2017 Tour de France: Aru wins, Froome in Yellow. Stage 6 Preview

Stage 5 result: fine and convincing win by Fabio Aru

Overall standing: Chris Froome takes Yellow from Geriant Thomas

The first mountain stage was won in convincing fashion by Fabio Aru who attacked with some two kilometres to go.  Prior to this Team Sky had been setting a fast pace up the Planche des Belles Filles. After hesitating a while Chris Froome set off after Aru with Richie Porte, Dan Martin and Romain Bardet, while dropping Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana and Geraint Thomas.

After initially starting to catch Aru, the Froome quartet eased up and started looking at each other, while Aru motored on up. This allowed some of the dropped riders to close the gap on the quartet. 

Aru won the stage, his first TdF stage win by 16 seconds from Dan Martin who finished strongly with Froome next (20 seconds) and Porte at the same time. Other riders Bardet (24 secs), Simon Yates (26), Rigoberto Uran and Contador (26), Quintana (34) and Thomas (40). Froome now takes over the Yellow Jersey with Thomas in second place. It was clear in the ride up the Planche des Belles Filles that Froome was Sky's protected rider. Will Froome now wear Yellow all the way to Paris? 

Although dangerous to read too much into this first mountain stage, it does look like Fabio Aru, Dan Martin and Richie Porte are Chris Froome's biggest rivals with Aru just (14 seconds behind) and Martin on 25. There are now question marks over the form of Contador (52 seconds down) and Quintana (54 secs).

You have to question the tactics of Richie Porte and BMC yesterday who spent a large part of the 160 kilometres leading the peloton chase of the strong breakaway group using up a lot of energy. Although the time gap yo-yoed between about 2.50 and 1.30 it was back to about 2.40 as the final climb approached and other teams joined in. BMC wasted a lot of energy and Porte didn't make an attack on the climb. Although he finished with the same time as Froome it was Froome who got third place and the four bonus seconds. 

Stage 6 Preview: Vesoul to Troyes: 216 kms

This is going to be a long, hot, fairly flat stage with a couple of Category 4 climbs. I expect a break to go early only to be swallowed up close to the finish where the sprinters will fight it out. The finish is flat but with a roundabout around 120 metres from the line, which could make the sprint dangerous. Hopefully there won't be any big crashes. 

Favourites today: Marcel Kittel, Arnaud Démare, Michael Matthews and André Griepel. In addition to getting the stage win the sprinters will be up for the Green Jersey competition in the absence of Peter Sagan.    

2017 Tour de France; Sagan wins Stage 3; Stage 4 another snoozefest preview

 Stage 3: top 10
Peter Sagan wins

Stage 3 Overall 

Geraint Thomas retains the Yellow Jersey

Despite pulling a foot out of his pedal within sight of the line Peter Sagan won the gallop up the Côte des Religieuses closely chased by Michael Matthews, Dan Martin and Greg van Avermaet. This brings Peter Sagan's tally of Tour stage wins is now up to eight.

As I suspected the Côte proved to be too steep for the pure sprinters with the exception of Arnaud Demarre, who came in with most of the overall contenders at two seconds down. Only Simon Yates dropped time on his overall rivals coming in 10 seconds down so losing 8 seconds on Thomas, Froome, Quintana etc.

Geraint Thomas retained the Yellow Jersey with Chris Froome now in second as the other riders in front of him have dropped down the order. In contrast Dan Martin picked six seconds on his overall rivals. 

Unfortunately there was little to get excited about this stage. The breakaway was established quite early. Within the break there was a bit of a tussle of the King of the Mountains, which Tour debutant Nathan Brown won. The break rarely got than an advantage of two minutes. Another debutant Lilian Calmejane was the last breakaway to be caught and certainly impressed.   

It was only in the last 20 kilometres of the race that things really came exciting, although it had started to get stressful for the riders before that. 

