Yesterday's stage through the mountains of Cantal saw a great individual solo win by Greg Van Avermaet, who finished over five minutes ahead of the peloton to take over Yellow from Peter Sagan with a comfortable margin over Julian Alaphilippe, currently the best Young Rider. At one point Greg was just over 15 minutes on the peloton, who only really started racing once they hit the mountains with Moviestar setting a high tempo. It was only after the intermediate sprint at Mauriac that the sprinters, including Peter Sagan, started to get dropped.
At the end most of the GC contenders finished together apart from Alberto Contador, who is still suffering from his crashes and lost further seconds to his rivals. He is now 1.27 down on second placed Alaphilippe.
Arpajon-sur-Cère to Montauban (190.5k)
Today's run to Montauban should end in a bunch sprint. This will be the last chance for the sprinters before the finish in Montpellier on 13th July as the Pyrenées now beckon. The finish in Montauban is dead flat so I fancy, unless there are crashes, it will be between Mark Cavendish, André Griepel and Marcel Kittel with an outside chance for Bryan Coquard. It would be good to see Cav get his 29th stage victory!
Greg Van Avermaet will surely hold onto Yellow at least until the end of Saturday's stage to Bagnères de Luchon, which includes the Tourmalet.
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