2017 Tour de France: Roglič overcomes the Galibier, Stage 18 – showdown on the Izoard?

 Primoz Roglič wins in Serre Chevalier

 Overall Chris Froome still in Yellow, Fabio Aru loses time 

 Green: Michael Matthews leads 

following Marcel Kittel's retirement

Climber: Warren Barguil still leads 

but advantage has been trimmed a little 

Young rider: Simon Yates still leads  
but Louis Meintjes is now closer at 2.28'

Primoz Roglič soloed to a very fine first Tour de France stage victory – first over the Galibier and the long 28 kilometre descent into Serre Chevalier. This first Alpine stage revised the Overall Standings slightly with Fabio Aru losing time at the top of the Galibier and then more on the descent. Aru was at 18 seconds to Chris Froome but now is down to 4th place at 53 seconds. Rigoberto Uran and Romain Bardet are now Froome's closest challengers tied on 27 seconds.

Only Dan Martin and Bardet attacked Froome on the Galibier but each time these attacks were easily neutralised. At the very top of the Galibier Martin was also dropped and is now at 2.37, while Simon Yates also lost time down to 4.07. He still leads the Young Rider Competition but his advantage to Louis Meintjes has now been reduced. Despite crashing Warren Barguil rode another fine race and still has a comfortable lead in the Climbers' competition. 

Alberto Contador tried one of his typical daring long range attacks that nearly came off – it certainly enlivened the race. Initially he had Nairo Quintana for company but to Contador's surprise Quintana couldn't sustain the effort. Quintana is now at 12th place 12.54 down, which is easily his worst Tour de France result.    

Unfortunately Marcel Kittel was involved in a crash early on in the stage and, although he rode on, had to abandon the race soon after. This is a great shame for Kittel but also deprives us of an exciting finale to the Green Jersey competition. Providing Michael Matthews reaches Paris he will surely now win the Jersey. Before Kittel abandoned Matthews had already closed the gap to just nine points. Matthews now leads André Griepel by 160 points. 

Stage 18: Briançon to Izoard 179.5 kms

Today is the last chance for the overall contenders to challenge Chris Froome in the mountains. Froome is expected to perform better in Saturday's time trial in Marseille than Bardet and Aru. The uphill finish, only the third in this Tour, gives someone the chance to grab the Yellow Jersey. Realistically, unless Froome blows up, only Uran and Bardet are likely to be able to do this. However, Sky remain the dominant team, especially with Mikel Landa climbing so well and Froome didn't show weakness yesterday. Should be a gripping climb up the mighty Izoard! 

2017 Tour de France: Stage 16 Preview – could be windy

Stage 16: Le Puy-en-Velay to Romans-sur-Isère 165 kms

 

There are just six more stages to decide the 2017 Tour de France – at this point the closest Tour ever! In reality it is only five for the overall classification as the ride into Paris is ceremonial, except for the sprinters at the end. 

After a lumpy start this shortish stage descends down to the Rhône Valley for a fairly flat last 50 kilometres. This may be a day for the sprinters but the last kilometre is uphill so may not fully suit Marcel Kittel. Will Michael Matthews try to escape on the climb out of Le Puy? Could an overall contender be caught napping right at the start?

Wind in the Rhône Valley is the other complication – forecast to average 30 kms with gusts up to 60 kms. We could well see some splits in the peloton and perhaps some overall contenders lose valuable time – equally gain some valuable time.  

2017 Tour de France: Bauke Mollema's solo win + Froome's scare

Bauke Mollema's brave and deserved stage win at Le Puy

Chris Froome still in Yellow despite scare

 Mountain jersey: Warren Barguil 

leads by a comfortable 78 points

Green: Michael Matthews has closed 

the gap on Marcel Kittel to 79 points

The difficult Stage 15 to Le Puy was won by Bauke Mollema, who bravely soloed away from his breakaway companions with 29 kilometres to go. He managed to win with a gap of 19 seconds to chalk up his first Tour de France stage win. 

Apart from Nairo Quintana blowing up on the second 1st Category Col de Peyra Taillade and losing some four minutes and dropping out of the Top 10 overall, there were no significant changes to the overall classification. However, there might well have been as Chris Froome had a mechanical problem just at the start of the Col de Peyra and had to make up 50 seconds to get back onto the peloton of flying leaders. Fortunately he had enough team mates around to make this possible. 

