Unlucky for some

Friday 13th was unlucky for Michael Mørkøv, Mark Cavendish’s missile launcher, as he had a feverish night and has left the race. That’s bad news for Cav, but on the plus side, a Hungarian village has announced that it is going to name a bus stop after him! Yes the big story is that they will honour him after he stopped for a bike change right in front of it. (See Hungarian village set to honour Mark Cavendish by naming bus stop after him | Cycling Weekly) Everyone’s favourite angry Manxman has won so many honours over the years, but surely this is one to treasure.

And amongst 3 other withdrawals from the race was Owain Doull who leaves EF Education First a rider down, as well as Don’t ruin it for me and It’s all downhill from here.

A proper breakaway!

After the Stage 6 yawnfest today had a proper fight for the breakaway and finally some big names getting (and staying away). There was a scrap for every KOM point and proper racing all the way. Kudos to Big Tom Dumoulin who was adrift but hauled himself back to the front to lead out his teammate Koen Bouwman. Now here is where I get bogged down in the linguistic detail because Dutch vowels are notoriously hard to get right. The question is: does Bouwman rhyme with bowman (the rower at the pointy end of the Boat Race) or with bowman (an archer who shoots pointy sticks). But either way he was at the pointy end of Stage 7. (Sorry, I just had to indulge my inner Rob Hatch there with a horribly contrived wordplay.)

Results and apologies

The best-placed finisher of any of our velogames team selections was Tom Dumoulin in 4th. And of the 3 teams including the flying Dutchman, the top points of the day went to Lube your gears with porridge, which brings me to the first apology. After Stage 5 I suggested that Dr James’ team was on the slide (despite the inappropriate breakfast-based lubrication). But I have been forced to eat my own porridge words as they are now back on the minileague podium.

And secondly, the prize chart so far did not include the combativity prizes, which particularly deprived Matt’s Yo Adrian, headed by their star performer Mattia Bais who has won two so far. There are further revelations about this team to be included in a later blog, following an exclusive post-race interview with the team DS. More anon. Here is the state of play, showing David’s squad forging ahead and Matt’s bunch rocking a completely different colour scheme.

Flag of the Day

For the vexillophiles, today’s offering is the flag of the Basilicata Region of Italy, as the race today left Calabria and ended in Potenza which is a city and province in the Basilicata region. I like this one: it has simplicity and style. The 4 wavy lines denote the four main rivers of the region. Basilicata seems quite rich in cheeses. Perhaps I should have made this a Cheese of the Day feature… OK I’m just off to the fridge now. (PS on Saturday morning: the old adage about not eating cheese before you go to bed is wise advice. Don’t do it, kids!)