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: Warren Barguil wins on Bastille Day. Stage 14 preview

French ecstasy as Warren Barguil wins in Foix  

Fabio Aru still in Yellow but changes in Top 10

with Landa, Quintana and Contador all moving up

Mountains classification: Warren Barguil 
leads with 61 point advantage

As predicted yesterday's short mountain stage (101 kms) gave us very exciting racing. Warren Barguil made the French very happy with his stage win in Foix on Bstille Day, the French national holiday that celebrates the start of the French Revolution. This is the first time in 12 years that there has been a French winner. David Moncoutié was the last Frenchman to win on Bastille Day back in 2005.  
 

The day was notable for the return to form for both Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana. The stage's excitement was generated by an early attack by Alberto Contador, who was swiftly followed by Sky's Mikel Landa. They were eventually joined by Quintana and Warren Barguil. At the end Barguil won the sprint for the line. 

Although there were some attacks Fabio Aru kept the Yellow Jersey despite having to ride without support from his depleted team – down to seven riders. Although isolated the other teams have get to put Aru under serious pressure. Sky will need to do this during the remaining stages.

Astana were further weakened by Jakob Fulsang having to retire because of small fractures in his hand and elbow making it painful to ride and difficult to control his bike. It was, however, a very brave effort by Fulsang, winner of the Dauphiné to attempt to ride on. 

Stage 14 Preview: Blagnac to Rodez 181.5 kms

This is the first of two stages featuring the Massif Central, which ought to provide some interesting racing and perhaps some changes to the overall classification. The first 80 kilometres are fairly flat, while the last 100 are quite lumpy, mainly uphill with a couple of Cat 3 climbs. The finish in Rodez is a 570 metre uphill with a average of 9.6%. A chance for an overall contender to gain a few seconds in the sprint for the line. I think Sky ought to be trying to put pressure on Aru over the next two days. Tomorrow's stage to Le Puy is the more challenging. 

The Intermediate Sprint is at 55 kms, so expect Marcel Kittel to shadow Michael Matthews, who may also feature in the steep finish, which is likely to be too much for Kittel.  

The forecast is dry and comfortably warm but the wind is quite strong for part of the middle section of the stage, so splits in the peloton could happen.       

2017 Tour de France: Calmejane wins in Jura. Brutal Stage 9 preview

 Fine first TDF stage win for Lilian Calmejane 

Chris Froome still in Yellow – 

will he still be wearing it after Stage 9?

Yesterday the fine solo victory of 24-year-old Lilian Calmejean added further to the promise already shown by this young French rider. Not only was this his first TDF stage win but he took the climber's mountain polka dot jersey from Fabio Aru. Let's hope that the pressure of being a new hope for French cycling doesn't prove too much of a burden for him.  

Yesterday's stage was easily the most exciting of this year's Tour with the racing fast and furious from the off and it never really settled down. As I suggested yesterday not only was there big competition to get into the break but the sprinters' teams were also keen to contest the intermediate sprint, which was early on in the stage. 

The uncategorized climb out of Arbois found out some of the riders – notably Arnaud Démare and Luke Rowe, the team captain of Sky. 

Eventually a large group of riders got away around 80 kilometres into the stage but Sky managed to control this well. By the finish only Calmejean, who won despite a bout of cramp just five kilometres from the finish, and Robert Gesink were ahead of the still substantial peloton. None of the overall contenders made any serious attack, perhaps wanting to wait for today's very tough stage. 

Stage 9: Nantua to Chambéry 181.5 kms

 Today's ferocious profile with three HC climbs

 First two HC climbs 

 Mont du Chat

Today's stage with its three HC climbs is certainly very tough. Let's hope that the racing lives up to expectation. It could go either way: the contenders look at attack Sky and Chris Froome or it becomes a procession with contenders fearful to take the risk, especially as thundery showers are forecast for today.  

We could see big changes to the overall order tonight. Will Froome still be in Yellow or will it be Fabio Aru or Richie Porte or Dan Martin. How will Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador fare?

As this stage starts with an immediate climb up the Cat 2 Côte des Neyrolles and if I was one of Froome's rivals I would look to attack right from the start and hope to repeat what happened in Stage 15 of the 2016 Vuelta when Froome was isolated on a similar start.   

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.  

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!   

2016 Tour de France: Chris Froome wins TT – now untouchable?

Chris Froome produced a champion's ride yesterday in the mountain time trial beating second placed Tom Dumoulin by 21 second and taking more time on all of his GC rivals. Froome judged his effort perfectly by riding the first part relatively conservatively – down 23 seconds on Tom Dumoulin at the first time check. That reduced to 10 seconds at the 2nd check, while by the 3rd Chris was 13 seconds up. A swift descent into Mégeve extended his advantage to 21 seconds. 

Among the other GC contenders Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet rode very good TTs conceding only 33 and 42 seconds respectively. Richie Porte also reclaimed time from his rivals, although he probably started out too fast. Nairo Quintana looked to be losing quite a lot of time initially but limited his losses toward the end of his ride, while closing up a little on Adam Yates and Bauke Mollema. However, Quintana still conceded a further 1'10 to Froome.   

 

Froome now leads Bauke Mollema by 3'52, Adam Yates by 4'16 and Quintana by 4'37. He now has a comfortable lead and short of crashing or falling ill will wrap up his third Tour de France victory in Paris on Sunday. What remains is the fight for a place on the podium and positions within the top 10. Only 2'08 separates Mollema (3'52) in 2nd place from Aru (6'08) in 7th place. 

