Eurosport's Carlton Kirby on Great Britain's Tour de Force: It could be our finest hour in cycling

ByDesmond Kane

Updated 12/07/2016 at 11:09 GMT

Eurosport's voice of cycling Carlton Kirby tells Desmond Kane why he is struggling to contain his excitement about what is rapidly becoming the Great British takeover of the world's biggest cycling event.

British dominance has been astonishing

Great Britain is heading for one of the country's greatest performances at this year's Tour de France, if not the greatest.

The Brits have basically owned this Tour. It really has been quite remarkable for a country that’s been regarded rather sniffily by what they call the cycling heartlands of Italy, Spain and France.

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They think they own cycling in terms of Grand Tours, but that all changed when Team Sky arrived on the scene with a scientific approach to the sport six years ago, and started using their own methods which everyone has now adopted to try to catch up.

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British success started on the track and transferred to the road. Bradley Wiggins took that route and so did Mark Cavendish.

It is slightly different for Chris Froome, but it is amazing the cross-over, the willingness to adapt and the success GB has enjoyed so far.

Look at the stage wins. Out of the first nine days, the British have won five stages.

Cavendish won stages one, three and six. Steve Cummings won seven and Froome took eight.

We’ve actually got a British hat-trick on six, seven and eight which is unbelievable.

France have not performed in their biggest sporting event

The French press don’t like it. They haven’t quite woken up to the fact that they’ve messed it up so far.

There has been no French stage winners in the first nine days no matter what they’ve tried.

Thibaut Pinot

Image credit: AFP

Their favourite son Thibaut Pinot has yet to prove he can cope with the mental pressure and the expectation levels. All he is going to get from this Tour is a challenge for the King of the Mountains.

Julian Alaphilippe has had some great success this season, but he’s faded because he’s too young. He’s gone backwards.

Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet are being billed as their main hopes after Pierre Rolland also went pop.

No wonder the French are upset, but they haven’t really woken up to the reality yet because they’ve been too busy watching football.

Will Cavendish see it through to the Champs Elysees?

As far as the Brits are concerned, it has just been amazing. Mark Cavendish has lost his main lead-up in Mark Renshaw, and there has been serious question marks about whether Cavendish himself will go home early to prepare to try to win gold in Rio with Bradley Wiggins.

There is a question mark over whether he will make it to the Champs Elysees. It is for him to decide.

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He could still deliver something magical in this Tour and if he gets another stage win he might go all the way because he is a happy boy.

He is chatting to everyone here and looking very bright. Etixx-QuickStep let him go and are thinking why the hell did they do it?

Dimension Data are thankful they did.

Internecine rivalry part of first week

Of secondary importance, has been the internecine rivalry between the teams which has caused various explosions.

Roman Kreuziger knew that Tinkoff team-mate Alberto Contador wasn’t in great shape after he took his tumble in stages one and two. He went against team orders and said 'I’m the insurance policy' and was told off for it by Sean Yates, the Sports Director.

Chris Froome and Roman Kreuziger

Image credit: AFP

He still has a chance of doing something glorious for Tinkoff, who still have Peter Sagan going for green.

There are question marks over Vincenzo Nibali. Astana said he had to back up Fabio Aru.

Nibali tried to keep his nose in the game on stage nine, but Aru lost minutes. They’ve gone pop as well.

Team Sky star power has winded Movistar

Movistar with Nairo Quintana are completely shocked by the power of Team Sky. This is a team that used Steven Cummings in the engine room, and he was basically just one of many.

Cummings decided to take a pay cut to go to Dimension Data, and has started winning stages on Grand Tours. That shows you the depth and power Team Sky have got.

Cummings was a let go, and is winning stages for another team.

Review of Tour de France first week

Chris Froome is a powerhouse, and it is difficult to see past him winning overall. Quintana has a face of stone, and you never know when he is suffering or ecstatic because he always looks exactly the same.

Alejandro Valverde is his general and is trying to get him into a good position, but it could come down to how he performs on these couple of time trials.

Quintana will keep up when it comes to the mountains.The long time trial on stage 13 is a technical challenge, and once his confidence goes he can be a bit shaky, but I still think Quintana is an amazing challenge for Froome.

When Froome mugged him on stage eight, he beat him on a descent. The organisers have stripped out an early mountain top finish basically to stop Froome taking the yellow jersey too soon.

But he said to himself: “Fair enough there is no mountain finish, I'll beat you on the descent."

He's been busy practicing descending, and he looks amazing. There have been unfair questions marks placed over Chris Froome, and his descending capabilities, but he has never been dropped on a major descent. He’s always kept up.

Everybody is trying to find a chink in Froome’s armour, and for the moment he doesn’t seem to have one.

The time trials will suit him down to the ground.

Dan Martin is saying he won’t be a contender, but he could feature if he goes well in the time trials. That could be joy for Ireland, who he represents.

Daniel McLay's story is a minor miracle

We’ve got some amazing British guys to look out in forthcoming days. We’ve had so much British success that poor Daniel McLay has been ignored, and he has been unbelievable.

If he had been French, he would have been on every front page over here. If we hadn’t had Froome, Cav and Cummings, he would have been the big story.

McLay has been amazing without any real support representing Fortuneo.

Stage six finish: Cavendish edges Kittel again in thrilling finale

On the first day, he finished ninth in a sprint which Cav won. On day three, he finished ninth again before he started to move up.

When Marcel Kittel won stage four, he finished seventh. On stage six which Cav won, McLay finished third. He was the fastest finisher that day. He’s just been stunning.

I want to see how he is going to do on stages 10 and 11.

Froome looks unbeatable, but it's important to keep momentum in second week

Out of the rest day, they climb immediately and are straight up a mountain on stage 10 on Tuesday.

It is a category one with a gentle unwind to a final bump of category three then a sprint to the line.

Cavendish could get his fourth stage win on stage 11 to Montpellier .

With Contador leaving, Chris Froome is even more of a favourite than ever.

The side missiles that could come in to disturb him are only going to come from Richie Porte or Tejay van Garderen.

It is going to be Froome, Quitana and if something goes wrong for those guys, I think Richie Porte is the man.

Britain actually own at the moment, three jerseys. Leading with Froome, they've got the points with Cav and the young rider’s jersey with Adam Yates – three out of four jerseys belong to the Brits. It is absolutely remarkable.

Yates could win the white jersey, Froome could take yellow overall and the polka dot King of the Mountains. If Cav goes all the way, he would have to beat Sagan on points.

It's unlikely, but it's nice to dream, and this has been a dream Tour so far for Great Britain that could yet get better.

Carlton Kirby on Twitter @carltonkirby

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