Stage 4 Preview: Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel 207.5 kms 

This I fear will be another long stage snoozefest until the last 20 kms or so when the sprinters' teams start jousting for position. This is a largely flat stage with one Category 4 climb about 40 kms from the finish. I expect an early break to get away only to be swallowed up by the peloton towards the end of the stage.

The finish is slightly uphill but not enough to trouble the sprinters, though it may give a slight advantage to Sagan. Otherwise it is the usual sprinters who are favourite to take the win – Marcel Kittel, Arnaud Demarre, who is going well, André Griepel and possibly Mark Cavendish, who seems to be going well despite his illness this year.         

2017 Tour de France: Geraint Thomas wins, Valverde crashes out + Stage 2 preview

Top 20 after Stage 1

 

Stage 2: Düsseldorf to Liège

Geraint Thomas (Sky) was a popular but surprise winner yesterday winning not just taking his first ever Tour de France stage but the Yellow Jersey. This ten years on from Thomas' first Tour start in London in 2007.   

Despite a very good ride in the 2017 Giro's TT when injured, Geraint Thomas was not listed amongst the favourites. The TV cameras didn't follow his ride so there is only a brief clip of Thomas crossing the finish line with the new fastest time, which none of the later riders, including local favourite Tony Martin could beat.   

It was unfortunate that rain throughout the spoiled Düsseldorf's big day as well as making the TT more dangerous and difficult as Alejandro Valverde and Ion Izaguirre found to their cost crashing out on a corner around halfway through the course.  

Yesterday Team SKY were the big winners with Thomas and three other riders including Chris Froome (+ 12 seconds) in the top eight on the stage and so also on General Classification. Froome put seconds into all of his rivals for the overall win. Simon Yates is 25 seconds behind Froome, Richie Porte (35), Nairo Quintana (36) plus the big loss of Valverde, Thibaut Pinot (38), Romain Bardet (39), Fabio Aru (40), Alberto Contador (42) and Bauke Mollema (1.06).

Stage 2: Düsseldorf to Liège (203.5 kms)
Widely expected to be a sprinters stage with just two category 4 climbs. The first very early on and the second 20 kilometres from the finish. Much of the longish stage is pretty flat getting a little bumpy as Liège approaches but not enough to upset the top sprinters.
 

Unfortunately the forecast is for light rain. Furthermore, the first few stages of the Tour de France are always nervous with the risk of crashes. Hopefully there won't be any serious crashes today.



A new time and important measure at the finish has just been introduced - splits on the finish will be taken as three minutes instead of just one. This means that the general classification riders can now hang back a little bit leaving more space to the sprinters and their lead-out trains, so hopefully fewer crashes in the last kilometre of a stage. 

Favourites for the first stage are sprinters: André Greipel, Peter Sagan, Arnaud Démare, Mark Cavendish, John Degenkolb, Michael Matthews, Nacer Bouhanni and Alexander Kristoff. 

I'm going to opt for either Griepel or Kittel. It will be interesting to see how Cavendish goes after his illness. Difficult to count out Cav, even if not fully fit, as he does have a very good sprint team including Bernard Eisel, Mark Renshaw and Edward Boassen Hagen.   

2016 Tour de France – Griepel wins sprint - Froome joins the greats

André Griepel won the sprint in Paris, so he finally got a stage win in the 2016 edition. This is now back to back victories in Paris as Griepel won here last year. He has now ridden six TDFs and won at least a stage in each edition. Griepel now has 11 TDF stage victories – two more than Marcel Kittel. This makes him the second most successful current sprinter in the TDF after Mark Cavendish and his 30 wins. Griepel is now 34, which underlines that sprinters can continue to win well into their 30s.
 

Peter Sagan come very close to taking the victory yesterday with a late surge but needed a few more metres. You have to wonder whether, if Sagan hadn't done all that work for Romain Kreuzinger on Saturday's final Alpine stage, he might have won this sprint. Just shows how phenomenally strong Sagan is!

