sprinters, Sagan deserves to be favourite, but Greipel has had a good taste of green now, and won’t just roll over because the roads are about to get a little steep. The intermediate sprints will be fascinating.

Richie Porte finally confirmed what even he said is the worst kept secret in cycling, by announcing his departure from SKY at the end of the season.

The experts will have you believe Porte is headed for BMC, but unless a deal is already sealed, how can it be that cut and dried?

Could BMC not be the best move for Porte?

If Tejay van Garderen was to reach the Tour podium, or even win the race, it would only confirm his role as team leader. If so, how would be Porte joining them be any different to staying at SKY under Froome?

Clearly Orica GreenEDGE doesn’t have a Grand Tour GC rider, but that goes for a number of teams.

Richie knows what he has to do to help Froome win his second Tour, but Porte also knows the better he does will only increase his bargaining power.

But regardless of what happens between now and Paris, the race will be as much remembered for the terrible diagnosis confronting Tinkoff Saxo veteran Ivan Basso, who left the Tour overnight to fight testicular cancer.

Best of luck, Ivan, the cycling world is thinking of you.

Brought into the sport by Team Sky and its General Manager Sir Dave Brailsford, the basic idea is that if you can improve across a range of areas by just one percent, the overall result will add up to something spectacular.

There’s no doubt Team Sky have maximised their marginal gains over the past few years, a situation that’s continued in the seven stages of the 2015 Tour de France. Chris Froome will be well pleased ahead of tonight’s important Stage 8 and the summit finish on the Mur de Bretagne.

Cadel Evans won here in 2011 on his way to the title, and Froome will fancy his chances of following in Evans’ footsteps if he can successfully negotiate the punchy 2km ascent (average 6.9%).

It would be silly to imagine that other teams aren’t also exploring where they can make marginal gains, and there are a few stories emerging from this Tour that suggests it’s really paying off for some riders.

Tejay van Garderen is one example.

Sitting 3^rd on GC at 13 seconds, the BMC leader has not skipped a beat. His team has perfectly assessed the racing thus far, safely negotiating the challenges thrown up by the wind and rain in the early part of the Tour.

Blessed by not receiving the attention of the big four, Nibali, Froome, Contador and Quintana, the next two days will be crucial to van Garderen staying in contention for a podium finish.

Fifth on General Classification last year after a disappointing 45^th in 2013, van Garderen is finally showing the consistency and maturity needed to succeed at Grand Tour level.

Van Garderen has essentially followed the same race program as last year which saw him ride the Criterium du Dauphine, Pais Vasco, Tour of Catalunya, Paris-Nice and the Tour of Oman. The only change in 2015 was the inclusion of Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Fleche Wallonne instead of a failed attempt at the Tour of Romandie (DNF).

Second overall at the Dauphine where he rode aggressively against Chris Froome suggested his preparation was spot-on, and so far, the American has looked very comfortable in what again is a well-drilled BMC team.

Lotto-Soudal also looks to be on top of its game despite essentially losing two of its premier riders from its formidable train.

Without a contender for the General Classification, Lotto-Soudal has again pinned its hopes on sprint superstar Andre Greipel and so far, he’s been one of the Tour’s success stories.

After his second place to a revitalised Mark Cavendish overnight, Greipel’s lead over three-time winner Peter Sagan in the Green Jersey competition is a slender 12 points.

Greipel’s never won this competition—2^nd in 2012 is his best—and there are significant challenges ahead if he’s to stop Sagan making it four in a row, but this year he’s mounting his most serious challenge.

Greipel has worn green since the first open road stage, and the longer the Tour has gone the more comfortable he’s looked in it.

Bear in mind that he’s had to win his stages effectively without the help of the injured Adam Hansen and Greg Henderson, and his performance thus far is even better.

Perhaps aware that at 32, time is against, Greipel has really changed things around this year.

First up, he decided to give the Tour Down Under a miss.

A race where he’s won a record 19 stages, Adelaide has been “The Gorilla’s” happy hunting ground and seemingly the perfect place to start his season.

In 2012, he won three stages at the TDU and then triumphed again in July with three Tour wins and two 2nd places.

So Greipel knows how to peak for different objectives.

But it wasn’t just the Tour Down Under that the German sprint behemoth eschewed.

