[ritchiebaby]

I get the feeling it's only Pogacar's to lose now, as he is so far ahead of his serious rivals. Mind you, I thought the same about Roglic last year and he did lose it on the penultimate stage. Only the next three riders are within 5 minutes and the next two weeks should suit him and I did think that he saved himself yesterday for today. Even today, when he was charging after Teuns and Izaguirre, bringing the gap down to less than half a minute, he slackened the pace to a sensible amount avoiding any potential mishaps in the rain. Uran and Carapaz will consider themselves real challengers but UAE will surely look after Pogacar, while still allowing him the freedom to do his own thing.

Mark Cavendish had a quiet day allowing Sonny Colbrelli to make slight inroads into his Green jersey lead. Again, Cavendish will be choosing his stages wisely for maximum return. Wouter Poels scored points at every summit to take the Polka Dot Jersey lead and Simon Yates is starting to look dangerous, but far, far away from the leaders.

For tomorrow, it's a 144.9km stage from Cluses to Tignes and possibly the swansong of one of the world's greatest riders, Peter Sagan. It's no secret I've been a big fan of his for the last 10 years and this a Sagan stage with a sprint after a Category 2 climb. Let's hope he's in the mood to make his mark in a breakaway. There is a theory that tomorrow will be a perfect time for Rigoberto Uran to eat into Pogacar's lead, as Pogacar took a lot out of himself today and Carapaz just about rode himself to a standstill in trying to claw back time. The last 30 km of the stage is almost all uphill, a long slog for tired legs. With a rest day on Monday, somebody will go for it, but who?