Sunday: Liège

The picture of the week: Sunday’s pile-up on a wet roundabout 30km from Liège, a chaotic heap of riders, all arms, legs and scared faces, sliding across a sodden road towards a traffic island. It’s the work of the British freelance Chris Auld, who is covering the Tour from a camper van, and owes something to sheer situational fluke: Auld just happened to stop here because it was the last place where he could get in a shot and still see the finish. By Monday, it is viral, with memes including one in which Romain Bardet, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas et al are superimposed on to Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa. As an image, it ranks with a French photographer’s capturing of Djamolidine Abdoujaparov mid-flight as he fell on the Champs-Élysées in 1991, or John Pierce’s shot of Bernard Hinault, Guido van Calster and Eddy Planckaert launching the sprint in perfect synchrony at Zolder in 1981. The latter stemmed from sheer luck as well as skill; Pierce was not allowed into the finish, so he stood at 300m to go to land the shot of his career.

Tour de France 2017: Marcel Kittel wins stage two, Thomas stays in yellow – as it happened Read more

Monday: Verviers

To the village départ in front of the imposing railway station in the Walloon spa town for a radio interview. The level of security – armoured vehicles, machine guns, searches – is unprecedented, disturbing and utterly justified, as the Tour’s scale makes it uniquely vulnerable, as we have seen time and again over many years. We will proceed for three weeks with fingers crossed and watchful eyes.

Tuesday: Vittel

Leaving Luxembourg for France – this Tour’s fourth country in four days – the race passes Schengen, famous for the eponymous border agreement signed in 1985 between Germany, France and the Benelux Countries. It’s a brief flashback to the 1992 “European Unity” Tour, which visited every one of France’s neighbours. A lifetime ago, particularly if you are British.

Wednesday: Mondorf-les-Bains

Mark Cavendish out of Tour and Peter Sagan disqualified after horror crash Read more

Peter Sagan, right, waves farewell, after Tuesday’s DQ for dangerous sprinting, but he is far from the only one to be thrown off in controversial circumstances over the years. A random list, ignoring doping and sprinting – 2015: Eduardo Sepúlveda, getting a car for a short distance. 2000: Jeroen Blijlevens, walloping Bobby Julich (this occurred on the Champs-Élysées, which is like giving a red card at the end of added time).1991: the aviophobe Urs Zimmermann, for driving a lengthy transfer rather than taking the plane booked by the organisers. Zimmermann was reinstated following a strike by his fellow riders. No such luck for Sagan, whose appeal fails.

Thursday: Aix-en-Othe

Philippa York’s coming out makes headlines overnight. Appositely – and coincidentally - we are staying outside the Champagne city that was Robert Millar’s home in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Back in 1990, we went mountain biking in this distinctive, quiet countryside for a Cycling Weekly interview that began our working relationship. Millar taught me much about cycling over many years, and York now has plenty of lessons to deliver about stuff that matters more in the wider world.

Friday: Nuits-Saint-Georges

Kittel wins Tour de France stage seven after photo-finish with Boasson Hagen Read more

At the start, gendarmes are breathalysing drivers in the caravan. The “why” (as Sergio Leone’s bandit Cheyenne would put it) becomes clear when we get to the finish in one of the most celebrated Burgundy wine towns, where a sumptuous selection of the local produce awaits in the press buffet. Like the commissaires with Sagan, the gendarmes are sending out a very obvious warning.

Saturday: Dole

The flat road domestiques have a sudden change of priority: after a week spent keeping breakaways within reach of the peloton and pulling their sprinters to the finish, it is survival time for them as the Tour hits the mountains. That probably will not come as a relief to Marcel Kittel’s chief helper Julien Vermote. The Belgian Quick-Step rider is estimated to have spent 700 of the Tour’s 1227km up to this morning making the pace on the front.