La Grand Boucle is underway

The last week, and the start of July marks the start of the greatest sporting event of the year: the Tour de France.

For as many days as I can, I will be sat on the sofa watching the full day's coverage from start to finish.

La Grand Boucle means the "great loop" which describes the route around France, whether it's a clockwise or an anticlockwise year.

Here's this year's route, which started with the Grand Depart in Denmark this time round.

For the final week of the tour I will actually be in Paris for the IGU I realised latterly. I hope that the city will have lots of exciting TdF memorabilia and banners ready for the arrival of the Champs Elysees.

I'm leaving on the Friday and the finale is on the Sunday of that week. Not ideal timing I guess as it would have been better to stay on...

Here's my fantasy cycling team, minus a few adjustments.

I have done quite well, with two stage wins and a 2nd place.

Here's the soundtrack of the race...