Fitting win for Barguil; Stalemate on the podium

It was the last chance saloon for the climbers. A last opportunity to try and take time from Chris Froome before Saturday's time-trial. A final battle between Louis Meintjes and Simon Yates in the white jersey contest. One last chance to stop Warren Barguil's claim on the polka-dot jersey. And the little matter of someone winning the stage.

This was a stage race within the race in which there were many mini-races taking place. Once they hit the final climb of the Col d'Izoard, you didn't know where to look. There was always something going on. It was the first time the race has finished up this Alpine Giant and you have to wonder why it took so long? It was a brute and it wore the very best down to exhaustion.

Roglic rides to glory; Matthews takes green; Aru loses time

The last time a stage of the Tour de France finished in Serre Chevalier was in 1993. Tony Rominger won that day though it was the first mountain stage of the Tour unlike one of the last this year. Miguel Indurain, the dominate rider of the 90s, finished second on the stage. He had taken the yellow jersey at the individual time-trial the day before and would carry it all the way to Paris. It would be his third straight Tour victory. Chris Froome, the dominant rider of this decade, finished third today. He is hoping to carry yellow on into Paris too now for what would be the third straight time, and fourth in all.

Froome's time-trial is still to come but the distance against the clock is much less these days. As such the time gaps are tighter. It may have only be the 10th stage that year, but Indurain already led the second place man by more than 3 minuets. Froome went to bed last night with less than half a minute lead over two men. The similarities are there though. The man in second place in '93 was Colombian Alvaro Mejia; this year it is his compatriot, Rigoberto Uran.  Mejia would go on to finish 4th that year with Rominger coming up to second. Uran will be hoping for better.

The cross winds arrive and Dan Martin's GC hope get blown away as Quick Step drop the ball

If I told you before the stage to name me one team that would thrive today in cross winds, who would it be? My guess is you would name either Lotto Soudal or Quick-Step. And that would be my pick too. Yet, when the winds blew and the gaps began to form, Quick-Step where missing.

Dan Martin, their best placed rider on the general classification (5th at 1'12") was left exposed. A climber by nature he isn't built for this and needed his team more than ever. Heck, they have been absent in the high mountains so now seemed like a good time to show up for him. But where was Quick-Step? Philippe Gilbert didn't start the stage citing illness, but the rest were off the back. Way off the back. Protecting the green jersey of Marcel Kittel instead.

The race for the Lanterne Rouge

I usually keep more track of this than I have. But here, at the second rest day, seems like as good a time as any to take a look at it. As of right now, Dan McLay of Team Fortuneo-Oscaro, is sitting last man in the general classification by 8 minutes 19 seconds. To look at that you might not think it is close, but time gaps at the back are much different than time gaps at the front. With some big mountain stages to come, and some serious time to lose, the Lanterne Rouge is very much up for grabs.

Froome wrestles back yellow and then almost loses it again

I was out on the bike on Saturday morning so missed the live coverage of the stage. Looking at the profile I had hedged my bets. It looked like a stage for exciting racing, but without too much in the way of major climbing. I felt it was unlikely that the balance of the race itself might swing. But as I swung into a small town and pulled over at a coffee shop, I pulled out my phone and seen the notification: "Froome back in yellow."

What on earth had happened? I bought my tea and a butter tart, and sat down to catch up.

Fireworks on Bastille Day: A French winner and more contenders for GC

What a frantic day. A 101km stage across three category one climbs. It had all the makings of a classic, and so it proved to be. Fireworks across the mountains on Bastille Day. Attacks at the sharp end of the general classification, and a French winner to boot. The first such winner on July 14th since David Moncoutié in 2005.

Warren Barguil will be the toast of France in his polka-dot jersey. What a courageous ride it was as the drama and action for the yellow jersey blew up around him.

Further notes on the chaos of yesterday before the sure madness of today

With today's stage starting later and so many talking points still lingering from yesterday, I thought I'd put down some thoughts on them.

Change in yellow...Tour blown wide open!