Marcel Kittel, my pick for yesterday's winner, had mechanical problems and curiously without a team mate to pace him back into the pack spent too much energy in returning to have any left for the sprint. He finished in 61st position. Still I did pick Griepel for second spot.    

With just one stage win – Limoges – this will have been a disappointing TDF for Kittel having missed last year due to injury. This appears to suggest that Etixx-Quickstep might be a graveyard for successful sprinters. Cav won only three TDF stages in his three seasons with with Omega Pharma–Quick-Step (now Etixx-Quickstep). Still impressive, especially as he crashed out of the 2014 TDF on Stage 1, but way down on his previous results. Kittel won four stages in both 2013 and 2014, so just one in 2016 due to the Cav's renaissance will hurt. Still at 28 he has time on his side.

Many congratulations to Chris Froome on winning his third Tour de France and joining the greats, who have won three TDFs or more. He joins five times winners Jacques Anquetil Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx plus Lucien Bobet, Greg Lemond and Philippe Thys, who also won three editions.   

Of the GC contenders Froome was clearly the most aggressive taking the most risks as demonstrated by his descent of the Peyresoudre to take Yellow. In Sky, of course, Froome had a superb and very focused team.  

Apart from a brief try on the Ventoux Nairo Quintana's challenge never materialised. The exciting young rider of 2013, who attacked in the Pyrénées and on the Ventoux, now appears to be a distant memory. Sky's strength appeared to intimidate the other contenders and only Romain Bardet, Dan Martin, Bauke Mollema, Alejandro Valverde and Adam Yates made attacks. Unfortunately Yates's attack off the Col d'Aspin was nullified by the collapsing Flamme Rouge banner. This was the stage that Steve Cummings took with a typically, fine solo ride. It was good to see Bardet's brave attack  on Stage 19 bring him second place on the podium. Will he be able to test Froome more fully in 2017?

Other Jerseys

Congratulations to Peter Sagan on winning the Green Jersey by a mile for the 5th time. He also took two stage victories. In his second TDF Adam Yates impressed winning the White Jersey as the best young rider, while Rafa Majka took the Polka Dot climbers' jersey for the second time. 

Cav's Renaissance 

It was great to see Mark Cavendish back to best winning four stages including Stage 1 so getting the Yellow Jersey for the first time. He now has an amazing 30 TDF stage wins only four behind that of the great Eddy Merckx. Although nothing is even given in the Tour it must now be possible that Cav at 31 years old can match or even eclipse Eddy's record. 

In 24 year-old Dan McLay we have a new promising sprinter. He was placed in the 10 top on three stages in this year's Tour.      

UK's progression since 2007 
The 2007 Tour de France started in London with the Prologue. It was the first Tour that a young sprinter called Mark Cavendish rode. After a couple of top 10 placings and two crashes, Mark pulled out on Stage 8. Although there was a growing interest in cycling and the Tour attracted good crowds, no British rider had come close to winning the Tour and Barry Hoban held the stage wins total with 8.   

Who would have thought that nine years on that Mark Cavendish would have racked up 30 TDF stage wins and have won the Green Jersey in 2011, that British riders would have won four of the last five Tours – 2012 (Bradley Wiggins), 2013, 2015 and 2016 (all Chris Froome), and that Adam Yates would be the first UK rider to win the White Jersey. Remarkable!   

Ion Izaguirre wins in Morzine, Chris Froome on cusp of 3rd TDF victory

A brave ride by Ion Izaguirre in horribly wet conditions won him his first Tour de France stage win. The day's exciting racing came from the breakaway as the GC contenders rode conservatively in the very wet, slippery conditions keen to conserve their positions rather than taking any risks.

There was an exciting duel on the Col de Joux Plane involving Izaguirre, Jarlinson Pantano, Vincenzo Nibali and Julian Alaphilippe. When Izaguirre, Nibali and Pantano crested the summit together I thought Nibali would be the fastest on the descent but he was cautious, perhaps affected by his crash on the descent yesterday. Instead Izaguirre descended brilliantly and finished a comfortable 19 seconds ahead of Pantano with Nibali a distant third.