Stage 19: Albertville to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc 146 kms

Only two really racing stages remain for the GC contenders – today and tomorrow. Both are short, tough Alpine stages, which I assume will continue to be controlled by Sky making it difficult for the other GC riders to gain time on each other. Today's stage is the race's last mountain top finish, so it may turn out to be a war of attrition as Sky are very unlikely to permit Froome's rivals to escape. Although, nearly four minutes is a reasonable cushion it could still disappear in these two hard days that remain.  

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: chaos on Ventoux – 37.5 TT today

Results of Stage 12 to the Ventoux

Unfortunately yesterday's stage on Mont Ventoux, which should have been one of the high points of the Tour, descended into farce and chaos yesterday because the organisers failed to provide proper crowd control close to the shortened finish at Chalet Reynard. Richie Porte, Chris Froome and Bauke Mollema all crashed into a motorbike that appeared to have had to stop suddenly because of the crowds of people on the road. A following motorbike ran into Froome's bike breaking the frame. Fortunately it didn't run over any of the three riders. Had the provisional results of the stage been allowed to stand Froome would have lost a chunk of time as well as the Yellow Jersey. 

Fortunately after an hour's deliberation the Race Jury gave Froome and Porte the same time as Mollema (5'.05), which was surely the only decision they could have made. On the climb Nairo Quintana finally launched a couple of attacks that were swiftly countered by Sky. Soon after Froome attacked and soon dropped Quintana, who appeared not to be at his best yesterday. 

The chaos overshadowed a fine first TDF stage win by Thomas de Gendt, who grabbed the Polka Dot Jersey off the shoulders of Thibaut Pinot, who is reported to have abandoned the Tour today.  

Clearly the Tour organisers will have to rethink crowd security on the Tours major climbs like Ventoux and the Alpe d'Huez.

 

The revised results now give Chris Froome a 47 second lead over the impressive Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana at 54" and Mollema (56"). They are now the only riders with a minute of Froome. Romain Bardet (1'15") is now the only Frenchman in real contention. Among those losing time yesterday were abio Aru and Dan Martin.

Stage 13: Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d'Arc 37.5 kms

Todays TT is a tough test, which should significantly shake up the Overall Standings. Will Chris Froome extend his lead? Will Nairo Quintana shine or fade further? Will be surprised if Froome doesn't consolidate his position.

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 starts tomorrow – Nairo Quintana's turn to win?

The world's greatest sporting event – The 2016 Tour de France  – starts tomorrow at Mont Saint Michel. Three weeks later it finishes in Paris. Will Chris Froome win for the third time – previous victories in 2013 and 2015? Or will Nairo Quintana win for the first time. Or might Alberto Contador move back to three Tour de France victories having lost his third win – 2010 – because of a positive dope test. 

Quintana has shown himself to be very strong in the third week of previous editions of the Tour, so I'm I think he may well win this year with Froome second.   

Stage 1: Mont-Saint-Michel Utah Beach

The opening stage from Mont Saint Michel to Utah Beach (188 kms) is flat. It will surely be won by a sprinter, although cross winds as the bunch moves up the Normandy Coast could well cause splits in the peloton. Whoever wins the stage will take the Yellow Jersey. It would be great to see Mark Cavendish win as he has never worn the Yellow Jersey, while he has worn the leader's jersey for both the Giro and the Vuelta. However, I think Marcel Kittel has the best chance followed by André Griepel.  

Let the excitement begin!         

#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: Vincenzo Nibali saves his Tour – Quintana's last chance today

The Tour in the Alps finally sprang into full life yesterday with Sky and Chris Froome finally put under pressure, while Vincenzo Nibali saved his Tour with a fine solo win. With a late attack Nairo Quintana finally managed to take some time out of Chris Froome and is now 2.38 behind. This sets up an potentially exciting final mountain stage but unless Chris Froome has a bad day it will require an epic ride for Quintana to take 2.39 minutes out of Froome today in the stage that finishes atop l'Alpe d'Huez. Although Nibali took 1.14 back from Froome yesterday he is still 6.44 behind, while Chris gained time (1.12) on both Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde. 

Sky will be concerned that their riders appear to be running out of gas at this vital moment. Geraint Thomas had a bad day and came in over 20 minutes down on Nibali and has fallen from 4th place to 15th. Almost the entire Sky Team were dropped on the first climb yesterday and although a number got back on the descent, Froome only had Wouter Poels for support in the final part of the stage. 

The French will have been pleased yesterday with Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot and Pierre Rolland all performing well and finishing with the leaders. Rolland made a long bid for a stage victory but couldn't hold onto Nibali on the final climb. Romaine Bardet has strengthened his place as the leading French rider: in 9th place at 14.08, while Rolland is in 10th at 17.27. 

•••

Stage 20: Modane Valfréjus to l'Alpe d'Huez 110.5 kms

Col de la Croix de Fer

L'Alpe d'Huez

The final showdown is a short 110 kilometre stage with two HC climbs finishing with the famous l'Alpe d'Huez with its hundreds and thousands of spectators lining the hairpin climb to the finishing line. Only Quintana can snatch the Yellow Jersey from Chris Froome. Yesterday he managed to take 32 seconds out of Froome. Will this prove to be too little – too late? Or can Quintana produce an amazing ride today and still win the Tour. It's a very tough ask if Froome doesn't have a bad day. Furthermore Froome as the Yellow Jersey would love to win on L'Alpe d'Huez.

Will Nibali manage to knock Valverde off the podium and take third place? A result that looked highly unlikely until yesterday! Will Bardet stay as the leading Frenchman? We will soon know!