2016 Tour de France: Peter Sagan third stage win – Chris Froome still comfortable

Yesterday Peter Sagan racked up his third 2016 TDF stage win beating Alexander Kristoff, who appeared confused about where the finishing line was, by just a few centimetres. This win takes Sagan's overall total of Tour de France stage wins to seven. 

 

Despite the tricky and hectic finish into Bern, there were no changes to the overall times of the GC contenders. 

Rest Day: Bern 

Today is the second rest day in the Tour – a time to relax and prepare for four tough, crucial Alpine stages, which will decide the winner. 

Chris Froome with a lead of 1'.47 over Bauke Mollema, his nearest rival, and a very strong team remains handily placed. He has nearly three minutes over Nairo Quintana seen as his biggest rival and only eight riders are within five minutes. Froome has yet to show any weakness. However, in 2013 and 2015 when he won  the Tour he was not at his best in the final week.  

Peter Sagan looks to have won the Green Jersey for the 5th time as he now has 405 points to Mark Cavendish's 291. Rafa Majka leads the Polka Dot with 127 points to Thomas de Gendt's 90. This is a decent lead but there are still plenty of mountain points to come, so it is not yet decisive. Adam Yates continues to hold the White Jersey (best young rider) with 3'03 over Louis Meintjes. Meintjes is his only serious rival as third placed, Warren Barguil, is at 16'30.   

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.    

#TDF2015: yesterday's GC truce to end on Plâteau de Beille

Little change to GC: only Nibali slipping from 10th to 11th

Rafa Majka, the Polish climber and last year's winner of The Mountains' Jersey, won yesterday's stage over the Col d'Aspin and the Tourmalet with a long solo ride. This win takes his stage wins to three – the same number as the UK's greatest climber Robert Millar and may be the start of a campaign to take the Polka Dot Jersey again. 

Apart from the breakway and a number of abandons including Rui Costa, this mounatinous stage was fairly uneventful as far as overall standings are concerned. Vincenzo Nibali ordered his team to ride hard on the middle section of the climb up the Tourmalet but placed no attack himself and was again dropped on the final climb of the day losing another 50 seconds on Froome. Perhaps the only consolation for Nibali was that Jakob Fuglsand, who was reported to be Astana's new team leader to replace Nibali, lost even more time and is now 7.47 behind Chris Froome and in 11th place. 

In the intermediate sprint Peter Sagan regained the Green Jersey and now leads André Griepel by 7 points. 

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Stage 12: Lammezan to Plateau de Beille 195 kms

Today's last brutal stage in the Pyrénées could well see a change to the General Classification. It ends with the HC climb to Plâteau de Beille. The intermediate sprint comes at only 20 kilometres. Will this be a chance for André Griepel to grab back some points from Peter Sagan. 

This stage is a chance for Nairo Quintana, Tejay Van Garderen, Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde to put pressure on Sky and Chris Froome and take some time back. 

It is going to be very hot today – 34-38˚C making the stage even more difficult.  

2014 Tour de France: Kittel wins Parisian King Sprint – Nibali crowned

Marcel Kittel won his second successive stage on the Champs Elysée having won last year. This time he beat Alexander Kristoff into second place. Kristoff was in the lead as the line approached by Kittel had his characteristic strength to put in a last spurt in the fianl 50 metres or so that moved him clear and won the stage. This takes Marcel Kittel's overall stage total to 8 – 4 wins in 2013 and 4 this year, so he is beginning to move into exalted company!

 

Vincenzo Nibali was duly crowned as the 2014 Tour de France winner. There was no change overall, although the time gaps have changed as little as Nibali made sure he rode over the finishing line with his team, so Jean-Christophe Peraud, for instance, gained a few seconds. When you are leading by well over seven minutes a few seconds lost on the final stage changes nothing.

Nibali has now won all three Grand Tours – France, Italy and Spain. He joins only five other riders who have managed this feat: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Felice Gimondi, Bernard Hinault and Alberto Contador.  

Nibali is a very worthy winner – he has clearly been the best rider in this year's Tour. You can speculate what would have happened if Chris Froome and Alberto Contador hadn't crashed out of this year's Tour but what is important is that Nibali finished and they didn't. I fancy that if Froome hadn't crashed and injured himself on Stage 4 from Le Touquet to Lille, it is very likely that he would have lost considerable time to Nibali on the cobbles the next day.

Le Tour 2014 has been great for France with two French riders on the podium – Jean-Christophe Peraud and Thibaut Pinot along with Romain Bardet in sixth. Of course, Pinot also has the White Jersey as the best young rider. 

The Tour de France continues to become increasingly global with Ramunas Navardauskas as the first Lithuanian stage winner and Rafa Majka as Poland's first winner of the Climbers' Jersey. Ji Cheng, clear winner of La Lanterne Rouge at 6.02:24 down on Nibali, is the first Chinese rider to compete in the Tour and the first to finish. 

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Earlier in the day Marianne Vos deservedly won the first La Course - the race on the Champs Elysée for women. See details here. Unfortunately, Lizzie Armistead crashed out.