Dan Martin gained 14 seconds by riding away in the last few kilometres – he now sits 1.12 back from Froome. Fabio Aru at 18", Romain Bardet at 23" and Rigoberto Uran at 29". 

Warren Barguil has a very firm grasp of the Climbers' Jersey, while Marcel Kittel should hold onto Green as there are still some sprinters' stages left, although Michael Matthews has reduced the deficit considerably since Pau.

Today is the second and last rest day. Wednesday and Thursday in the Alps will be the crucial stages along with Saturday's Time Trial in Marseille. At this stage this is the closest Tour de France ever. Promises to be a gripping finale!      

 

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 Tour de France: Kittel wins for 4th time, Stage 11 Preview

 Stage 10 result: easy win number 4 for Marcel Kittel

 No change overall: Chris Froome still in Yellow 

Green Jersey Overall: Marcel Kittel consolidates his lead

Yesterday panned out as expected: a small break went away to be duly caught before Bergerac where Marcel Kittel comfortably won the sprint – his fourth stage victory in this year's tour. Kittel now has just over 100 points more than Michael Matthews in this competition. Kittel picked up 63 points on the day to Matthews paltry 9. 

Stage 11: Eymet to Pau 203.5 kms

This looks to be a very similar stage to yesterday – a small break will get away easily only to be caught shortly before the finish in Pau where Kittel take his 5th stage win of this Tour. The only complication is that there is some light rain forecast for the middle of the stage and at the end plus a little more wind than yesterday. However, this is likely to be another quiet stage. 

2017 Tour de France: after the rest day – Stage 10 preview

Stage 10: Périgueux to Bergerac: 178 kms

 

Last few kilometres: flat to the line 

Today the depleted peloton starts racing again after the first rest day with the first of two stages likely to finish in a sprint. The stage makes a twisting circuit through the Dordogne. 

I expect the usual pattern an early break that gets caught not long before the Bergerac with a sprint at the end. Marcel Kittlel must be favourite to add to his already stage wins. Can Michael Matthews continue to mount a challenge to Kittel for the Green Jersey? How much have the two tough mountain stages taken out of the sprinters?

Green Jersey standings: Kittel 212 points, Michael Matthews 160 points 

Yellow: Chris Froome leads with Fabio Aru 18 seconds behind 

It is unlikely that there will be any change to the Yellow Overall positions until the race reaches the Pyrénées on Thursday. There are now six stages until the second rest day. 

2017 Tour de France: carnage on stage 9 – Uran wins, Froome still in Yellow

As I feared very steep descents on wet roads brought carnage to the Tour yesterday with Geraint Thomas and then Richie Porte the headline riders who crashed out. Other riders out include Robert Gesink (crash), Arnaud Démare along with three team mates, Mark Renshaw, Matteo Trentin and Peter Sagan's brother – Juraj – all were outside the time limit for yesterday's brutal stage.

  

Despite a damaged bike – unable to change gear from the top 11 sprocket with only the option of moving from the big ring to the small, Rigoberto Uran just managed to hold off Warren Bargueil to win the stage – his first ever TdF stage win. Bargueil, who rode very well, has the compensation of being in the climbers' jersey with a healthy 30 point lead plus several days to recover before the next set of mountains. 

Chris Froome came through this tough test showing on the final climb Mont du Chat that he was the strongest climber on the day. The Yellow Jersey overall classification is now clearer with now only three riders – Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran within a minute of Froome. Nairo Quintana faded on the last climb and is now at 2.13 while Alberto Contador had a terrible time and is now 12th overall at 5.15 down. 

Sprinter Michael Matthews did an amazing ride to get over two HC climbs to pick up maximum points in the Intermediate Sprint. With Démare out – not sure why FDJ sacrificed three team mates to assist the clearly ill and weak Démare – Matthews looks to be Marcel Kittel's only serious challenger for the Green Jersey. However, he is still 52 points behind Kittel with several sprinters' stages still to come. Kittel must be the favourite for Green. 

Today is a very welcome rest day to be followed by a couple of likely sprint stages. 