Greipel has visited races multiple times since making his Tour de France debut in 2011.

Milan San Remo, Tirreno Adriatico, Ghent Wevelgem, Driedaagse, Kurne-Brussels-Kurne, the Tours of Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg, Ster ZLM, the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix have all regularly been on his calendar.

For instance after last year’s TDU, Greipel rode the Tours of Oman and Qatar then KBK, Tirreno, MSR, Ghent-Wevelgem, Turkey, World Ports, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ster ZLM.

But his 2014 Tour wasn’t the best, with just one stage win behind a rampaging Marcel Kittel (four) and Alexander Kristoff (two). Greipel only finished 7^th in the Green Jersey competition.

This year has seen a marked change. Greipel began his season with three one-day races in the Trofeo series in late January, then the Volta Algarve, Paris-Nice, Milan San Remo, Ghent Wavelgem, Driedaagse, Flanders, Paris Roubaix, Turkey, Luxembourg and Ster ZLM. He also rode the Giro, albeit only 13 stages.

So in his Tour de France lead-up, Greipel only appeared in five races he took part in last year. He also returned to the Giro d’Italia for the first time since 2010.

Using Italy’s Grand Tour as a warm-up for le Tour is nothing new for sprinters.

Robbie McEwen, regularly exited the Giro after 12 or 13 stages and it did him no harm.

And this was something that Greipel recognised

McEwen, who won 12 stages at both the Giro and the Tour, admitted on SBS TV that Greipel had contacted him about how he prepared for le Grand Boucle including his Giro strategy.

As McEwen went onto explain, despite being a champion in his own right, Greipel is humble enough to seek advice in how to improve.

Faced with the likely triple-barrelled assault in the form of Marcel Kittel, Alexander Kristoff and Mark Cavendish, Greipel decided to search for something to give him an edge…a marginal gain.

When discussing Greipel’s Green Jersey chances, McEwen also said you need to be in absolutely 100% condition AND have EVERYTHING go your way.

Luckily for Greipel, that’s what seems to be happening.

He looks as strong as ever on the bike, Marcel Kittel isn’t at the Tour and Alexander Kristoff is seemingly not at the level we saw earlier in the year.

There’s still a long way to go, but watching the battle between Greipel and the freakish Sagan will be every bit as fascinating as the race for the Maillot Jaune.

And if Greipel does win, Robbie McEwen may have played a small but vital part.

What’s more, the first pictures from the finish line look really grim with gale force winds and horizontal rain buffeting the officials and spectators, and ending the lives of numerous umbrellas.

And while the race organisers can’t organise the weather, they do plan the Tour route, so they’re fully aware the effect the climatic conditions could have on the race on any day.

The dangers of this particular Stage 2 to an already nervous peloton were the wind, which, given the coastal route were likely to be crosswinds.

A heatwave over much of Europe for the past week suggested the weather gods were feeling generous, but it wasn’t to be.

And so as we’ve seen in the past few years, within the first few days of the world’s biggest bike race, some of the Tour’s big names are in seriously trouble.

Last year of course the early stages proved too much for a number of riders, none more significant than Chris Froome. He abandoned after several crashes before he’d even reached the much-feared cobbles on the French-Belgian border in Stage 5.

As you may have read elsewhere on the Roar, Stage 2 isn’t the only one likely to cause problems for the contenders before we reach the high mountains in Stage 10. Stage 3 has a difficult uphill finish, Stage 4 features cobbles, Stage 6 promises more coastal carnage, Stage 8 ends on a hill and the Stage 9 Team Time Trial also concludes with a climb.

It promises to be totally unpredictable and dramatic and if all the big names make it to the first rest day unscathed, both physically and in respect to their General Classification position, it’ll be fantastic.

We all want that of course, but as we saw last night that’s unlikely to be the case.

Last year on Stage 2, Vincenzo Nibali was riding into yellow and establishing a stranglehold on the Tour de France with victory in Sheffield.

Last night, Nibali and his teammates spent the last 50km trying (and failing) to chase back a break that formed in the wind and rain that lashed a significant part of the stage.

Last night, he lost 1:27 to the race winner Andre Greipel but worse, Nibali could well have lost the Tour de France.

Nairo Quintana also failed to bridge across with Chris Froome and Alberto Contador when the break formed.

