2017 Tour de France: Kittel wins again in Pau, Stage 12 preview – showdown in Pyrénées?

 Marcel Kittel takes his 5th 2017 stage win 

 No change overall – Chris Froome still in Yellow

Green Jersey: Marcel Kittel consolidates lead – 

133 points ahead of Michael Matthews

If yesterday's flat stage again panned out largely as expected with a small break of three riders going away from the off and Marcel Kittel winning the sprint, the finish was made much more exciting than the previous flat stage due to the very brave and impressive ride by Macief Bodnar, who was only swept up by the sprinters with 200 metres to go before the line. 

Kittel again won comfortably – at present there is no-one to touch him.

Stage 12: Pau to Peyragudes 214.5 kms

You can be confident that this won't be Kittel's third successive stage win. Instead this long stage (214.5 kms) in the Pyrénées may give Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran to put some pressure on Chris Froome. Alternatively it might be an opportunity for Froome to distance his rivals a little more. Apart from the last short ramp up to Peyragudes, these climbs are not as steep as those that featured on Sunday's stage. However, the distance may well take its toll on some riders, especially those who like Bardet, Jakob Fulsang and Contador, who crashed during yesterday's stage. Unfortunately Fulsang has a couple of fractures in his hand.

I expect that unlike the two previous stages when there was no enthusiasm to get in the break, there will be many looking to get away. It may be many kilometres before a break is established. It is 100 kms before the 2nd Cat Col des Ares is reached, which only has an average gradient of 4.6%. I can see Michael Matthews trying to get away again to pick up Intermediate Sprint points but this may well not be easy as the first part of this stage is not difficult.

The forecast is for showers later on in the stage, which could again make the descents dangerous. Hopefully there won't be any serious crashes. It will also be relatively cool. 

Update: raining in Pau at the start. Sunny at the finish for the moment.       

2017 Le Tour de France starts tomorrow in Düsseldorf

 The route of the 2017 Tour de France 

Starting on 1st July in Düsseldorf 

and finishing in Paris on 23rd July

Stage 1: 14km individual TT 

It's that magical three weeks of the year again – the Tour de France starts tomorrow with a 14 kilometre flat time trial in the centre of Düsseldorf. At 14 kilometres it is a least twice the distance of most prologues and long enough to create some gaps between the favourites for the Yellow Jersey.

The Tour is often not as exciting as the Giro d'Italia or the Vuelta but even so as the biggest bike race and sporting event in the world it has its own magic.

Overall
Yellow
Will Chris Froome win his 4th Tour? He is yet to win a race this year and his time trial in the Dauphine was disappointing. However, form in the Dauphine isn't always real indicator to how riders perform in the Tour. If Froome is back to his best he might get a flying start from tomorrow's TT, at least over Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet but unlikely to gain time over Alberto Contador or Richie Porte. 

Froome's rivals include Romain Bardet, who was second last year. Bardet will look to win this year but will the curse of French expectations in not having a Tour winner since Bernard Hinault won the 1985 edition. Richie Porte is strongly fancied this year after winning the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Romandie. However, he lost the Dauphine on the last day when he was left isolated by his team, although he fought hard to have his first place just losing out to Jakob Fulsang, who could be a contender if he can hold his form. Also Porte has yet to really perform over the full three weeks of a Grand Tour but this year could be different. And what of Fabio Aru, Fulsang's team mate? At 28 he should be in his prime and he was very impressive when he won last Sunday's Italian Road Race Championship.

Nairo Quintana nearly won this year's Giro d'Italia losing to Tom Dumoulin in the TT on the last day. We will have to see if he has fully recovered from the Giro. With only 34 kms of TTs this year he should not be in danger of losing important time on his rivals but that has to be set against there only being three mountain top finishes. Alberto Contador had the bad luck to crash on the opening stage last year. Although, he can be counted on making the racing exciting does Contador, at 34, have the form to win the Tour once again.  

Could it all come down to the final time trial on 22nd July in Marseille which includes the sharp steep climb up to Notre Dame de la Garde?    

Green 
Peter Sagan. 

Stage 1 contenders   
Will look at this in a post tomorrow.