#TDF2015: Chris Froome wins Tour for 2nd time – André Griepel wins in Paris

André Griepel wins for first time in Paris 

Chris Froome wins 2nd Tour de France 

Many congratulations to Chris Froome and to the Sky team on winning his second Tour de France. Also congratulations to André Griepel on winning on the Champs-Elysées yesterday. The first time he has won there and his fourth stage win in this 2015 edition of the Tour. 

I was out riding my bike along the Thames today to Dartford, so my look back at the Tour will appear tomorrow. 

#TDF2015: winning Pinot on L'Alpe d'Huez, Froome wins Tour + Cav or Griepel today?

 Stage 20: the top 23 headed by Thibaut Pinot

Stage 20: Chris Froome wins 2015 Tour – the top 23 overall
Nairo Quintana 2nd, Alejandro Valverde 3rd

Yesterday was an exciting stage with Chris Froome really pushed by Nairo Quintana. Apparently Froome has been suffering from a chesty cold since the rest day in Gap, so the climb up to L'Alpe d'Huez trying to limit his time loss to Quintana was really hard. With a great attack Quintana managed to reduce his deficit to Froome to 1.12. He couldn't, however, prevent Chris Froome from winning the Tour for a second time as today's stage will be a procession into Paris with only the sprinters involved in a final gallop up the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. 

Thibaut Pinot rescued his Tour with a fine stage win on top of L'Alpe d'Huez to make up for his disappointing showing earlier on in the Tour. Vincenzo Nibali was very unlucky to get a puncture at the base of the climb up the Alpe, which meant that his chance to get on the podium in Paris disappeared.  

The other jersey competitions have also now been decided: 

Mountains – Polka Dot: Chris Froome 

There is one point available on Stage 21 into Paris but this will change nothing as Chris Froome leads Nairo Quintana by 11 points.   

Points – Green: Peter Sagan 

Peter Sagan has again dominated the Points Competition, especially in the latter stages of the race. He leads André Griepel by over 100 points and cannot be caught even if he scores no points today. 

Young Rider: Nairo Quintana 

Nairo Quintana has a comfortable lead of 14.48 over Romain Bardet, the leading French rider. Although overall the French riders have not finished as high up the General Classification as they did last year, there is hope for the future with three French riders in the top four of this competition albeit that Warren Barguil and Thibaut Pinot are over 37 minutes down on Quintana.  

 

Stage 21: Sèvres-Gpso to Paris Champs-Élysées 109.5 kms

   

Today's stage will be a procession until the peloton reaches the Champs-Élysées when the sprinters will come out to play. The question will be how much did the mountains take out of them?

Although both André Griepel and Mark Cavendish both have weakened lead out teams, I still expect it will be between these two for the victory. Although Cav has lost Mark Renshaw, his lead out man, Mark is adept at going freestyle and knows the finish well having won here four times. Furthermore he has won here before without Renshaw. Peter Sagan will be up there but it would be a major surprise if he manages to win in Paris.  

#TDF2015: Vincenzo Nibali saves his Tour – Quintana's last chance today

The Tour in the Alps finally sprang into full life yesterday with Sky and Chris Froome finally put under pressure, while Vincenzo Nibali saved his Tour with a fine solo win. With a late attack Nairo Quintana finally managed to take some time out of Chris Froome and is now 2.38 behind. This sets up an potentially exciting final mountain stage but unless Chris Froome has a bad day it will require an epic ride for Quintana to take 2.39 minutes out of Froome today in the stage that finishes atop l'Alpe d'Huez. Although Nibali took 1.14 back from Froome yesterday he is still 6.44 behind, while Chris gained time (1.12) on both Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde. 

Sky will be concerned that their riders appear to be running out of gas at this vital moment. Geraint Thomas had a bad day and came in over 20 minutes down on Nibali and has fallen from 4th place to 15th. Almost the entire Sky Team were dropped on the first climb yesterday and although a number got back on the descent, Froome only had Wouter Poels for support in the final part of the stage. 

The French will have been pleased yesterday with Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot and Pierre Rolland all performing well and finishing with the leaders. Rolland made a long bid for a stage victory but couldn't hold onto Nibali on the final climb. Romaine Bardet has strengthened his place as the leading French rider: in 9th place at 14.08, while Rolland is in 10th at 17.27. 

