This years TDF has not disappointed when it comes to drama. Whether it's about sprinters on the flat stages or GC contenders on the mountains, with just 9 days in - there are all sorts of things to talk about.
We've seen a nice verity of stages in this first 9 days. We started with a time trial, some flat sprint stages and a couple mountain stages. The organizers did a good job to make sure that fans of most disciplines enjoy something.
Cav vs. Sagan. This is one of the big stories from the first week. On a sprinters stage, on first glance, it looked like Sagan elbows Cavendish and crashes him in the final sprint. However looking over the video at other angles and at slow motion, you are able to see that Cav was trying to fit in a space between Sagan and the curb/barriers that wasn't there and actually he was the aggressor with a head butt. Sagan's elbow went out as a counterbalance to not crash. However race officials were too quick in making judgement and kicked Sagan (current world champion) out of the race completely. It's a shame that now both Cav (from his crash injuries) and Sagan are out of the race. Guess it opens up the competition for the green jersey now.
Porte has a terrible crash on a descent. My original pick as a winner, Ritchie Port had a horrific crash on the final descent the day before the rest stage. The roads were a little damp from storms the night before and it seems he locked his brakes up, went off the road and was catapulted across the road taking out another possible GC contender - Dan Martin, before slamming into the limestone hill side along the road and breaking his pelvis and collarbone.
Chris Froome is now in yellow, and most of the real threats to his victory are pretty far back already in time.