MATT LAWTON ON THE COL DU TOURMALET: Owner of Ineos Jim Ratcliffe must have sat in the team car on Saturday afternoon and wondered if he had just bought a cycling team in decline.

The 34-year-old suffered multiple broken bones after he collided with a wall during this year's event, but is ahead in his recovery and is targeting next year's race as a potential return date.

Chris Froome is back in hospital again after cutting his thumb with a kitchen knife. Froome's hopes of a record-equalling fifth Tour title this year were ended in violent fashion in June when he crashed heavily.

Chris Froome is due to compete in the end-of-season Saitama Creiterium, which will be his first race since suffering a horror crash at the Criterium du Dauphine in June.

Tour de France organisers put a spring in the step of the climbers after unveiling the 2020 route featuring a mountain stage on the second day and one time trial on the eve of the final Champs Elysees parade.

Chris Froome's comeback from career-threatening injuries gathered pace in Paris as the four-time Tour de France winner targeted victory in next year's race.

Froome posted a picture on social media following the operation, restating his goals of getting back to full fitness in time for next summer's Tour de France and the Olympic road race in Japan.

Nine months after his career almost ended in a bone-splintering crash into a French garden wall, Froome's comeback to cycling gets going in the desert setting of the UAE Tour on Sunday.

DAVID COVERDALE IN BERLIN: All riders in the race, including four-time Tour de France champion Froome, were in lockdown in their Abu Dhabi hotel rooms and were awaiting testing for the disease.

Holding the Olympics in empty stadiums (Shizuoka velodrome pictured today) could be the best way to avoid calling it off completely, UK Cycling chief Stephen Park has claimed.

Team Ineos sporting director Nicolas Portal has tragically passed away at the age of 40. A statement from Team Ineos said that the Frenchman died at his home in Andorra on Tuesday afternoon.

Team INEOS has announced they are pulling out of all racing until the Volta a Catalunya on March 23.

The 2020 Tour de France is under threat of cancellation as professional cycling around the world, like so many other major sports, grinds to a halt because of the spread of Coronavirus.

The Tour has not been cancelled since 1946 when France was recovering from the War but has now been cancelled is in its 107th year after France's lockdown extension.

Chris Froome called the rescheduling of the Tour de France a 'light at the end of the tunnel' after it was postponed for two months rather than scrapped.

Chris Froome has thanked French doctors for helping him get back on his bike after a horror crash last year left him with a broken leg. He posted a training video to Instagram on Thursday.

The iconic climbs of this year's Tour de France will have to be fan-free if the organisers are to stage a 2020 edition despite the coronavirus crisis, a task Chris Froome is sceptical of being possible.

On Wednesday, Boris was spotted in a Tesco Express in Islington, close to his former marital home. Rucksack on back, crumpled as ever, he was in a hurry and, according to a witness.

JANE FRYER: The Stroud climate change march started yesterday with just one man who arrived early and waited patiently under the anti-slavery arch in this staunchly liberal Gloucestershire town.

Roald was plagued by the feeling he had let his 'favourite child' down after Olivia contracted measles encephalitis, writes JANE FRYER. The first vaccine was licensed the following year in the U.S.

During an alarmingly meandering and sweary after-dinner speech for online LGBT newspaper PinkNews earlier this month, Dawn Butler declared that almost all giraffes were gay.

JANE FRYER: John Richards has impressively bushy eyebrows, two children, a grandchild, an amicably divorced wife, a passion for detective novels and a vast, exacting brain.

The Rev Chris is the hottest thing in the Church of England right now. Not just in terms of his fame - he has more than 117,000 Instagram followers and is a massive hit on YouTube channels.

With panic-buying leaving empty shelves on supermarket floors, the Daily Mail has gone to the UK's biggest loo roll factory, Essity in Manchester, to see if its ready to meet demand.

JANE FRYER visited Emily Duncan, 42, and her husband, Henry, who live in Dumfries and Galloway. They own a flock of Valais Blacknose sheep, which have hairy black faces and comically fluffy coats.

JANE FRYER: Every weekend and holiday, Cameron Newham is out from dawn to dusk, in rain, sun, hail and biting winds, fulfilling his quest to photograph England's rural parish churches.

A.N WILSON: Pays tribute to wine connoisseur Auberon Waugh in time for the republish of the 1980s Waugh On Wine - where Auberon says wine should have 'bizarre side-tastes' including rotting wood.

Prince Albert's cruel notes to Queen Victoria shatter their mythic love story - he called her 'my child' and cut her down - saying 'I feel the dreadful waste of most precious time, and of energies' with her.

A.N. WILSON: Peter Phillips' tacky and absurd milk advertisement, reported in yesterday's Daily Mail, has provoked understandable laughter and contempt.

Theresa May's radical plans for tackling the crisis was a big mistake, but she was right to identify provision of social care in our ageing society as one of the greatest challenges facing the country.

There is no hiding from the truth. This was a dreadful night for the Conservatives, Brexit and a future for this country that had looked remarkably bright.

What on Earth do Tory Remoaners think they are playing at? Don't they realise that by courting Labour support they could sink their party – and hand the keys of No 10 to Jeremy Corbyn?

Having ruined his own legacy with Project Fear, David Cameron has treacherously suggested that there will be 'pressure for a soft Brexit' following last week's election result. Has he no shame?

The similarities between the Grenfell fire and Lakanal House, which caught fire in 2009 (pictured), are frightening - yet it seems lessons were not learned by those who should be protecting us.

But though the perpetrator of this ghastly crime may have different coloured skin from the others, their motivation was the same – to sow hate and division in our tolerant society.

The decision of consumer goods giant Unilever to abandon plans for the relocation of its corporate headquarters from London to Rotterdam is a spectacular victory on every conceivable level.

Loyalty and respect were not in evidence yesterday, as hard-line Tory Brexiteers turned on UK Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured) in a deeply unedifying display of petulant defiance.

Businesses were exultant. Billions of pounds in investment funds, kept on hold while uncertainty prevailed, seemed about to be unleashed. The pound perked up and share prices rose.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: As British MPs prepare to vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, their choice is simple: provide the certainty the nation yearns for – or lead us into a dark and hazardous unknown.

Make no mistake, this is a catastrophic defeat. Indeed, in living memory, it is an unparalleled embarrassment for a serving British premier.

So this is it. We have arrived at the moment when Parliament can finally end this Brexit purgatory. Alternatively, they could continue to put petty politics before the national interest.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: The FA leadership will have an unlikely say in the appointments of the new chief executive and chairman of the Premier League.

CHARLES SALE: Sky Sports’ purchase of the new Nations League rights from UEFA is seen as a strong sign that they plan to bid to regain the Champions League next year.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: An FA council meeting on October 24 looks like being pivotal to the proposed £600million sale of Wembley to Fulham owner Shahid Khan.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: Kevin Pietersen was one of only four former England team-mates who did not participate in a video tribute to Alastair Cook this week.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: The troubled Hundred format on which the England Cricket Board are placing so much importance is facing a critical fortnight.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: One of the longest contracts in sport is complicating the FA’s plan to bring the England players’ commercial operation in-house.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: The Premier League are set to bankroll the Professional Footballers Association for another three years despite concern over Gordon Taylor's control.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: BBC are making significant changes to their flagship Sports Personality of the Year programme that turned into a shambles in Liverpool last year.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis will face serious questioning from fans on Sunday about the fiasco surrounding his future at the club.