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Tour de France, Stage 17. Norwegian fans celebrate another Boasson Hagen victory

Today - despite more moaning by the Schlecks - I’m going to focus on the stage win and on one, Edvald Boasson Hagen - Eddy the Boss, according to Geraint Thomas.

This is the young Norwegians second stage win of the Tour, and Norway’s fourth (Thor Hushovd with the other 2). EBH’s two victories are Team Sky’s total, ensuring a successful campaign for the British team, even if it might only have come at the expense of losing their GC contender, Bradley Wiggins.

So what about Eddy the Boss? He was in contention yesterday - narrowly missing out after he let Hushovd out-sprint him - and has been a regular feature in the breakaways since Wiggins’ departure. Pre-Tour de France, we were told that he was still recovering from a bout of shingles, but he seems not to have been affected by this and is becoming a real star of both this Tour, and of Team Sky.

Since he’s already won a stage, EBH has already featured on this “pic of the day” thing, so I thought I’d feature the Norwegian fans, hundreds of whom made the journey to Italy today, to revel in another Scandinavian victory.

Tour de France, Stage 7. Bradley Wiggins’ race ends with a broken collarbone.

Not much to say today, since I didn’t get to see any of the cycling. I’d mentioned yesterday that I was pleased for Team Sky, despite them being easy to dislike. Today, I’m upset for Wiggins, despite him too being someone to whom it’s difficult to warm.  

La Vuelta a España has been running for a few days now and we’ve seen 5 of the 21 stages.  The biggest news (perhaps) so far is the illness that swept through the Team Sky camp and resulted in the withdrawal of both John-Lee Augustyn and Ben Swift.  

That’s one of the Brits gone already!

The event started with another of the Brits sprinting to victory.  Mark Cavendish (who else?) then kept hold of the leader’s jersey for another stage before handing it over to Phillipe Gilbert, who has kept hold of it ever since.

My two tips for victory aren’t doing too bad, although one is certainly doing better than the other:  Luis León Sánchez is 17th, 1m 21s back, but Joaquim Rodríguez is up in 3rd, only 10s behind Gilbert.

More over the next few days.

As I said below, la Vuelta a España starts tonight.  But who should we look out for?  Well, I won’t pretend to be an expert in Pro Cycling, but the favourites must come from a select list which includes the two Spaniards Luis León Sánchez and Joaquim Rodríguez.  In the last 10 years, the Vuelta has been won by a Spaniard on 7 occasions.  The other three times saw two Russian victories (both Denis Menchov) and a Kazakh (Alexandre Vinokourov). 

‘Where are the Brits?’, I hear you ask.  Well, there are a few:  David Millar, Mark Cavendish, Peter Kennaugh (above), Ian Stannard and Ben Swift.  The final three in that list all ride for Team Sky, and it will be interesting to see if Kennaugh, in particular survives the duration as it’s the 21-year old’s first Grand Tour.

Updates over the next couple of weeks.