Last night, he could well have lost the Tour de France.

The podium placegetters from last year Jean Christophe Peraud and Thiabot plus Alejandro Valverde were also caught out, as were Richie Porte and Simon Gerrans.

Rohan Dennis surrendered the yellow jersey, but the important thing for BMC was that team leader Tejay van Garderen was in the break.

Sadly too, Adam Hansen’s quest to complete 12 consecutive Grand Tours looks in serious doubt, following a crash during the storm.

Hansen rolled home around eleven minutes after Greipel and co, and when we saw vision of him clutching his right shoulder, we can only hope that the Queenslander is not too badly injured and can start tonight’s Stage 3.

So, when we consider what we witnessed last night, it’s fair to ask are the race organisers are denying the Tour the finish it deserves by making the early stages too hard?

Most of you would say of course not, but sometimes it’s just nice to ease into something.

Looking back at several Tour parcours in the early 2000’s particularly before Christian Prudhomme took over from long time race director Jean Marie Le Blanc, the opening six-nine stages tended to be much different.

There’d generally be Time Trials for both individuals and teams, but aside from that, the opening salvos of the first week was really all about the sprinters.

When not in TT mode, the peloton would let the day’s break establish and the sprinter’s teams would chase it down and contest the bunch sprint finish.

Given Robbie McEwen and Stuart O’Grady were two of those sprinters and in their fast men prime, the finishes were often dramatic. You looked forward to each stage. You couldn’t always say the same about the rest of the stage though, which while not boring, felt extremely formulaic.

That’s not the case these days with Prudhomme in charge, and while we have already seen Nibali and Quintana suffer serious blows to their title hopes, I would much rather watch this generation of Tours de France than those from a decade ago.

Stage 2 was just magic to watch.

Here’s to more twists and turns on the roads to the Mur de Huy.

As the first few riders headed out on the pancake flat 13.8km course, race commentator Paul Sherwen estimated that a finish time of around 16 minutes would be hard to beat.

The reason?

Because that would mean a rider completing the course at an average speed of 51.75kmh.

Jos van Endem was the ninth rider to start and when he smashed through the first time check (7.1km) in an incredible stage high time of 7:27 his average speed was 56.8 kmh.

Not surprisingly the Dutchman wasn’t able to maintain that speed over the second half of the course, but his final time of 15.11 (av 54.79kmh) looked like a tough one to beat.

The 38^th rider to start the Time Trial was Adelaide’s Rohan Dennis, and if any place needs some good news right now it’s South Australia.

It’s been an unbelievably sad couple of days in this part of the world. The murder of Crows Coach Phil Walsh has blanketed the state in grief, and the pain and sorrow at his death isn’t going to ease for a long time.

Dennis, who’s already given us some huge highlights this year with overall victory in the Tour Down Under and a brief spell as the UCI Track World One Hour Record holder, rocketed out of the start gate.

He made it to the 7km checkpoint just one second behind van Endem’s time, with the knowledge that the current stage leader faded in the final few kilometres.

Dennis pressed on, effortlessly passing Lars Bak (a three time Danish TT Champion) and clearly feeling at home in the 35-degree heat.

Like van Endem, Rohan Dennis couldn’t maintain his speed but still managed to put 15 seconds into the Dutchman’s time, to set an average speed of 55.45kmh, the fastest ever Individual Time Trial at the Tour de France.

And that’s into a headwind too!

It’s a record that’s stood since 1989 when Greg Lemond averaged 54.545kmh for the dramatic Stage 21 TT into Paris to snare the narrowest win in Tour history (eight seconds).

Dennis lived up to his pre-race comments that his whole season had revolved around preparing for this Time Trial and in a quick post ride interview with SBS Tour reporter Robbie McEwen Dennis sounded pleased with his effort.

“It was pretty smooth out there.

“It was pretty tough on the way home but I did around16 mins in training, so I got a bonus minute.”

Now it was just a matter of waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the remaining 160 riders to finish as well.

As SBS race commentator Matt Keenan tweeted, “It’s like watching the Brownlow Medal count and @RohanDennis didn’t play the last three rounds. #TDF2015

Local boy Tom Dumolin was one major threat, a favourite of many experts and the 146^th rider to start.

