The TDF has been in the UK for the past two days and it seems everyone has gone mad, once again !!! What is it about the Brits that gives them this capacity to put on an event ?? I don’t know what it is, but I wish you could bottle it and sell it abroad !! And the wackiest things are going on – dyed lamas and sheep in the colours of the Tour jerseys, cheese sculpted into bike shapes … it is all so quirky and yes, so British !!

Watching the finish in Harrogate yesterday, I apparently screamed when Mark Cavendish went down, although I still don’t remember doing it !! My family members were witnesses !! I so wanted him to win, along with all my fellow countrymen, I am sure.

My nephew, Jamie, is living the dream today. We were all brought up on a diet of bikes and cycle races as my Dad was a keen cyclist all through my “yoof”. Dad has passed the bug on to Jamie who is now 23. For a while Jamie worked in Halfords in their Bike Hut department and through contacts made there, he has been invited to follow the Tour around in a team car during the stages in GB. He is just in seventh heaven and we are all so pleased for him. Way to go, Jamie !!

I know how I shall be spending this wet Sunday afternoon. Watching the Tour de France on the TV in July is synonymous with the holidays for me. And as it is raining, I can’t be out in my deckchair, so this is a pretty good alternative !!