A look back - Tour de France 2007

The start of the Tour de France 2007 took place in England commencing with the prologue in central London (Mark finished in 69th place, 52 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara on a short 7.9K course). The following day (Sunday 8 July) the peloton left London to snake through the Garden of England - Kent, coming through North Kent, before heading down to Maidstone and back towards Tunbridge Wells before the sprint finish at Canterbury. The early part of the race saw a breakaway from David Millar - he eventually finished 64th on the stage.

Mark was a favourite for victory that day but a succession of incidents left him to trail home in 186th place - 2:45 down on winner Robbie McEwen. Mark's account of the day can be read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/jul/09/cycling.tourdefrance3

I managed to catch a photo of Mark as the peloton leave Rochester (look for pink T-Mobile jersey in the left of the photo):

Finally, Fred Atkins wrote a thorough and interesting account of the day the Tour came to Kent - "Tour de Kent" which is available here: http://www.dbpublishing.co.uk/buy/tour-de-kent_27492414.htm