Tour de france dog

Tour de france dog, The frisky pooch who ran into the road yesterday came within a canine hair of causing a huge, calamitous pile-up and adding to the already significant list of injured riders.

You would think past experience would be enough to teach supporters to keep their pets on a lead as they unleash their excitement.

In 2010, a similarly enthusiastic hound floored David Millar, also on stage 2, meaning he had to ride the remainder of the three weeks to Paris with two broken ribs.

And who can forget Philippe Gilbert's outrage when a careless owner made a dog's dinner of his day on stage 18 of last year's Tour.

Perhaps they should add Tour de France leads to the ever-present merchandise stalls. Or common sense. But that might be more difficult to market.

At least unlike the opening stage, the day passed without further incident, other than the rather unexpected victory of Tour debutant Jan Bakelants, who confounded the norm by holding off the chasing pack

And so to the last day before the peloton heads to mainland France. There will be a collective sigh of relief if the riders make it to Nice in one piece.

As Cadel Evans tweeted earlier: "Last day here in Corsica; beautiful place to visit, tough to race at..."

And there's sure to be another tough day ahead, albeit one that's shorter than usual because of the post-race cross-water transfer.

There isn't a single kilometre of flat along the roads of North West Corsica today, so the pure sprinters will expect to be spat out the back.

Will it be the day that Peter Sagan wrests back the green jersey he took to Paris last year?

Mark Cavendish will be hoping the answer is no, not only because of his points ambition, but because Omega Pharma - Quick-Step will be hoping to turn around their Tour fortunes and may well feel it's a day for Sylvain Chavanel.

After the somewhat surprising stage winners so far, there's no nailed-on favourite today. Expect to see Simon Gerrans have a go though, if only to get Orica GreenEDGE back in the headlines for the right reason.

We knew we were in for a day of drama on day one of the Tour de France, but no-one could have predicted it would unfold in quite the way it did.

As media colleagues dashed from the press tent in a fit of frenzy while the peloton was still some 10kms from the finish, something told me they weren't scrapping to snap the passing publicity caravan.

The fact that a team bus managed to get wedged under the finish line arch was met with mixed reaction. While I tweeted it was something of a 'disaster', others found it more than a little amusing. The common undercurrent though, was one of disbelief.

How that affected the race outcome is open to conjecture, but stage favourite Mark Cavendish was adamant the ensuing confusion caused the crash which floored his dreams of yellow along with a substantial portion of the peloton.

Team boss Brian Holm was typically sardonic when chatting to me about the incident later. "Rubbish things happen", or less family-friendly words to that effect, before stating unequivocally "we will win" (the green jersey). As team- mate Jerome Pineau said, when Mark Cavendish doesn't win, he comes back twice as strong. They may be down, literally in the unfortunate case of Tony Martin, but they're far from out.

As for Team Sky, they didn't survive unscathed, but after some concern over Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas, X-rays showed the British pair emerged bones intact.

While team leader Chris Froome had to change bikes in the neutralized part of the race, in the words of team mate Peter Kennaugh, the day could have been much worse.

So the main contenders live to ride another day. It's a day that should be fast and furious once again, though not one for the pure sprinters.

After yesterday it would be a risky endeavour to attempt to predict what will happen. The riders will certainly be hoping there will be fewer risks on the roads.