At the halfway point, he was just one second slower than Dennis, but he knew that the South Australian overhauled van Emden’s time in the final kilometres.

The crowd roared their local boy on, but when he entered the final 1000 metres with only a minute up his sleeve it looked like Dumolin would just fall short.

And so it proved, as he could do no better than an eight-second deficit.

Former World TT champ Tony Martin was the next to challenge, three seconds down on Dennis at the 7.1km time check.

But with two kilometres to ride he only had two-minutes to play with. Result, Dennis held on by five seconds as Martin confessed to “not handling the heat very well.”

Peter Sagan who like Rohan Dennis was considered a good outside tip, never even came close, 41 seconds in arrears.

And that left one more big name, the mighty Fabian Cancellara.

Despite still being on the recovery trail from broken vertebrae sustained in the E3 Harelbeke, the genial four time World Time Trial Champion couldn’t be ruled out.

At the halfway mark, “Spartacus” looked ominous, just one second shy of Dennis, but he too faded to drift six seconds shy of the South Aussie.

Dennis wasn’t able to celebrate immediately because the likes of Chris Froome were still to ride, but no one was expecting the 2013 Champion to seriously target a stage win in Utrecht.

So Rohan Dennis becomes the 7^th Australian to wear yellow, after Phil Anderson, Stuart O’Grady, Bradley McGee, Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans and Simon Gerrans.

Dennis is clearly a man who lets his riding do the talking, describing his achievement in just a few words.

“A perfect day.

“(I’m in) A little bit of shock.

“It’s a dream.

“I always wished to be in this position.

“It was almost surreal.”

Well by now he knows he it’s very real and will be wondering whether he can hang on to his prized yellow jersey for what could be a dangerous Stage 2.

And while the destination of the first yellow jersey was a major outcome for the day, so were the performances of the major contenders:  Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana and Tejay van Garderen.

None of them had designs on the first yellow for 2015, but none wanted to cede too much of an advantage to their rivals on the first day.

In the end, it was advantage, no one really with just 19 seconds separating van Garderen’s 15:38 from Quintana’s 15:57.

Those results were sandwiched between a couple of Aussies we thought may have done better.

Luke Durbridge was 32^nd at 46 seconds to Dennis, while Richie Porte was a disappointing 65th at 1:06.  They clearly have team roles to play but both should’ve gone a little faster than that.

Not tonight though, when the duties will be about protection the team leaders because unless the coastal winds blow up, not much should change on the road to Zealande in Stage 2.

But if Stage 1 is anything to go by, with a surprise winner and a new Tour record for an Individual Time Trial then we should expect the unexpected.

According to the Oxford Dictionary definition, for something to be great, it needs to be “considerably above the average” and “important or the most important.”

Great, however doesn’t necessarily mean positive.

So, when trying to choose the five greatest moments in Tour de France history, everything should be considered, both good and bad.

Real success in the Tour de France is just finishing this gruelling event. Anyone that rolls across the line on the Champs Elysees should be feted, but history most easily remembers the winners. Sadly in our “live in the moment society”, feats of days past are often quickly forgotten, and if they were pre-television, may as well not have happened.

Like Fausto Coppi in the 1949 Tour, where he encapsulated the “never give in” motto in one of the greatest comebacks in the Tour’s history.

The fact that Coppi even started the 4808km, anti-clockwise lap of France was a minor miracle. Despite it being his TDF debut, Coppi was in dispute with teammate and the Tour’s defending champion Gino Bartali over who should be team captain.

In 1949, the peloton was comprised of national teams, so France was joined by Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Luxembourg plus a host of regional and junior French teams.

But Italy’s two stars made an inauspicious start and by Stage Four were already 15 minutes behind race leader Jacques Marinelli.

Coppi, who’d just won the Giro and was aiming to be the first rider to win the Giro and Tour in the same year, was first to stir.

In Stage Five, along with Marinelli and five others, Coppi attacked the race and their buffer over Bartali quickly reached six minutes.

Marinelli was putting himself into a winning position but didn’t count on the excitement he was causing. An over-enthusiastic spectator stepped into the road as Marinelli rode past, bringing him down. Coppi, who was on the Frenchman’s wheel, also fell.

