A quiet rest day is how it should be

How strange it must be for everyone on the Tour to have such tranquility on the rest days? It's been going that way the past few years but more so this year than ever before has there been a distinct lack of gossip and controversy and despite what some suckers for such stuff might tell you, it can only be a good thing and a sign of the times of where the sport is at.

Once upon a time a rest day at the Tour couldn't come or go without a scandal, and usually a doping scandal at that. A top rider testing positive; a collection of riders being caught. The press would scramble, rumours would swirl and the fallout with threaten to overshadow what was going on in the race itself.

In more recent years with the number of actual positive tests going down the scandal pages (or twitter accounts as it has morphed into) have been filled with speculation, accusation and innuendo. Whomever happens to be wearing the yellow jersey at the time of either rest day -- and more so the second rest day because that is often the man in yellow who might well keep it until Paris -- is hit with a barrage of questions about his stance on doping and whether he himself might be doping.

It was part and partial of being the yellow jersey,  to answer for the crimes of those that had come before and tarnished it. But Chris Froome is now on his third bid to win the Tour and thus in his sixth rest day before the microphones and there's only so many times the same questions can be asked and answered with no sign of a legitimate scandal before things should begin to settle down. Especially when Chris Froome speaks so well. Perhaps though it is without a massive effort in the high mountains by the yellow jersey -- something that might come in this final week -- that have kept those questions at bay. But really, with each passing year the sport appears to be moving further away from those dark days. That isn't to say everything is rosy, but it is to say that Chris Froome can no longer be expected to answer for all of it...certainly not on mere speculation, or worse, insinuation, stuff that is more and more being limited to a corner of social media.

And so it's been a quiet day and we've been left to try do something else with our time for twenty-four hours...practice perhaps for what we'll have to do day after day once this beautiful event comes to an end next Sunday!

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Talking points

So what news has their been today?

Mark Cavendish has left the Tour officially in the last hour. Four wins to his name appears to be enough and he doesn't fancy compromising his fine tuning ahead of a bid for gold on the track at the Rio Olympics by spending five days in the Alps. Not for one shot at another victory in Paris on Sunday. It's unfortunate for he could well have made it five and moved one step closer to the Merckx record of stage wins, but it's understandable too. If Cavendish can return in 2017 with this kind of form -- gained surely by his forcus on pure speed from the track once more -- then he could certainly win four stages again and find himself level with the great Belgian.

Sticking with British cycling and it would appear that Steve Cummings has got his Rio wish after all. Many questioned British Cycling for leaving him off their road squad for the Olympics when he won a stage in superb style earlier in the Tour to go with a couple of other brilliant race wins this season, and now it seems that Peter Kennaugh has dropped out of the squad after struggling to recover from an injury and opened up a spot for Cummings. Cummings is an opportunist unlike few others and the course could well suit him. He'll have to work for Froome but given Froome's lack of pedigree in one day races he might also get a chance to try something for himself.

Most people think Chris Froome has now won this Tour and many worry that those behind him won't want to sacrifice their own positions to try and hunt him down. Not so claims Adam Yates who has said he will try to attack Froome if possible.

Another way to beat Froome might be for teams to form an alliance and a rumour coming out of the rest day is that Movistar and Astana may try and do just that to further the ambitions of Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and Fabio Aru. With a number of big names on each squad to go with those three, especially Vincenzo Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang at Astana, you have to think they could make something work. To at least shake Sky off their routine at the very least.

So, as you can see. Relatively tame all around and everyone will be delighted to get back to the racing tomorrow to give us all something to talk about, especially with such a big mountain stage to come...one with a hard summit finish that may answer some of the remaining questions we still have, questions that are entirely cycling related.

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Rider of the week

It has to be Chris Froome for that run up Mont Ventoux...not to mention his attack with Sagan that helped build on his GC lead and put his rivals into recovery mode before they'd even hit the big mountains. All that and the second place in the time-trial.