•••

Stage 20: Modane Valfréjus to l'Alpe d'Huez 110.5 kms

Col de la Croix de Fer

L'Alpe d'Huez

The final showdown is a short 110 kilometre stage with two HC climbs finishing with the famous l'Alpe d'Huez with its hundreds and thousands of spectators lining the hairpin climb to the finishing line. Only Quintana can snatch the Yellow Jersey from Chris Froome. Yesterday he managed to take 32 seconds out of Froome. Will this prove to be too little – too late? Or can Quintana produce an amazing ride today and still win the Tour. It's a very tough ask if Froome doesn't have a bad day. Furthermore Froome as the Yellow Jersey would love to win on L'Alpe d'Huez.

Will Nibali manage to knock Valverde off the podium and take third place? A result that looked highly unlikely until yesterday! Will Bardet stay as the leading Frenchman? We will soon know!  

 

#2015 Tour de France - impressive solo win by Romain Bardet – crunch time today?

 Stage 18: Top 25 on yesterday's stage from Romain Bardet downwards 

 Overall after Stage 18: almost no change in Top 10 except Bardet moves up

2015 Tour de France Stage 18: Bardet wins in St Jean de Maurienne

Romain Bardet's brave first stage win has delighted France bringing them their second stage win in 2015 and helping to make up for the hitherto disappointment that the French riders who did so well last year haven't done as well this year. Some seeming to wilt under the pressure of expectation. Unlike Thibaut, Pinot Bardet is a very fine descender and today's win was built on his descending skills. Bardet (12.52) is now the leading Frenchman overall just ahead of Warren Barguil (13.08).

I had thought that this stage with the long climb of the Col du Glandon and the much touted new hairpin climb – Les Lacets de Montvernier – would shake up the GC. I was wrong as all of the leading GC contenders finished together at St Jean. Les Lacets was spectacular television but wasn't decisive. Of the top ten only Bauke Mollema lost a little time – 19 seconds. Chris Froome was attacked by Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali on the Glandon but although Contador gained more than 30 seconds neither attack stuck. Valverde fell behind at the top of the Glandon but easily got back on during the long descent.

In the final kilometres Froome did look a little less strong than he has throughout this Tour but he finished easily within the GC bunch.

With just two mountain stages left time is now beginning to run out for Nairo Quintana to take the Yellow Jersey from Chris Froome. Today's mountain top finish at the end of a short but very tough stage is clearly an opportunity unless Froome himself decides to attack his rivals and go for another stage win. Should Froome and Quintana finish together it will be difficult but not impossible for Nairo to take the 3 minutes and 11 seconds he needs to win the race.

On the Glandon when there were attacks going off Nairo looked across at Valverde as though to say should I attack. Presumably Valverde said no perhaps because he wasn't feeling at his best and didn't want an attack from Quintana that might have put him in difficulty, so Nairo didn't pull the trigger. This might play again in the two last mountain stages if Valverde is worried about losing his third place.

Hopefully there will be serious attacks today.

The Polka Dot Jersey competition, which has been decidedly comatose since Stage 10, has now finally burst into life with Joaquim Rodriguez and Romain Bardet tied on equal points. Both will be trying today and tomorrow to get a decisive lead but with many points available on the two mountain top finishes the Jersey could go to a leading contender if they change the current policy of allowing the breakaway to stay away and take the wins.

Yesterday saw bike checks – looking for electric motors – on Froome, Quintana, Bardet and Sagan's bike. Nothing untoward was found. Cedric Vasseur please note.

Stage 19: Saint Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire 138 kms 

Col de la Croix de Fer

La Toussuire – Les Sybelles: longest finishing climb this year

This is a short but brutal stage. Only 138 kilometres but with three major climbs including the HC Col de la Croix de Fer at 2067 metres. The stage starts with the immediate 1st Cat climb of the Col de Chaussy, so no chance for the riders to relax. I assume Bardet and Rodriguez will want to fight for the points here. GC riders will, however, be reluctant to give Bardet very much scope is he is now 10th overall. 

Will today see a GC rider take the stage or will another breakaway succeed? If Quintana is to win the Tour he surely needs to take time on Chris Froome today.  

