With all of yesterday’s tragic news, the murder of ninety teenagers in Norway, the death of Amy Winehouse it seems strange that the thing that got me nearest to tears was this series if tweets from David Millar (@millarmind)

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
In team car being driven to hotel. Chatting to VdV & spot cyclist on autoroute ahead, dressed in full Europcar kit.
Looks oddly familiar.Chat stops, tell car to slow. As we pass have time to look into eyes of a tired and broken Voeckler. Tragic doesn’t come close to describe.

Sometimes the scale of the tragedy is too big for me to fully comprehend, as in the case of the Norwegian killings. Don’t misunderstand me, I am fully aware of the pain and sorrow that the families and friends of all those killed, indeed the Norwegian nation, are going through, it is just that I can’t take it in. Amy Winehouse had a fine voice, but I wasn’t a great fan of hers. Her death left me feeling that it was tragic, but somehow inevitable.

So why did this little vignette get to me. I don’t know any of the participants (David Millar, Christian VandeVelde or Thomas Voeckler), but every night for the past fortnight I have watched Thomas Voeckler ride his heart out to keep hold of the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France. (You can read my posts about it here.) It just seemed unbearably sad, that after all his efforts he was riding on his own back to, I hope, his team hotel.