 

2017 Tour de France: Kittel by a whisker! Uphill Stage 8 preview

 Marcel Kittel wins by millimetres

No change overall – Chris Froome in Yellow

Marcel Kittel won his third stage of this year's Tour in Nuits-Saint-Georges by only by the narrowest of margins from Edvald Boassen Hagen – around 5 mm! This takes Kittel to 12 TDF stage wins now tying with Eric Zabel as the Germans to have won the most TDF stages. He is also on the same number as Gino Bartali, Mario Cipollini (the great Italian sprinter), Thor Hushovd, Migueil Indurain, Robbie McEwen and Jan Raas (Jan with 10 individual stage wins plus two Team Time Trial victories). 

As Edvald Boassen Hagen is one of Mark Cavendish's team mates I would have loved to see him win but it again shows Kittel's mastery of timing his sprint by waiting until the last moment. On this occasion he was so nearly too late!

Kittel now has the Green Jersey as Arnaud Démare could only finish 11th in yesterday's sprint. Kittel leads by 15 points from Démare. These two are both well clear of the field as Michael Matthews is next on 123 points.
     

Preview Stage 8: Dole to Station des Rousses 187 kms

Time over the next two stages for the sprinters to take a back seat as today and tomorrow are both mountain stages – the first since Stage 5 and la Planche des Belles Filles. Since then there has been no change to the leading places for the Yellow Jersey but that should change this weekend and we should see more clearly who are the most serious challengers. 

Today's stage is in the Juras with La Montée de la Combe des Laisia les Molunes (11.7 kms at an average of 6.4% but with a few sections at 8%.
 
After two very hot and long flattish stages it will be very interesting to see what effects this has had on some of the riders. The detailed forecast here from Metcheck shows that for much of the stage it will again be hot but that it will become cooler with a little rain by the end of the stage. Fortunately there are no significant descents in the last part, although the descent into Saint Claude before the last climb could be tricky in the wet. 

The intermediate sprint comes at 45.5 kms into the stage before any categorized climbs, although it looks steep enough out of Arbois to put some sprinters in difficulty. Will a breakaway be allowed to go early or will some of the Green Jersey contenders, like Arnaud Démare and Michael Matthews, look to put up points on Kittel? I'm sure that it will be much more difficult for the break to get away today than it has for the recent flat stages and much more competition to get into it.  

Today is the easier of these two mountain stages as tomorrow is a real brute with three HC climbs included. Even so I expect there will be some changes overall at the end of this stage, where we could see a frantic chase if any of the big overall contenders get dropped on the last and chief climb of the day over the last 10 kilometres to the Station des Rousses. Will we see another attack by Fabio Aru?
    

2017 Tour de France: Kittel wins in Troyes, Stage 7 preview

 Stage 6: Marcel Kittel's second stage win 

Stage 6: overall Chris Froome retains 

Yellow with no problems

Although he left it late, Marcel Kittel won the sprint in Troyes taking his second stage win of this year's Tour. Arnaud Démare just pipped André Griepel on the line for second place. At the moment Kittel looks to be the dominant sprinter in this year's Tour. He is now up to 11 TDF stage wins equal with André Griepel and just one off Eric Zabel's 12 stages, the most successful German TDF rider.

Given that today's stage that finishes in Nuits St Georges is another one for the sprinters Kittel must have a really good chance of equalling Zabel's record today.

Yesterday was a very hot day and there was a noticeable reluctance to get involved in the sacrifical break of the day. Three riders took it on – initially trying to urge others to join them but there were no takers. The three made a good fist of riding around 200 kms out in front before being caught with less than 10 kms to go before the finish

Green Jersey overall after stage 6: 

Démare leads on 170 points with Kittel 2nd on 143 points 

With Peter Sagan thrown off the Tour the Green Jersey competition is now up for grabs – Sagan has won the last five editions. Despite Kittel's strength in the sprints, Démare looks a good bet to win this year as he climbs better than Kittel and so can pick up points in stages where Kittel is likely to be dropped. 

Preview of Stage 7: Troyes to Nuits-Saints-Georges 213.5

       

This is another flattish stage on a hot day with temperatures hitting 34˚C. Initially as the race makes it way up the Seine Valley before moving into Burgundy to finish in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Unless something goes wrong in the sprint it looks very likely that Marcel Kittel will win again.

I wonder if there will be any more enthusiasm for getting in the break today given that Saturday and Sunday sees two mountain stages both in the Jura. 

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.