AN estimated five million people took to the paths, fields and hills of Yorkshire, Cambridge and London to view the Tour de France pass through England.

Some 100,000 crammed into York to cheer on the Peloton as it simultaneously provided an enormous boost to the local economy, raised the profile of the region across the whole world and hopefully inspired a generation of young riders to start nagging parents for a new bike for Christmas!

After what Tour director Christian Prudhomme called the “Grandest Grand Depart” left Yorkshire, the race headed on to Cambridge for Stage 3, which culminated in a finish on the Mall before the race returned home to France.

After the repeated, short and murderously steep climbs of Stage 2, the 3rd day gave the Peloton a chance to get its breath back and represented a chance for German sprinter and Stage 1 winner Marcel Kittel to get back to winning ways.

The big man had the kind of day you’d expect a muscle-bound 13 stone-plus rider to have when confronted with 25% gradients and he lost nearly 20 minutes on the leaders. The run into London, however, with its flat profile and slight downhill finish was made for Kittel who duly took the sprint finish with relative ease.

Day 4 took the race over the Channel for another flat and relatively short 160km between Le Touquet and Lille. The stage was injected with a bit of early drama as overall race favourite and Team Sky leader Chris Froome took a nasty tumble leaving a fair amount of skin and lycra on the road.

Froome bounced back up fairly quickly and received medical treatment (at 25mph!) from the race Doctor. A fall is bad at any time but with only 24 hours to go before the race hit the notorious cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix Spring Classic this was particularly unfortunate.

French favourite Tommy Voeckler got himself into a 2-man breakaway but with another fast finish to come his chances of staying away were non-existent as the sprint-teams got themselves organised. For the second day running, Marcel Kittel was favourite to make it 3 wins out of 4 and the Giant-Shimano rider didn’t disappoint, winning by half a wheel from Katusha rider Alexander Kristoff.

When the 2014 Tour route was announced, Chris Froome and the other overall classification contenders all tried to put a bit of a brave face on when their worst fears were confirmed; that Stage 5 would take them across the shake, rattle and roll of the cobbles of northern France.

If Mark Cavendish’s race ending crash on Day 1 highlighted anything, it’s that all it takes is one slip of a wheel to bring a season’s hopes to a bitter end. Events on Wednesday not only highlighted this fact further, they underlined it and lit it up in neon. Froome was just one of a number of riders hitting the deck on the rain-soaked streets, but he was by far the highest profile casualty. Regardless of whether you are a Team Sky fan or not, the sight of a distraught Froome climbing into the team car was heartbreaking, the cumulative effect of falls hammering a body more suited to the climbs of the Alps and Pyrenees.

The peloton was broken into pieces as the cobbles took their toll on weary limbs and nervous hearts. Traditional hardmen such as Lars Boom, Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan jockeyed for the stage win whilst Italian champion Vincenzo Nibali sought to put time into his overall classification rivals such as Alberto Contador and Andrew Talansky.

Team Belkin’s Lars Boom, a big strong Dutchman used to riding on the harsh roads of northern Europe, broke clear over the last section of cobblestones to take a maiden Tour stage win. Highly fancied Alberto Contador was looking at a 2 minute plus time gap on Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome was left rueing what might have been. But the Tour de France moves on without pity or remorse, not caring who it leaves behind…and that’s what makes it so compelling.

Thursday’s stage 6 should have been a less tense affair but still brought about the end of the race for further riders on slippery roads and with high cross winds causing a few teams problems. Still, another flat finish and another win for a German sprinter, this time Andre Greipel taking the honours with Marcel Kittel and his Giant Shimano team possibly feeling the effects of Wednesday’s cobbles.

The coming week will see the race head South into France and up into the high mountains with Alberto Contador hoping to make up time on race leader Vincenzo Nibali, whilst Richie Porte of Team Sky will hope to prove he can step out of Chris Froome’s shadow. Monday’s stage provides the first major summit finish so expect the big contenders to make a move here.