Marinelli rode off but Coppi’s bike was badly damaged forcing him to wait another seven minutes until his spare arrived. Despite Bartali helping the chase, Coppi’s motivation was crushed. So Bartali left Coppi to trail home, losing more time and fall to 36 minutes behind the yellow jersey.

But if everyone thought Coppi’s race was done, no one told him.

In the Stage Eight Time Trial, Coppi clawed back eight minutes, and then eclipsed that spectacular effort a few days later in the Pyrenees.

Stage 11 included the Aubisque, the Soulour, the Tourmalet, the Aspin and the Peyresourde, cols that in 1949 were dirt roads. By the end of that 190km suffer-fest where Coppi punctured twice, the deficit was down to 14 minutes.

Coppi’s next move came on Stage 16, the first of four Alpine days. Breaking away with Bartali, Coppi helped the defending champion into the Maillot Jaune, the perfect 35^th birthday present.

The next day, the duo attacked again, but Coppi knew he was stronger, so didn’t wait when Bartali punctured. He soloed away to the finish in Aoste, Switzerland to claim the yellow jersey.

Coppi wasn’t finished though, and made sure of his victory by smashing out a seven-minute win in the Stage 20 time-trial to win the Tour by 10:55.

It made the final stage into Paris a ceremonial ride as Coppi became the first rider to win the Giro and Tour in the same year.

The Tour de France features riders from virtually every continent, but of course it wasn’t always like that.

Australian representation goes back to 1914 when Don Kirkham (17^th) and Iddo “Snowy” Munro (20^th) rode their one and only Tour. Sir Hubert Opperman claimed 12^th place in 1931, but really it wasn’t until Phil Anderson exploded onto the scene that the broader Australian sports fans started to take notice.

It was 1981, the 117km Stage 6 to Pla d’Adet in the Pyrenees and Phil Anderson was glued to Bernard Hinault’s back wheel.

Hinault was already a double Tour winner (1978 and 1979), but as Phil Anderson told Rupert Guinness in the excellent book “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oui, Oui, Oui” he didn’t even know who Bernard Hinault was, let alone how to say his name.

The 23 year-old on his Tour debut, was really annoying Hinault by not doing any turns. Anderson even naively offered Hinault a drink from his bidon as they tried to keep pace with climbers just up the road.

Hinault, who already fuming at Anderson’s refusal to work, angrily swiped the bottle away, the two riders eventually finishing 27 seconds behind stage winner Lucien van Impe.

By virtue of his placing the day before, that was good enough for Anderson to become the first non-European (Britain included) to claim the Yellow Jersey.

He may have lost it the next day, but the fact that after 67 Tours a non-English speaking rider was wearing the Maillot Jaune was simply seismic.

If that single day in 1981 heralded an irreversible change in the story of the Tour de France, the events of 1986 only confirmed it.

Greg Lemond may have described the 1989 edition (when he won the closest ever Tour) as the “greatest moment of my whole life”, but what he achieved three years earlier simply has to rank higher.

Once again Bernard Hinault was the chief protagonist, although unlike with Anderson in 1981, Lemond and Hinault were teammates.

The La vie Claire duo finished one-two in the 1985 Tour, but Hinault was fortunate to be going into the 1986 race as a record equalling five-time champion.

A crash inside the final kilometre of Stage 14 stopped Hinault crossing the line. He broke his nose but didn’t lose any time. Hinault couldn’t breathe properly, and relied on team orders to stop Lemond from winning the Tour.

Tensions remained as the ’86 Tour began but this time there were no team orders. The strongest rider would be the team leader.

After a cagey opening week, Hinault threw down the first challenge in the Stage Nine Time Trial. The Frenchman won but Lemond still finished second despite losing time through a puncture.

In Stage 12 over the Alps to Gap, Hinault snared a more decisive advantage. He used his domestiques to ride a calculating race and not only snatch the Yellow Jersey, but put almost five minutes into Lemond.

The American wasn’t worried though as he sat second on the General Classification. Lemond knew that as long as he rode safely, the Maillot Jaune would be his if anything happened to Hinault.

This is precisely what happened the next day.

As Hinault once said, “As long I live and breathe I attack,” but on this occasion he paid a big price.

With Hinault’s attack fading on the final climb to Superbagneres, Lemond caught and passed him. He won the stage and importantly tore more than four minutes off the deficit.

