10 memorable moments

David Duffield will be in the British Eurosport studio for the duration of the tour so we have added our favourite Duffield-isms to some famous moments.

France were ready to celebrate a third Tour victory for their local hero in 1989 as he entered the final stage, a 25km time trial, 50 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Greg Lemond. The American used tri-bars to enable a new and more aerodynamic riding position and a new type of teardrop-shaped aerodynamic helmet. Fignon opted for a more Corinthian approach - normal road handlebars, no helmet, a sore derriere thanks to saddle sores and just for good measure a ponytail which also created additional drag. The result being he lost 58 seconds and the yellow jersey in the most dramatic finale in race history. If only the Tele Savalas look was popular in Gallic culture.

Duffers view: "Silence. David literally fell off his chair in shock when the final time check came up"

Fact One: Djamolidine Abdoujaparov of Uzbekistan fits exactly on one line of a teletext page. Fact Two: The three-time green jersey winner lent his name to a psuedo punk band led by a bloke called Fruitbat. Fact Three: Abdou was a manic sprinter who made Jean-Paul van Poppel look like he was taking sedatives. The Tashkent Terror's most infamous moment came on the final stage in 1991 when he decided not to look where he was going when bombing along the Champs-Élysées at 35mph. The result - he collided with a giant inflatable Coke can and was somersaulted into the air. As he had to cross the line to win the points jersey, his team-mates picked him up, put him back on his bike and saw Abdou ride slowly over the line with the medics walking along on either side of him ready to catch him in case he fell.

Duffers view: "Turn your granny to the wall"

It takes three weeks to win the Tour de France but it only takes a second to lose it. Between 1999 and 2005, no-one could match Lance Armstrong on the bike. Indeed the closest he came to losing his grip on the yellow jersey was on a dramatic Bastile Day in 2003. Inside the final 10km and the lead riders are on a rapid descent into Gap - disaster strikes for Joseba Beloki whose rear wheel disintegrates on a road surface that was reported to be 50 degrees celsius, resulting in a broken femur, elbow and wrist. Armstrong was following immediately and showed incredible bike handling to avoid the Spaniard, going through the underbrush and across a small field before dismounting and rejoining the lead group.

Duffers view: "Beloki has come a box of tricks"

When you are leading on the most fabled mountain climb in the Tour de France and within touching distance of the biggest victory of your career, having suffered the pain of a 13.8 km climb and 21 hairpin bends at an average gradient of 8.1%, the last thing you want to see is a teenage German adjusting his zoom two feet from your face. But that's just what happened to Giuseppe Guerini on Alpe d'Huez in 1999 when he was cleared out by "Erik the Photographer" inside the final kilometre. The startled Italian managed to get up and hold off Pavel Tonkov. Later that same evening, the unlucky photographer visited Guerini in his hotel to apologise.

Duffers view: "Lock that man up and throw away the key"

The second Saturday stage of 1996 was one of the most remarkable in Tour history. With millions of his compatriots watching on television, the yellow jersey Stephane Heulot abandons on the mist-wreathed climb of the Cormet-de-Roseland, citing tendinitis in his right knee which he lubricated with a flood of tears. On the descent, Belgian Johan Bruyneel crashes and falls 40 feet down a ravine! He managed to clamber back up to the road, complete the stage and become Discovery Channel team manager. And then on the final climb of Les Arcs, Miguel Indurain snaps for the first time in five years as the Spaniard, seeking a record sixth consecutive win, trails home three minutes behind. Phew!

Duffers view: "Indurain is dying a thousand deaths, the man with the hammer has got him"

On stage 16 last year, the American, wearing the yellow jersey, bonked - the cycling term where you don't eat enough on a stage - on the final ascent up La Toussuire, losing ten minutes and dropping to eleventh place on the general classification. The following day saw the final major mountain stage of the race and Landis stunned the cycling world with a 128.5km solo breakaway to win the stage by nearly six minutes from Carlos Sastre to set up his overall victory in Paris. He attacked on the first of the day's five climbs and "literally" never looked back for an incredible win. Not that incredible when it was revealed a week later that his urine sample had nearly three times the testosterone limit allowed by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

Duffers view: "He's riding himself to a standstill"

If not the most entertaining but certainly the most symbolic stage in recent memory came in 1998 when on the 17th stage the riders staged a go-slow protest. Just days after the Festina team had been expelled after the revelation of widespread doping, the peloton had the temerity to complain about a police raid at the hotel where Dutch team TVM was staying. They stopped for 20 minutes before continuing without their jersey numbers and then symbolically allowed the TVM team to cross the line together with hands linked - two-and-a-half hours after the scheduled finish. Suffice to say the amount of riders who staged that protest who have subsequently failed doping tests require more than the fingers on five hands to count.

Duffers view: "Nothing has happened for the thick end of 90 miles"

Three riders have lost their life during the race, the last of which was Fabio Casartelli in 1995. The Italian crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees at nearly 60mph, hitting his head on a stone. Whilst being transported via helicopter to a local hospital, he stopped breathing and after numerous resuscitation attempts was declared dead. The riders rode the following day in a closed formation as a mark of respect and allowed Casartelli's Motorola teammates to lead the pack in to the finish, crossing the finish line side by side. The Société du Tour de France and the Motorola team have placed a memorial stone dedication to Casartelli on the spot where he crashed.

As the riders hurtled towards the finishing line at the end of stage one in 1994, a member of Armentières' local constabulary thought he could take leave of his station and take a photo of the onrushing sprint. He didn't take into account that Wilfried Nelissen didn't use to look where he was going in the mad dash to the line and the Novémail rider promptly cleaned out the gormless copper. Nelissen was hospitalised with concussion but it was Laurent Jalabert who was the most unfortunate rider - he could not avoid the bodies and bicycles and crashed resulting in two broken cheekbones and an expensive dentist bill which I hope was forwarded to "Chief Wiggum, Armentières".

Duffers view: "Sackcloth and ashes"

The Tour should mean over 90 hours of hard labour in the saddle. For Chris Boardman the 1995 race lasted less than nine minutes. The Brit won the prologue 12 months earlier and went on to hold the yellow jersey for three days but any chances of a repeat went out of the window when despite appalling wet conditions he opted to ride his hi-tech Lotus time trial bike. He was clocked at 75kph down a hill just before he crashed on a bend and went into the barriers. He fractured his left ankle and right arm, putting him out of the race almost before it had begun. The Merseysider and the Infirmary room were no strangers, three years later he was knocked unconscious after hitting a wall on stage two in Ireland.

Duffers view: "He goes round corners like a fifty pence piece"