Earlier in the stage Romain Kreuziger, who had managed to get into the big breakaway group, became for a while the virtual second on the road. He was assisted by a long, herculean pull by his team mate Peter Sagan until Sagan inevitably blew up on the third mountain climb of the day. Nevertheless it was another impressive show of strength by Sagan. We will have to see whether he will pay for this in today's likely sprint finish in Paris. Kreuziger moved himself up to 10th pushing Mollema out of the top 10. 

     

Chris Froome finished safely in Morzine after a careful descent shepherded by his team down the last dangerous slopes. He faced no serious attacks and providing he finishes today's short stage into Paris will have won his third Tour de France. He joins the select band of three time winners – Louison Bobet, Greg LeMond and Philippe Thys, while Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Induráin and Eddy Merckx won the Tour five times. 

Apart from Kreuziger moving into the top 10, the only other change saw Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver move into 7th place with a successful late attack on the Col de Joux Plane. He replaced Fabio Aru, who blew up horribly on the lower slopes of the Col, finishing 17'38 behind Izaguirre and more than 13 minutes Froome and the other GC riders. Ironically his Astana team had been setting a fierce pace to control Kreuziger and perhaps set up Aru for an attack.  

Stage 21: Chantilly to Paris Champs-Élysées 113 kms       

Much of this stage will be a celebratory procession until the centre of Paris is reached when the racing will start with eight circuits of the Champs-Élysées to finish in a likely bunch sprint. I am going for a win by Marcel Kittel with André Griepel second.   

2016 Tour de France: Great ride into Yellow – Greg Van Avermaet + sprinters' interlude

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.   

2016 Tour de France – Cav wins in Angers catching Hinault + longest stage

 Mark Cavendish just beats André Griepel to win in Angers

Peter Sagan comfortably remains in Yellow 

Mark Cavendish beat André Griepel by the narrowest of margins on Angers' Boulevard Foch. It was down to a photo-finish to decide the result. As I predicted yesterday the uphill finish played its part with Griepel starting his effort a little too early very soon after he had turned the corner at the Mercure. Cav was expecting this and took Griepel's wheel. Mark and André finished comfortably ahead of Frenchman Bryan Coquard and Peter Sagan. Marcel Kittel didn't really feature in the sprint coming in 8th. 

This latest victory takes Mark Cavendish's Tour de France stage wins to an amazing 28. He is now equal with the great Bernard Hinault and six behind Eddy Merckx. He has a very good claim to be the greatest sprinter ever, even though he has not won as many stages in the three Grand Tours – France, Italy, Spain – as Mario Cipollini and Alessandro Petacchi. The Tour de France is the most important and most hotly contested of the three Tours. Mario had 12 TDF stage wins and Alessandro six. 

See list of all Tour de France stage winners here.

After his time at Etixx Quickstep, Mark Cavendish appears to be reinvigorated. Partly due to having some of his old team back together Bernie Eisel and Edvald Boasson Hagen along with Mark Renshaw, who came across with Mark from Etixx. Somehow things never really worked out at Etixx, whereas as now the old firm is being very effective, despite not being the largest or most powerful train in the race. Mark's track training for the Rio Olympics is another factor as is his delight in helping to raise money to provide bikes for African children through Qhubeka.  

•••

Stage 4: Saumur to Limoges – 237.5 kms

Today is the longest stage of this year's Tour. Will it be run as slowly as yesterday when the peloton appeared to be out for a gentle club run until they approached Angers. Today's stage has one category 4 climb towards the end of the stage but this should not be steep enough to drop the sprinters. It starts fairly flat but becomes more undulating as you approach Limoges. Apparently the uphill finish is a little steeper than yesterday. Likely winners – André Griepel, Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish.  