On Stage 17 as Hinault faded again, Lemond assumed the race lead.

Stage 18 would prove the ultimate showdown, a classic dual on a stage we’ll essentially see (minus the Galibier) in a few weeks; the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Telegraphe and finally l’Alpe d’Huez.

Typically Hinault attacked whenever he could, including on the descent of the Galibier, but eventually it was just the two of them on the hairpins of Alpe d’Huez.

Hinault couldn’t shake Lemond though, and as they crossed the line the Frenchman grabbed Lemond’s hand and held it aloft. The American gave Hinault a little push to make sure he won the “battle”, but everyone knew Lemond had won the “war.”

Hinault won the final Time Trial, while Lemond crashed, but it wasn’t enough to stop the crowning of the first non-European Tour champion.

It’s impossible to gauge what effect Lemond’s win had on the psyche of French cycling, but one thing is clear, a Frenchman hasn’t won the Tour since.

Man may have landed on the moon in 1969, but for cycling fans it wasn’t the year’s only “out of this world” feat.

Eddie Merckx’s preparations for his debut Tour were thrown into chaos when he tested positive for amphetamines while leading the Giro d’Italia.

Merckx and his army of supporters managed to convince the authorities to clear his name, but his expulsion from the Giro cost him 18 days of valuable competition.

Still, he started the race in typically aggressive fashion, finishing second in the Prologue before claiming yellow on the first road stage.

Merckx happily surrendered the jersey to teammate Julien Stevens on Stage Two, but four days later was ready to reclaim it.

He easily won a mountain top finish on the Ballon d’Alsace, but only after he chased down and passed the day’s main break, dropped the two riders who’d helped him in that chase, and then rode away on the final climb.

Two days later, he won the Stage Eight Time Trial (9km), before changing objectives on Stage Nine, sacrificing a win to take the lead in the points and KOM classifications.

Merckx won again in dominating fashion in the Stage 11 climb to Digne, before attacking but losing Stage 12, the final day in the Alps.

The Stage 15 Time Trial in Revel was only 19km, so nowhere near long enough to stop Merckx winning, let alone lose any of his eight-minute lead.

And just why Merckx was called “The Cannibal” was even more starkly demonstrated on the 214km Stage 17 in the Pyrenees, when he attacked the race 140km from the finish.

Over the Tourmalet and the Aubisque, Merckx was unchallenged to snare his fifth stage win and double his lead to more than 16 minutes.

That five wins became six on the final day in Paris, a 37km Time Trial and his final margin of 17:54 was the biggest since 1952 when Fausto Coppi triumphed by an astonishing 28:27.

Victory in the Overall, Points, King of The Mountains and Combine Classifications (for the best all-round rider), on his Tour debut (!), is a unique achievement and it remains so. No one has come even remotely close to matching Eddie Merckx circa 1969.

It deserves to be the greatest moment in a race spanning more than 110 years.

And were it not for one other event, something that transcended the sport, and changed cycling forever, it would be.

The cliché, “the bigger they are the harder they fall” couldn’t be more apt because as much as overcoming a brutal cancer battle to win seven Tours de France was unheralded, the subsequent exposure of sport’s greatest fraudster, who was also a pathological liar and vicious bully, was even more spectacular.

Lance Armstrong has taken us for the biggest ride in sporting history and with numerous legal cases still undecided, the journey is far from over.

When Armstrong was winning and winning and winning, changing the corporate and mainstream face of cycling forever on the way, millions believed in the apparent sporting miracle they were witnessing.

Those who didn’t were shouted down, blacklisted, bullied and even sued.

Now, the man who reportedly earned more than AUS $160m during his career could lose it all, and plenty more.

Armstrong says he lost $100m in sponsorship when in 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agency found his former US Postal Services Team had “run the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport had ever seen.”

There’s another $135m at risk later this year in a “whistle-blower” lawsuit led by former teammate Floyd Landis.

Few people and even fewer athletes have had a rise and fall as massive as Lance Armstrong. Certainly no one in cycling has.

This, for all the wrong reasons makes him responsible for the “greatest moment” in Tour de France history. And that won’t ever change.

Each year, well over half a million people flock to the side city and country roads, clamber onto hill sides and cram onto balconies to watch the peloton pass by.

