Opening weekend thoughts.

Where to start? 

After having a heavy crash, I am in the position to watch more of the big one this year as opposed to being out and about on my bike training and racing. 

With that in mind here are my observations from an opening weekend to remember....

I actually love the thought of the Tour starting with a road stage and no prologue. The whole idea of the TT at the start seems to have been to split up the field a little before the opening road race. With everyone not on the same time you should have less danger as people sprint for the first stage and yellow jersey. 

This year the crash on the opening day wasn't really due to any added pressure of a yellow jersey, and so good was the stage the organisers gave everyone the same time so we could do it all again on the Sunday...

The Greenedge bus managed to get stuck under the finish line and spawn two spoof Twitter accounts within an hour. You can look back and laugh about it now I suppose, but Geraint Thomas and Tony Martin will be less amused having come down heavily in the resulting carnage as riders sought to sprint it out at 3km and then back at the finish. 

Chris Froome was the star turn of the second day showing that the new Team Sky approach might not now be to bore everyone into submission by being too good in the time trials and having superior domesitques in the mountains who can set a pace too high for attacks. 

The Kenyan Englishman flew off the front of the peloton (or 'nose as Carlton Kirby insists on calling it) as they crested the final third category climb before chasing Cyril Gautier down the other side. This rare show of aggression by a GC contender in the opening stages of a Tour de France bodes well for the next three weeks. 

...or Froome is feeling bad and is bluffing by attacking. 

Time will tell.