This short stage will make it potentially difficult for sprinters etc. to finish within the time limit. 

#TDF2015: Brave stage win for Simon Geschke, TJ out, Froome gains time + beast today

 Stage 17: top 23 headed by Simon Geschke

 

 Overall after Stage 17 down to 23rd.

Simon Geschke claimed his first Tour de France stage win with a very brave ride to Pra Loup. He attacked from the breakaway with over 40K to go to the finish a little before the start of the long climb up the Col d'Allos. He held his advantage over his chasers on the scary descent down the Col and had enough time to get up the slightly more than 6K climb up to Pra Loup despite a frantic chase from Andrew Talansky. Thibaut Pinot, Geschke's closest chaser at the top of the Col d'Allos crashed on the descent. Although Pinot remounted quickly he was passed by several riders later on the descent.

For the GC contenders the big news of the day was Tejay Van Garderen abandoning the race with respiratory problems apparently caused by a cold picked up at the end of the very hot Stage 13. TJ's departure moves Alejandro Valverde onto the Paris podium. 

Chris Froome descended the Col d'Allos well and during the stage held off attacks from Contador, Nibali and Quintana. Contador crashed on the Allos descent and lost 2.17 to Froome on the day. Late attacks on the climb to the finish saw Valverde concede 7 seconds to Froome and Nibali 15 seconds.  

Overall Froome is now 3.10 ahead of Quintana, 4.09 on Valverde, 6.34 on his team mate Geraint Thomas, 6.40 on Contador and 8.04 on Nibali. Warren Barguil is the leading French rider 13.08 down. 

•••

Stage 18: Gap to Saint-Jean-de Maurienne 186.5 kms   

 

 

If yesterday's stage was tough, today's will be even tougher with the climb up the Col du Glandon followed by a Tour first up Les Lacets de Montvernier just before the finish. I'll be surprised if all the leading contenders finish close together at the end of this stage. Nairo Quintana will surely hope to take some time out of Chris Froome today. Unless Froome has a really bad day then it is now really only Quintana who can prevent Froome from winning in Paris. 

#TDF2015: crunch time – first of four Alpine stages

 

Today is the first of four Alpine stages, which will either confirm Chris Froome as the winner of this 2015 edition or someone else – most likely Nairo Quintana – will take over the Yellow Jersey. Today's 17th stage is the same as the one run in June for the Dauphine where Romain Bardet gained time on the difficulat descent off the Col d'Allos. Can he, Valverde, or Nibali do the same day or will Sky make the climb up the Allos difficult enough to shake off their rivals?

In Paris I think we will see Froome, Quintana and Valverde taking the top three places? In that order? Probably but Quintana still has a chance to win this Tour over the next four days. I think that the rather robotic Tejay Van Garderen will slipout of third place. He seems to have been content to follow the leaders and not make any attack himself. Will that change in the Alps?    

#TDF2015: Ruben Plaza Molina wins in Gap + Geraint Thomas has very lucky escape

Ruben Plaza Molina took his first Tour de France stage win in Gap yesterday winning by 30 seconds from a charging Peter Sagan. Molina attacked on the climb up the Col de Manse and gained around a minute on Sagan and the rest of the breakaway. Despite Sagan's fantastic descending skills this gap proved to be enough for Molina to hold off Sagan on the steep and tricky descent, so once gain Peter had to settle for second place. He does, however, now have a comfortable lead in the Green Jersey competition with 406 points to André Griepel's 316. 

Geraint Thomas had a very lucky escape on the descent when Warren Barguil went into Thomas pushing him off the road and into a telegraph post. For a short while I feared the worst as Thomas's head appeared to hit the post at a fair speed. Fortunately Thomas' head must be stronger than the post as he was soon back on his bike and finished just 38 seconds behind the main GC contenders and holds onto his 6th place overall. 

Vincenzo Nibali attacked at the top of the Col de Manse and gained 28 seconds on Chris Froome and the other GC contenders. However, he is still 7.49 down on Froome. Tony Gallopin lost time, fell out of the Top 10 and Warren Barguil is now the leading Frenchman. 

Today is a doubtless very welcome rest day for the riders but the Alps beckon!     