Around 95,000 people were in Adelaide’s East End to see the now traditional opening night Classic, the curtain-raiser to the Tour proper which starts on Tuesday.

As races go, The People’s Choice Classic was nothing extraordinary.

It was fast and furious, and Marcel Kittel justified his prerace favouritism with a blistering sprint to claim back-to-back Classic wins.

As a side note it was the fourth straight year a German has won the Classic. Andre Greipel won in 2012 and 2013.

The Classic is always popular, especially with families. You can head to the East End in the early afternoon for a drink or some lunch then loll around in the parklands through which the  1.7km circuit runs, until it’s time to grab your piece of race ‘real estate’ by the fence.

An hour later it’s all over, with the live TV audience in the UK, Europe, North America, South East Asia, China and New Zealand tuning in to see images of South Australia’s beautiful capital city.

It’s a great night out and a terrific appetiser to the Tour Down Under.

In three years the Santos Tour Down Under turns 20, an anniversary the race organisers probably never dreamt of when the plan to create the event was hatched in the mid 1990’s.

Each year Race Director Mike Turtur strives to keep the TDU fresh by tweaking the race format.

The introduction of a second climb up Old Willunga Hill was a significant alteration in 2012 and this year we have a second uphill finish, (Torrens Hill Rd) albeit one that won’t be as decisive as Willunga.

In the past few years Turtur has also found new climbs to take the race over—such as Corkscrew (2013 and 2014) and this year, Checker Hill in the opposite direction to which it’s normally climbed.

The logistics that underpin the success of the Tour Down Under are also one of the reasons the format is so hard to change.

The teams stay at one hotel in the Adelaide CBD. There’s a beautiful Tour Village across the road where the mechanics service the bikes in relative luxury. And, no stage starts or finishes more than two hours’ drive from Adelaide.

It’s all rather perfect, but it’s also relatively predictable.

That may be fine the majority of the time but with the big TWO.O. looming there’s a great chance to do something really amazing

The Tour Down Under has long modelled itself on being a mini Tour de France.

Certainly in terms of organisation it’s as good as the Tour and ultimately that what everyone wants, good organisation.

But something else the Tour de France has is the Grand Depart.

Each year, countries from around Europe bid to host the opening few stages of Le Tour, and it’s always a massive success.

Last year’s Grand Depart in Yorkshire and Cambridge drew nearly five million people to the roadside and pumped plenty more into the local economy.

This year, Utrecht in the Netherlands hosts a prologue and the opening road stage before the race heads towards France.

What’s to stop the Tour Down Under having its own Grand Depart?

Clearly it can’t be multiple stages in another country, but it could be the “Classic” in another city.

Just imagine, 133 bike riders racing a loop around Circular Quay and Darling Harbour before finishing outside the Sydney Opera House.

Maybe, they could even ride across the Harbour Bridge.

On the weekend before the traditional Tuesday start in Adelaide, why couldn’t another Australian city host the Grand Depart of the Tour Down Under? The Classic is usually held on Sunday, but if travel is an issue, run it on the Saturday.

Why not?

The teams can still come to Adelaide to train as they do. It’s just a matter of getting the teams to the particular city and back again.

Yes, it sounds relatively expensive, but the city that successfully bids to host the TDU Grand Depart would meet all the costs, so there should be no problem.

And a bid process would bring a few extra bucks into the South Australia’s economy which can’t be a bad thing.

Sydney as our most famous city would probably want first dibs at a TDU Grand Depart, and with so many famous landmarks it seems an obvious choice.

And if that were to happen, no doubt other cities would like to host a Grand Depart as well.

The beauty of it is, we don’t have to have another city host a Grand Depart every year. It could be every second year, or whenever the TDU organisers want it to.

Some might say that by doing this Adelaide is taking step towards losing the race, but surely as long as the South Australian Government and the UCI are happy, then there’s no risk.

While Sydney could host a magical Grand Depart, its geography isn’t as compact as Adelaide with the hills, beaches and city so close together.

And Melbourne is in a similar position too.

Neither are as all round as suitable as Adelaide.

The saying goes, “if it ain’t broke” is perfect for the Tour Down Under, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of innovation. The TDU’s 20^th anniversary is looming large, and it represents an opportunity to do something truly spectacular.

I’m sure Mike Turtur is already thinking about what he might be able to do.