 

Saumur to Limoges: 237.5 K

2016 Tour de France: Peter Sagan in Yellow – uphill sprint today in Angers

 

Yesterday's results

Although I picked Alejandro Valverde to win yesterday's tricky finish in Cherbourg, my option on Peter Sagan paid dividends as the world champion both won the stage and took over the Yellow Jersey from Mark Cavendish. Like Mark, this is the first time Sagan has worn the jersey. Given that the next two stages to come are flat, Sagan may well remain in Yellow at least until the end of Stage 5 at Le Lioran. The young French rider Julian Alaphilippe came close to winning the stage but Sagan proved to be too strong. 

Good to see two of the great stars of today – Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan – getting the Yellow Jersey for the first time. Sagan's 5th stage victory and remarkably his first since 5th July 2013 in Albi brings him up level on #TDF stage wins with Chris Froome, Sean Kelly, Hennie Kuiper, Tony Martin, Vincenzo Nibali, Herman van Springel and Jean Stablinski among others.      

Among the favourites both Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana are on the same time – 14" seconds down on Peter Sagan. However, two of their rivals – Alberto Contador and Richie Porte – have lost time. Contador, who crashed on both Saturday and Sunday, is 1.02 down on Sagan. He was dropped on the 3rd category climb in the final kilometres. Richie Porte was unlucky to have a puncture around 5 kilometres before the finish and is now 1.59 down. The biggest question mark is over Contador – how will he cope with Stage 5 that visits the mountains of Cantal? Will he have recovered sufficiently in time?   

      

Stage 3: Granville to Angers

At 223.5 kilometres this is the second longest stage of this year's Tour – tomorrow is the longest – 237.5. Apart from a fourth category climb close to the start this stage is pretty flat especially in the latter stages – initially it is quite undulating. Jasper Stuyven, with 4 points, will keep his Polka Dot jersey as best climber. 

The finish in Angers is on the Boulevard Foch by the town hall and a bunch sprint is very likely after the break of the day is caught. Unlike Saturday's finish, the final 600/700 metres of the stage is steadily uphill, although not steep but rises up some 80 feet.

The riders come over the Maine. The road is briefly flat as they go under the One K to go banner. Then the Boulevard Carnot starts to rise up. At the Hotel Mercure the riders turn right into the Boulevard Foch for some 250 metres before crossing the finish line with the road continuing to rise.  

This uphill finish may well suit both André Griepel and Marcel Kittel plus Yellow Jersey wearer Peter Sagan. The trick may be to delay one's sprint until close to the line as if you start too early there is a good chance you will run out of gas. Mark Cavendish should also have a good chance if he can follow wheels until just before the line. 

   

2016 Tour de France: Mark Cavendish wins 1st Stage – takes Yellow + 27th stage win

It was wonderful to be proved wrong! Just hours after playing down Mark's chances of stage victory and tipping Marcel Kittel to take the stage win, Mark proves what a great sprinter he is. 

After the anguish of crashing out of the 2014 Tour in Harrogate in the sprint at the end of Stage 1 and last year's disappointments when Mark took just one stage eclipsed by André Griepel in the absence of Kittel, who had limited Cav to just two stage wins in the 2013. It was tempting to think that Mark's best days were past and that Eddy's record 34 stage wins was safe even beginning to wonder whether Bernard Hainault's 28 wins would be matched. 

Today Mark was back to his best showing why he has such a strong claim to be the greatest sprinter ever. Moving to a new team – Dimension Data – after his rather unfulfilled stay at Omega-Pharma-Quick Step, now Etixx-Quick Step with Kittel as their star sprinter, has certainly hit the jackpot today. 

It looks like Mark moving with Mark Renshaw to Dimension Data and reuniting with Bernie Eisel, who was an essential part of the very successful HTC Columbia/Highroad lead out team, has been a masterful move. 

Mark is not just about speed – using his characteristic crouched style – but very importantly he has brilliant positioning and the ability to read a fast changing bunch sprint and react instantly. 

