21-07-2017, 01:09
It's that man Warren Barguil again, as he triumphed with a breakaway move on the Izoard, overtaking the other solo leaders, Alexei Lutsenko and then Darwin Atapuma in the last 6km. Barguil won by 20 seconds ahead of Atapuma, Romain Bardet and Chris Froome with Rigoberto Uran a further 2 seconds behind. Although well-placed for a long time, Alberto Contador fell back late on to finish 10th.
Bardet's 4 second time bonus narrowed Froome's GC lead to 23 seconds, but it's surely too little, too late. Uran slipped back to 29 seconds behind. Mikel Landa is 4th 1m 36s adrift ahead of Fabio Aru, who slipped back again to 1m 55s behind. Warren Barguil confirmed his position as King Of The Mountains today, and all things being equal, will be crowned in Paris on Sunday. Michael Matthews is virtually certain to be the Points Winner in Paris as well, being 160 points ahead of Andre Greipel with only 160 points available.
The longest stage of the Tour takes place tomorrow with 222.5 km heading south-west between Embrun and Salon-de-Provence, home of the reigning world champion aerobatics team. There are 2 Category 3 climbs early on, favouring a breakaway or two, then an uphill intermediate sprint and another Category 3 climb 45 km from the fairly flat finish. There will be the usual cat and mouse games involving the Top 5 GC contenders and there might not be a great deal of interest in chasing a breakaway for the sprinters to take over, although the stage is perfectly set up for that. I'll go for another breakaway win, expecting a few riders being given free licence to do their own thing - Steve Cummings, Lilian Calmejane and Maciej Bodnar spring to mind.
Bardet's 4 second time bonus narrowed Froome's GC lead to 23 seconds, but it's surely too little, too late. Uran slipped back to 29 seconds behind. Mikel Landa is 4th 1m 36s adrift ahead of Fabio Aru, who slipped back again to 1m 55s behind. Warren Barguil confirmed his position as King Of The Mountains today, and all things being equal, will be crowned in Paris on Sunday. Michael Matthews is virtually certain to be the Points Winner in Paris as well, being 160 points ahead of Andre Greipel with only 160 points available.
The longest stage of the Tour takes place tomorrow with 222.5 km heading south-west between Embrun and Salon-de-Provence, home of the reigning world champion aerobatics team. There are 2 Category 3 climbs early on, favouring a breakaway or two, then an uphill intermediate sprint and another Category 3 climb 45 km from the fairly flat finish. There will be the usual cat and mouse games involving the Top 5 GC contenders and there might not be a great deal of interest in chasing a breakaway for the sprinters to take over, although the stage is perfectly set up for that. I'll go for another breakaway win, expecting a few riders being given free licence to do their own thing - Steve Cummings, Lilian Calmejane and Maciej Bodnar spring to mind.
Cabbage is still good for you