2016 Tour de France: Chris Froome tightens grip – uphill TT today

Ilnur Zaharin won yesterday's steep climb to Finaut-Emosson to take his first Tour de France stage, while Rafa Majka strengthened his position in the Polka Dot jersey. Majka has 173 points to Thomas de Gendt on 90 and Zaharin on 78. As usual Peter Sagan got into the break to snaffle maximum points from the intermediate sprint and then did a club run ride to the finish. Sagan has 425 points to Marcel Kittel's 228, so Green is his unless he crashes out.      

In the last kilometre Chris Froome gained time on all of his GC rivals apart from Richie Porte when Richie attacked. Of Chris' closest rivals the biggest losers were Nairo Quintana (28 seconds) and Bauke Mollema (40 seconds).  Alejandro Valverde and Dan Martin, who made an unsuccessful attack on the final climb, also lost significant time. Adam Yates put in another fine performance coming in just 8 seconds after Froome and Porte.

Once again the Sky train proved to be utterly dominant, although Astana did take to the front for a while with Vincenzo Nibali and Diego Rosa. Was the plan for Fabio Aru to attack? If it was nothing happened apart from first Nibali and then Rosa burning themselves out. 

Once again Tejay Van Garderen showed that he doesn't last the three weeks of the Tour when he blew up on the penultimate climb and lost nearly 20 minutes to Froome. This leaves Porte as the undisputed BMC leader.  

 

Stage 18: Sallanches to Megève – 17 km mountain time trial 

Today's mountain time trial is a tribute to Bernard Hinault's World Championship win here in 1980. I expect that Chris Froome will put further time into his GC rivals. It is now going to take a real disaster to stop Froome winning his third TDF. He deserves to win as to date he has shown himself to be the dominant rider. 

2016 Tour de France: Mark Cavendish wins 29th – the Pyrénées loom

Another amazing win for Mark Cavendish in Montauban, the third of this year and his 29th Tour de France stage win – just a breathtaking achievement. Once again Mark won through a combination of his speed and tactical nous – knowing just where to be and whose wheels to follow – doing this in Montauban without his lead-out men. 

This latest win moves Mark into second place on the overall list of stage winners of the Tour de France – a list that starts with the first edition of this great race in 1903. Now on 29 wins, Cav moves one ahead of the great Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour in 1985. He is now five stage wins away from matching the legendary Eddy Merckx. 

At the end of the 2015 Tour, when Cav won just one stage, it looked as though he might never threaten to catch Eddy Merckx's total. However, this year's work on the track for the Rio Olympics and moving to a new team – Dimension Data – has seen a return to Cav's old dominance taking three stage wins in the first week – a feat he has never managed before.   

Mark won his first Tour de France stage win in 2008 in Châteauroux and went on to win three more that year. 

The 29 stage wins: 2008 – 4, 2009 – 6, 2010 – 5, 2011 – 5, 2012 – 3, 2013 – 2, 2014 – crashed out 1st stage, 2015 – 1, 2016 – 3 to date.   

Mark now has a chance to equal or even surpass Merckx. But even winning a stage on the Tour is a remarkable achievement, so winning another five to reach Eddy's total of 34 will not be easy. This is underlined by looking at the riders who have five stage wins to their name including Chris Froome, Sean Kelly and Tony Martin.           

 

Greg Van Avermaet enjoyed a trouble-free day on his first day in the Yellow Jersey and there were no changes overall.  

Stage 7: L'Isle-Jourdan – Luc de Payrolle 162.5k

Today is the first of three days in the Pyrénées and with only one major climb – Col d'Aspin – it should be the easiest. Saturday and Sunday's stages will surely be very tough. I fancy Greg Van Avermaet may still be in Yellow tonight but will lose a chunk of his over 5 minute lead. 

Will Moviestar attempt to soften up the other GC contenders on the approach and up the Col d'Aspin? What will the tactics of Sky be and how will the chances of France's promising clutch of young riders look after today's stage? Will Alberto Contador lose more time today. If he does lose time his chances of winning this Tour, already slim, will surely disappear. 

I expect some shake-up to the overall lead but anticipate that Saturday and Sunday's stages will be the ones that really show the handful of real contenders for victory this year. 

Until now all the 2016 stage winners – Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel and Gre Van Avermaet – have all won stages on previous TDFs, will there be a first time stage winner today? 
 

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.  

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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

#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.