ANDREW PIERCE: In an interview with student newspaper Varsity in 2002, when he was chairman of the Labour group at Cambridge University, he backed the UK joining the euro.

ANDREW PIERCE: Sunak's bold measures to tackle the economic devastation threatened by the coronavirus has found him allies in unexpected places.

ANDREW PIERCE: Social media posts can be ever so revealing. Who is the unlikeliest fan of ­Labour's new leader Sir Keir Starmer?

ANDREW PIERCE - Trust rust is key when talking about ambitious ministers who might one day fancy a permanent shot at the top job. He may be wooden, but Dominic Raab has Boris Johnson's backing.

ANDREW PIERCE - After her recent letter to the Times, Lady Marland has now left her husband, peer Lord Jonathan Marland with quite a conundrum to deal with regarding his personal wealth.

ANDREW PIERCE: As countries across Europe start to ease themselves out of lockdown, there is a growing recognition in Boris Johnson's Cabinet that it, too, will have to make some hard decisions

ANDREW PIERCE: Most politicians need a brass neck to survive in the Westminster jungle. But former Labour energy minister Lord Truscott is in a league of his own.

ANDREW PIERCE: Sir Keir Starmer managed to find a place in his Shadow Cabinet for onetime 'Continuity Corbyn' candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey.

DANIEL BENSON - EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FOR CYCLINGNEWS.COM: Last Wednesday Chris Froome and the Team Ineos squad arrived in the outskirts of the French commune of Roanne.

Some 24 hours before Team INEOS announced that Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal would start the Tour de France as joint leaders, the cycling team offered their defending champion to the media.

In the same month that Milos Raonic and Felix Auger-Aliassime aim to elevate Canadian tennis to new heights, Michael Woods will ride across France in the hope of making history of his own

Earlier this week news broke that Dimension Data's team principal, Doug Ryder, ignored the recommendation by performance boss Rolf Aldag to include Cavendish in line-up.

Geraint Thomas joked he would be happy with an 'uneventful' Tour de France as long as a Team Ineos rider is stood on the top step in Paris at the end of the month.

The 2019 Tour de France will roll away from the Place Royale in Brussels with the fallout over Mark Cavendish's non-selection by his Dimension Data team continuing to make headlines.

Team Dimension Data head of performance Rolf Aldag has made clear he will stay with the team for the remainder of the Tour de France as the row over Mark Cavendish's non-selection rumbled on.

CHRIS MURPHY IN EPERNAY: Geraint Thomas slipped behind Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal in the Tour de France pecking order on stage three after losing five seconds in Epernay.

CHRIS MURPHY IN NANCY: Elia Viviani won stage four of the Tour de France in a sprint finish in Nancy as Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mate Julian Alaphilippe retained the yellow jersey.

Dylan Groenewegen of Holland - who crashed on the opening day of this Tour de France - took the third stage win of this year's race for the Jumbo-Visma team on Friday.

Geraint Thomas breathed a sigh of relief at the finish of stage eight of the Tour de France after he survived a team pile-up at the bottom of a fast downhill section on the approach to Saint-Etienne.

South African Daryl Impey added an individual stage win to his Tour de France happy memories when he prevailed at the end of a long breakaway from St Etienne on Sunday.

The startling scene was recorded by an onlooker during the ninth stage of the Tour de France from Saint-Etienne to Brioude in central-eastern France.

Geraint Thomas and Team Ineos had every reason to be satisfied as they reached the first rest day of the Tour de France in an enviable position. He is in second place in the general classification.

Valentin Anouilh, 21, spent six months training for the stunt which saw him soar over the heads of the elite riders as they sprinted through a valley near Saint Flour, Auvergne.

The Australian rider pulled out of the race with about 80 kilometers left on Thursday before the two big climbs in Stage 12 following reports of clashes with team officials.

MATT LAWTON IN BAGNERES-DE-BIGORRE: The race for the big prize might have failed to ignite here on the first day in the Pyrenees but there was no shortage of fireworks

Tour de France organisers are looking to launch a women's equivalent of the most prestigious race in men's cycling, they said on Friday.

MATT LAWTON IN PAU: The sight of Julian Alaphilippe rising out of his saddle and powering up the steep ramp that came at the end of this individual time trial is sure to trouble Geraint Thomas .

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.

MATT LAWTON IN FOIX: There was a second stage win for Simon Yates, a first sign of human weakness from Julian Alaphilippe, not to mention further difficulties for Geraint Thomas on Sunday.

MATT LAWTON IN NIMES: The tone was one of defiance; the message that Team Ineos are not dead yet. As Sir Dave Brailsford was quick to point out, they sit second and fifth.

The defending champion came off on a right-hander with around 130km of the 177km stage, which started and finished in Nimes, remaining. He was though soon able to rejoin the race.

Forecasters also predicted new temperatures highs in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, where the mercury is set to reach 104F (40C) for the first time on Thursday.

MATT LAWTON IN NIMES: There is a reluctance in France to imagine how the scenes on the Champs-Elysees might compare to the night of the 1998 World Cup final.

Trentin won by 36 seconds, while there was no change at the top of the general classification, with Julian Alaphilippe still leading ajnd Geraint Thomas trailing by 95 seconds.

MATT LAWTON IN GAP: Team Ineos go into three massive days in the Alps that will determine the outcome of the most mesmerising Tour de France in decades, without captain Luke Rowe.

MATT LAWTON IN VAL THORENS: The 22-year-old Colombian held on to the yellow jersey in stage 20, and is set to be crowned the youngest Tour winner in 110 years.

MATT LAWTON IN PARIS: Brailsford believes Bernal is capable of maintaining the team's dominance of the Tour de France for years to come. At 22, he is the youngest man to win in Paris since 1909.

MATT LAWTON IN PARIS: Wiggins and Thomas believe Team Ineos will continue to dominate the Tour de France with a young Colombian cyclist who could turn out to be the greatest in history.

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.

The 55-year-old cycling coach confirmed in an interview with The Times that he has had surgery on a tumour which doctors discovered after flagging up concerns over blood tests.

Chris Froome has revealed that he does not remember any part of the horrific crash that almost cost him his life during a training ride in May.

The most successful cyclist in history, Eddy Merckx, is in intensive care after falling during a bike ride with friends. He was admitted to Dendermonde hospital in Belgium on Sunday.

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.

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.

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.

We've already seen coronavirus decimate the sporting calendar, with Euro 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics among dozens of events either postponed or cancelled. So what will be the next event to fall?

The legendary road race is scheduled to start in Nice on June 27 but it will now either be postponed or scrapped altogether, with a decision expected later this week.

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.