Yesterday Peter Sagan racked up his third 2016 TDF stage win beating Alexander Kristoff, who appeared confused about where the finishing line was, by just a few centimetres. This win takes Sagan's overall total of Tour de France stage wins to seven.
Despite the tricky and hectic finish into Bern, there were no changes to the overall times of the GC contenders.
Rest Day: Bern
Today is the second rest day in the Tour – a time to relax and prepare for four tough, crucial Alpine stages, which will decide the winner.
Chris Froome with a lead of 1'.47 over Bauke Mollema, his nearest rival, and a very strong team remains handily placed. He has nearly three minutes over Nairo Quintana seen as his biggest rival and only eight riders are within five minutes. Froome has yet to show any weakness. However, in 2013 and 2015 when he won the Tour he was not at his best in the final week.
Peter Sagan looks to have won the Green Jersey for the 5th time as he now has 405 points to Mark Cavendish's 291. Rafa Majka leads the Polka Dot with 127 points to Thomas de Gendt's 90. This is a decent lead but there are still plenty of mountain points to come, so it is not yet decisive. Adam Yates continues to hold the White Jersey (best young rider) with 3'03 over Louis Meintjes. Meintjes is his only serious rival as third placed, Warren Barguil, is at 16'30.
As ever, here we are in July and Jim's Loire becomes Jim's Tour De France - but I am used to that now, Jim and I even find that I am reading the Times' coverage of the Tour [after reading the cricket coverage of course], particularly in relation to Mark Cavendish, whom I was sorry to see has just left the tour, but I think we would all we did love to see him win Olympic gold.
ReplyDeleteSo there we are; I read the blog because of wine and end up enjoying the coverage of cycling. All power to your journalism,
Graham