#TDF2015: André Griepel's 3rd stage victory + difficult descent into Gap today

 Stage 15: 1st 23 riders 

 

Overall standings: No change 

With Mark Cavendish sidelined with an overnight stomach upset, André Griepel showed again in Valence that he is the most successful sprinter in this year's Tour taking his third stage win. This moves him onto nine Tour de France stage wins. Griepel will be hoping that he can make it four by winning in Paris on Sunday. If Cavendish is fit again I suspect that he is the only rider capable of beating Griepel on the Champs d'Elysées.

•••

Stage 16: Bourg de Péage to Gap 201 kms

Today's longish stage (201 kms) to Gap – the gateway to the Alps is a steady climb uphill. The most difficult and challenging part of the stage is the rapid and steep and tricky descent into Gap. This descent is famous or infamous for the crash of Joseba Beloki in the 2003 Tour. The crash effectively ended Beloki's career. In the 2013 Tour Contador crashed.

It seems likely that Valverde and/or Nibali will try to take time back from Froome on this descent into Gap. Just hope everyone gets down safely without crashes.   

•••

Laurent Jalabert disowns his own words!  

Laurent Jalabert, who was found through retrospective tests to have used EPO during his racing career – 1988 Tour de France, has been one of the commentators most active on casting doubt on Chris Froome's riding. In this clip he is asked by ITV to to clarify his remarks. See here. Jalabert, however, denies that he ever made those remarks on TV. Did someone steal Jalabert's voice?     

#TDF2015: Great win by Steve Cummings on Mandela Day marred by urine thrown @Froome

Stage 14: Winner Steve Cummings down to 22nd place

Overall after Stage 14: Chris Froome took more time out of his rivals 

Yesterday saw a great victory in Mende by Steve Cummings of team MTN-Qhubeka, the first African pro-cycling team, on Nelson Mandela Day. It was the team's and Cummings' first Tour de France stage win.

Sadly the victory of marred by an incident much earlier in the stage when a cup of urine was thrown at Chris Froome by a spectator shouting 'doper!'. This disgraceful and very sad behaviour may have been stirred up by some of the reporting and reaction on social media. It would be good to see a period of silence from the likes of Lance Armstrong, Michael Rasmussen, Laurent Jalabert and Cedric Vasseur. 

At the end it was a good day for Chris Froome who gained some time on all of his rivals, albeit only a second on Nairo Quintana, who was the biggest threat to Froome on the steep Côte de la Croix Neuve. Froome gained 4 seconds on Valverde, 17 on Contador, 30 on Nibali and 40 on Van Garderen, who has slipped to third place overall with Quintana overtaking him.

It was also a good day for Peter Sagan, who got into the break, took maximum points at the intermediate sprint and then came in an impressive fifth on the stage despite being dropped on the final col. He now leads André Griepel in the Green Jersey contest by 61 points. With the Alps to come it is hard to see how Griepel can get back on terms. 

If there were any dopes on the Tour yesterday it was Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet, who started fencing with each other after they reached the top of the Col, giving Cummings a chance to catch them. They then proved no match for his speed and bike handling and Cummings crossed the finishing line well in front.

••• 

Stage 15: Mende to Valence 183 kms

Today is a possible sprinters' stage if they can get over the lumpy firsy part of the stage and the 2nd Category Col de l'Escrinet at just under 60 kms to the finish. Mark Cavendish will have fond memories of this Col as he managed to get up it and won the sprint in Aubenas in 2009 taking his tally to nine TDF stage wins and making his the most successful British rider ever in the Tour. Today they will be going the other way through Aubenas and then up the Col de l'Escrinet – 7.9 kms in length with a gradient average of 5.8%. Will Tinkoff-Saxo go hard in the hope of shedding other sprinters like Cavendish and André Griepel? The finish in Valence looks to be ideal for a pure sprinter providing they are still in contention. 

