2016 Tour de France: Amazing descent by Froome + uphill shootout today?

Yesterday was hot and tough over four climbs including the Tourmalet. It was made special by Chris Froome's amazing descent into Bagnères-de-Luchon to take both the stage and the Yellow Jersey. It featured a brave but quixotic attack by Thibaut Pinot at the base of the Tourmalet that ended any chance of him achieving a high overall placing – he is now 19'44 down on Chris Froome. Furthermore he missed out on the Polka Dot Mountains Jersey by one point to Rafa Majka, Majka grabbing the winning six points at the top of the Val Louron-Azet climb after Pinot blew up on the lower slopes of this climb.

Sky rode on the front of the leading peloton for all of the day. The Yellow Jersey Greg Van Avermaet was dropped on the lower slopes of the Tourmalet and came in 25'54 behind Froome. Nairo Quintana was undone by a moment of hesitation on the top of the Peyresourde, which was compounded by the other riders leaving it up to Valverde to close the gap on Froome.       

Overall Chris Froome has a narrow lead of 16 seconds over Adam Yates, who has the White Jersey as best Young Rider, 19 over Dan Martin and 23 over Quintana. Roman Kreuziger is Tinkoff's leading rider after Alberto Contador was dropped on last climb and now lies 3'12 behind Froome and still suffering from his crashes on the first two stages. 

Of France's Tour hopefuls only Romain Bardet is still fully in touch – just 23 seconds down, although Warren Barguil is at 1'51 and Pierre Rolland at 1'55. 

The UK may have stupidly voted to leave the EU by Brits are still very much in the Tour winning five of the eight stages to date and holding the Yellow (Froome), Green (Cavendish) and White (Yates) Jerseys. 

Stage 9: Vielha Val d'Aran to Andorre Arcalis 184.5 km 

This is truly a brutal stage, especially after yesterday's very hard stage run in hot conditions. Currently there are still 13 riders grouped within 34 seconds at the top of the overall standings. With this stage being a mountain top finish this will surely change and is likely to feature a battle between Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana. 

I expect surprises given the heat and the affects of yesterday's tough stage.    

2016 Tour de France: great brave solo win by Steve Cummings + 'Circle of Death' awaits

Yesterday's stage was a treat because of Steve Cummings' brilliant solo attack and well deserved win along with Greg Van Avermaet's refusal to read the script and actually extend his lead to nearly six minutes over Adam Yates – now best placed Young Rider. 

I once rode the Col d'Aspin many years ago and it is more a steady climb than really steep, so it suited a powerful rider like Cummings. Interesting to see that Nibali couldn't make any impression on him and indeed in the second half of the climb Steve extended his lead over the chasers to over a minute. Unclear whether Nibali is riding this Tour for himself or actually to support Fabio Aru.... Will be interesting to see how Nibali goes today.    

The finish for the GC contenders was complicated because of the collapse of the one-kilometre-to-go inflatable banner. Apparently a spectator accidentally caught the plug and pulled it out, so the banner immediately started to deflate. Unfortunately it collapsed on top of Adam Yates, who had attacked at the top of the d'Aspin and gained a few seconds. Rightly the organisers credited Adam and moved him into second place and the Best Young Riders' Jersey.  

Of the GC contenders, only Thibaut Pinot lost significant time yesterday on the climb. He is at 9.12 on Avermaet, while the other GC contenders are at 5.57. 

Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon – 'Circle of Death'

Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon is one of the great classic stages of Le Tour. Today's stage is a variation on the classic route as this misses out the customary first col – d'Aubisque – and instead starts with the giant Col de Tourmalet (2115 m) and leaves out the western side of the Col d'Aspin, which is more gentle than the side they climbed yesterday. Instead the riders climb Hourquette d'Ancizan (2) and Col de Val Louron-Azet (1) before rejoining the classic route with the Col de Peyresourde and the descent into Bagnères-de-Luchon. Scottish climber Robert Millar is one of the past winners into Bagnères winning in 1983 ahead of Pedro Delgado, his fellow escapee and who he dropped on the Peyresourde.

In contrast to yesterday, today's stage should see a shake-up of the GC contenders and the end of Greg Van Avermaet's stay in Yellow.
 

2014 Tour de France: First stage in Pyrénées

Stage 16: 237.5 kms from Carcassonne to Bagnères-de-Luchon

Today is the longest stage in this year's Tour – 237.5km. It's a savage introduction to three tough mountain stages in the Pyrénées. Of the five categorised climbs – two are significant: Col de Portet d'Aspet (Cat 2) and the final Port de Balès (HC). It was on the descent from the Portet d'Aspet that Fabio Casartelli had his fatal crash in the 1995 Tour. 

Although this stage isn't a mountain top finish, it is straight down to Bagnères-de-Luchon from the top of the Port de Balès, so virtually no chance of making up any time lost on the climb. The Port de Balès has recently started to be popular in the Tour. It made its first appearance in the 2007 edition, after the road had been resurfaced then in 2010 and 2012. The famous chaingate incident occurred in 2010 when Andy Schleck slipped his chain when attacking Alberto Contador, who was criticised by some for not waiting for Schleck. Had they been riding together it might have been reasonable for Alberto to wait but as Andy had put in an attack I can't see why Contador should have been expected to wait for Schleck to sort out his chain. In the event Andy Schleck won the 2010 Tour because of Contador's drugs offence. 

Fortunately the forecast is good for the next two days with the possibility of showers on Thursday afternoon. 

Will Vincenzo Nibali show any weakness today – I doubt it. Instead it looks to be a battle for 2nd and 3rd places. 

See video preview of Stage 16 here.