Today's win show that. Well into the final kilometre Mark is ticked in behind Renshaw, he checks a couple of times to his right to see if anyone is coming up on the barriers. Then World Champion Peter Sagan flies past and looks to be about to win the stage. Mark accelerates rapidly to get on Sagan's wheel, then as the line approaches moves out, goes for the line and wins comfortably from Marcel Kittel, who had started his sprint well before Mark did. Sagan takes third and André Griepel fourth. The overhead shots show just how emphatic Mark's victory was: Kittel was more than a bike length behind. This is a huge margin in such a flat out sprint.  

Kittel (1.88 m) and Griepel (1.84 m), who are much bigger than Mark (1.75 m), have the power but Cav has the finesse and the speed. 

Almost as impressive as Mark's win was his interview immediately after his win – citing his team, the Qhubeka charity aiming to get 5000 African kids on bikes and those who lost their lives not only on Utah Beach, where the stage finished, but all of those who fought for our freedom. Mark made UK politicians look like pygmies!

Mark's win today is also a reminder that sprinters are able to remain at the very top considerably longer than other cyclists. André Griepel is now 33, Cav 31, while Marcel Kittel is a relative youngster at 28. Mark has plenty more years ahead of him to equal or overtake Eddy's record. 

   

#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: 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: Chris Froome dominates his rivals

 Top 21 finshers on Stage 10 – from Froome to Nibali – 4.25 down.

Overall after Stage 10: comfort zone Froome for the moment

With his attack 6.3 kilometres from the finish, Chris Froome crushed his remaining rivals on the first mountain stage of this year's Tour. As suspected the climb to La Pierre-Saint-Martin found out a huge number of the riders who had difficulty adjusting from riding on the relative flat for nine days to riding up a steep climb. 

After Moviestar team failed to break Chris Froome and Sky on the lower slopes, Sky – Geraint Thomas, Richie Porte and Chris Froome – took over forcing the pace, which dropped all of their opponents apart from Nairo Quintana. When Froome attacked Quintana had no response and finished 1.04 down overtaken close to the line by Richie Porte. 

Froome's other leading rivals lost even more time –  Alejandro Valverde (2.01), Tejay Van Garderen (2.30), Alberto Contador (2.51), Bauke Mollema (4.09) and Vincenzo Nibali, who was dropped early on, came in 4.25 down. 

As well as Sky's Richie Porte (59") and Geraint Thomas (2.01), there were good rides from Robert Gesink (1.33) Adam Yates (2.04), Pierre Rolland (2.04), Tony Gallopin (2.22) and Warren Barguil (3.19) despite a nasty crash earlier on in the stage. It was another horrible day for Thibaut Pinot, who was dropped very early and came in 10.03 down. It was wasn't a lot better for another young French hope – Romain Bardet who lost 8.50. 

All of Froome's leading rivals appeared to have heavy legs – even the normally impressive Quintana lacked zip.

Although the Tour is far from over Chris Froome has a very comfortable lead. He has 2.52 on Van Garderen (2nd), Quintana (3.09 – 3rd), Valverde (4.01 - 4th), Contador (4.01 - 6th) and Vincenzo Nibali (6.57 – 10th). Chris' fellow Sky rider Geraint Thomas is 5th at 4.03 down.  

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Stage 11: Pau to Cauterets: 188 kms

 

 

If yesterday's stage was tough today's is even tougher with six categorised climbs including the Col d'Aspin (1st) and the Tourmalet (HC). Will Froome again take time on his rivals or can they surprise him and Sky – perhaps with an attack on the long descent from the Tourmalet ? Will Sky allow a breakway to make it all the way? Will Nibali lose yet more time?

The intermediate sprint is at 56.5 kms so all the sprinters should still be in and they may try to prevent a breakaway succeeding before this sprint. In yesterday's sprint André Griepel took back the Green Jersey from Peter Sagan.