The winners: Rafal Majka in the polka-dots, Thibaut Pinot in white, Vincenzo Nibali in the all-important yellow and Peter Sagan in green. Photograph: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Highs
The crowds on the opening weekend were something unforgettable:
Jens Voight negotiates the Côte de Buttertubs during stage 1 of the Tour De France from Leeds to Harrogate
The pavé : a mad, brilliant stage, won by a filthy Lars Boom.
Lars Boom celebrates as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 152.5km fifth stage of the Tour de France. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images
This final-stage sprint from Marcel Kittel: Lows
The abandonments of Alberto Contador and Chris Froome . Contador's word of thanks to Michael Rogers before he clambered into the team car on a wet and misty road in the Vosges was a real tearjerker:
A little thank you to Michael Rogers before Contador gets in to team car #itvtour pic.twitter.com/cxzqAsII1u- ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 14, 2014
The moment, 50 yards from the finish in Nîmes, when Jack Bauer was swept up by the sprinters after 221.9km on the break.
New Zealand's Jack Bauer from the Garmin-Sharp team in tears. Photograph: Doug Pensinger
The inability of Peter Sagan to win a stage , whether it was through ill-fortune or naivety.
Peter Sagan looks dejected in Bergerac. Photograph: Tim de Waele/Corbis Heroes
Well, Vincenzo Nibali obviously. The loss of both Contador and Froome might mean that some will see this win as devalued, but such was his brilliance that it is hard to believe he would not have gone on to win it anyway.
Champagne pour @vincenzonibali ! #TDF 🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸 pic.twitter.com/kcwjw592rh- Le Tour de France (@letour) July 27, 2014
During the live blogs we probably typed the name of Martin Elmiger more often than any other. In all the Swiss champion spent over 700km in breakaways. He even followed it up with 13th place in the time trial.
Switzerland's Martin Elmiger, leads Jack Baue on the way to Nîmes. Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP
The injured warriors: Reto Hollenstein , who finished stage 16 despite a punctured lung; Andrew Talansky , who clambered of his bike in agony on stage 11, but then clambered back on and finished the stage in tears of pain; Jakob Fuglsang , whose body was a patchwork of gauze and bandages but who still managed an epic amount of work for Nibali in the mountains.
Andrew Talansky is a picture of pain on stage 11. Photograph: Tim de Waele/Corbis Villains
Silly spectators: in the early stages of the race, particularly, crowd control was a problem.
And whoever was driving this car :
Did Astana employ an unmarked team car to pace Nibali back to Pinot? http://t.co/PTmLu6za36 #insight- Journal Velo (@JournalVelo) July 22, 2014
And you can watch highlights of the whole tour here...
Post By http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/jul/28/tour-de-france-2014-highs-and-lows-heroes-and-villains
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