Tour Riders amazed by UK crowds but ask for more space

The Tour de France had never seen anything like it. Stage one of the Grand Depart in Yorkshire had surpased everyone's expectations as hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the roadside for the opening stage.

Estimates are always amusingly unreliable, but this time the figure of two million sounded about right. The number of people at the side of the road surprised even the most experienced DS's in the team cars while the fanparks were full to bursting.

After the stage riders took to Twitter to both thank the fans, but also ask them to give them some space after a nervous day of near misses.