Rui Costa wins again

Where have we seen a finish like this before? I know, it was three days ago in Gap. Same man, same kind of victory and both brilliantly executed. It's hard to believe that three days after infiltrating a break and then riding away from them near the end his rivals around him let him do it again, but that's exactly what Rui Costa did for his second stage win in what turned out to be a tough mountain stage with a very tricky descent into Grand Bornand.

It was especially tricky because of the weather. Late on in the stage but with the final climb to come the rain started falling in a deluge. There was thunder overhead and before long it looked as though they were rehearsing for the night time finish into Paris such was the darkness. The TV camera's may have made it look darker than it was, but as the clouds descended over the Alps and the rain fell, the cars following the riders had their headlights on and the shine of it was reflecting on the wet roads and the riders freshly shaved legs.

What the conditions did do was open an opportunity for someone confident in their descending to go for the win and it was Costa who seized it. He flew down the wet descent to the point where I was often cringing as he swung into a corner that at any moment the bike was going to go from under him. But it never did. It was a brilliant display of bike handling and by the time he reached dry roads again his lead was secure and he came home 48 seconds ahead of veteran Andreas Klöden who beat home scatterings of riders from the earlier break.



As for the peloton, or what was left of it, the rain also presented an opportunity for someone to make a late throw of the dice on this Tour. I had a feeling Alberto Contador might attack on the final kilometre of the final climb and try ride away on the risky descent, but nobody budged and the pack came down into Grand Bornand together 8 minutes and 40 seconds behind Costa.

That means Chris Froome will take a almost insurmountable lead of 5 minutes 11 seconds over Contador into tomorrow's final mountain stage and it would take a collapse of epic proportions for him to lose that. What's more likely is that the two small men in Nairo Quintana in third and Joaquim Rodriguez in fifth will try and vault over Contador in the standings for the final podium positions. Contador leads Quintana by just 21 seconds with Rodriguez 47 seconds behind his fellow countryman.

One final prize up for grabs tomorrow is the King of the Mountains competition. A host of points are up for grabs including 50 for the first man to the summit finish at Annecy-Semnoz and just 11 points separate first place Froome from fifth place Christophe Riblon with Pierre Rolland, Mikel Nieve and Quintana wedge in between. Safe to say the first man to the top of tomorrow's final climb -- the final climb in this Tour -- will pull on the King of the Mountains jersey. It would be quite an achievement to see Froome win both the Yellow and the Polka-Dot jersey's but I think it might be nicer to see it fall onto the shoulders of either someone who really wants it -- Rolland -- or a pure climber like Quintana. Also on someone who will wear it into Paris as the actual winner and not because Froome is wearing the more coveted Yellow.

We'll watch with anticipation as we have this whole Tour.