 

 

 

#TDF2015: Greg Van Avermaet holds off Sagan/ Mende's tough finish today

 Stage 13: top 23 at Rodez headed by Greg Van Avermaet 

After Stage 13: overall standings 

In the short steep finishing climb in Rodez Greg Van Avermaet held off Peter Sagan to take his first stage win in the Tour de France. Once again Sagan has lost out on a Tour Stage victory as this is the 15th time he has been second. When he took his 4th Tour Stage victory in 2013 in Albi the odds would have been long that Sagan would not have won a single stage since then. See list of overall stage winners here. He does have the consolation of now having a pretty firm grip on the Green jersey with a 24 point lead on André Griepel, who was dropped some way from the finish, although André had briefly and provisonally got the jersey back by one point following the intermediate sprint.

Overall there was no change with all the leading contenders coming in together a few seconds behind Van Avermaet.  

The day's long breakaway nearly held out with the last three riders only caught on the climb to the finish.

••

Stage 14: Rodez to Mende 178.5 kms

    

Stage 14 is another challenging transitional stage with a tougher finish than yesterday's finish in Rodez. The riders have to climb the 3 kilometre Côte de la Croix Neuve that has a steady average gradient of 10%. From the top it is then 1.5 kilometre drag to the finish. 

Today looks to be a more promising stage for GC riders to put Sky and Chris Froome under pressure over the very lumpy last 40 kms of the stage. Yesterday Sky had a relatively easy ride as Giant-Alpecin and Tinkoff-Saxo did most of the chasing on the front of the peloton tring to catch the breakaway.

Météo France forecasting violent storms 

this afternoon in parts of Southern France 

Race in area – 29 G

It is going to be another hot day but with storms forecast during the afternoon, which could make the descents in the final part of the stage very tricky. Hope all the riders come through safely.

I expect to see some of the GC riders lose at least a little time today on the Côte de la Croix Neuve. Who?  

#TDF2015: Sky smother attacks on Plâteau de Beille + lumpy finish in Rodez

 Top 21 from yesterday's stage won in fine style by Joachim Rodriguez

Overall after Stage 12 

Mirroring the weather yesterday's stage turned out to be a damp squib failing to live up to expectations as far as the anticipated shake up of the GC contenders was concerned.  

Joachim 'Purito' Rodriguez produced a fine ride to win the stage from Jakob Fuglsang and Romain Bardet. In the Yellow Jersey peloton there were attacks on the final climb from Valverde, Quintana, Contador and Contador. All appeared to be half-hearted. None of these riders appeared to have an real zip in their legs. Down to the conditions – very hot initially and the cooler later in the rain – or are they just disheartened by the dominance of Sky? The effectiveness of Sky was highlighted by the presence of Richie Porte, almost all the way up the climb, and Geraint Thomas right to the finish protecting Chris Froome. All are now hoping that Froome asa bad time in the Alps.

Several riders, however, will have taken some encouragement from their performance yesterday. For once Nibali wasn't dropped and neither was Thibault Pinot. Romain Bardet had a good day coming in third. Others went backwards – Bauke Mollema, Tony Gallopin and Warren Barguil. Nibali's preformance has moved him up to 9th overtaking Bauke Mollema and Warren Barguil.

In the very early intermediate sprint André Griepel took the maximum points and closed to with two on current leader Peter Sagan. 

Chris Froome's electrifying performance on Stage 10 continues to attract controversy. Some of the French press and people on social media appear to have forgotten how dominant some the performances of France's last Tour winner – Bernard Hinault – were. I well remember being on the Alpe d'Huez in 1986 when Hinault and Greg Lemond came up together well ahead of the rest of the field. Equally consider Eddy Merckx's career.

••

Stage 13: Muret to Rodez 198.5 kms 

  

This stage takes the Tour into the southern part of France's Massif Central. The first part of the stage is relatively flat, particularly after three days in the Pyrénées. The Intermediate Sprint comes at 92.5 kms by which time a break will surely have gone, so there may be limited points available for the leading Green Jersey contenders unless someone like Sagan manages to get into the break.

There are three categorised climbs in the second part of the stage and for the finish there is a sharp 570 metre long climb at 9.6%, so surely not a day for the sprinters. Will it be one for John Degenkolb or Peter Sagan? I suspect it will be difficult for Sagan as he is unlikely to get much team support. The victory may again go to someone in the breakaway. 

Sometimes these transitional stages that are supposed to be relatively easy for the GC contenders can be deceptive. Sky will need to be attentive. Also some GC riders could lose a little time on the final climb.