A change in the race lead shouldn't come as a major surprise. I mean, Fabio Aru did only trail Chris Froome by 18 seconds coming into the stage. And yet, I'm still shocked that it has happened, and I don't quite know why? Aru has looked excellent thus far in this race, winning a stage, while Froome has failed to isolate the Italian when given the chance. With the stage win going to Romain Bardet ahead of Rigoberto Uran with Aru two seconds behind in third and Froome 7th at 22 seconds, Aru is into yellow. He leads Froome now by 6 seconds. Bardet is still in third, but only 25 seconds behind, with Uran a further 30 seconds back.

I still like to watch the predictable long and flat stages

There has been a lot of long, flat stages in this years Tour. The kind in which the break goes up the road, gets reeled back in and from which a bunch sprint ensues. It's not as bad as the 90's when the entire first week was dedicated to such racing, but in an age in which so much of the Tour is on TV, it stands out more.

Three kinds of Tour stages

There are three kinds of stages in the Tour de France: Time trials, mountain stages, and Kittel stages. Yes, what was once sprint stages on the flat days, now belongs to a 29 year old German. Unbeatable on such days, or so it seems.

Marcel Kittel has won both stages since the rest day, and both with relative ease. Each stage was much like those that came in the first week of the Tour. A small break would go up the road early and get chased down late before the fast men finished behind Kittel. The only difference between yesterday and today was the margin of victory by Kittel. Today was a little closer, though never in doubt. Yesterday he won by several lengths. In truth there ought to have been a time gap to the rest.

Another cyclist killed; A plea to all motorists

Another cyclist killed on the road yesterday. It was in Northern Ireland, but the location doesn't matter, except that it struck close to home for me. The following is a Facebook post from my dad who was at the scene, with some thoughts of my own below. Please give it a read:

Rest day musings

For all the flat stages in which an early break gets brought back in time for the bunch gallop, this Tour has sure been full of drama. That is often the case at the Tour, but I don't remember one in which there were so many points of debate within the first nine stages. From the Sagan-Cavendish incident, to the photo finish on stage 7 to many moments on Sunday's stage 9. It feels like we're two weeks in rather than one.

And with each debate so the last debate drifts out of mind. I have said it a few times already, but the Tour moves fast and not only on the road. Something else will happen next week that will move the narrative on once more. And how refreshing too that the controversy is about what is happening on the bikes, if you know what I mean? Rest days ain't what they used to be. All we're doing now is looking back at what has been and considering how it all adds up to what we will see in the days ahead.

Crashes, attacks, and controversy: Two wild days in the mountains at the Tour

Coming into stage 8 on Saturday morning there were eight men within a minute of Chris Froome's yellow jersey. By the time they went to bed on Sunday night, ready for a rest day, that number was down to three. And while some fell away in the standings, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, well placed coming into the weekend, fell away on the road and had to abandon.

The yellow jersey came through unscathed with two crucial days ticked off in his bid to defend his title. His lead is only 18 seconds but in hindsight, with all we seen, he'll take it. Likewise might his now closest rivals, Fabio Aru at 18 seconds, Romain Bardet at 51 seconds, and the surprising Rigoberto Uran at 55 seconds. Of them, Aru courted controversy, Bardet animated Sunday and Uran took a stage win. It was a weekend that threw up so many talking points as the race hit the high mountains. Eight categorised climbs over the two stages, of which four were category one or higher.

The width of the thread of a tire

"It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning's winning." ~ Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Fast and Furious

But what if the margin of victory is a millimetre. 0.0003 of a second, or something like that. They had to blow the picture up hundred of times over to tell for sure that Marcel Kittel had beaten Edvald Boasson Hagen in the sprint. The standard photo finish picture looks a draw every time. And until recent technology made such blow up images possible, that is what it would have been.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 4: The sprinters take over

Sunday, July 6, 1997

The following morning only 3,943km separated the riders from the finish in Paris. To get there the route would circle France in a counter clockwise direction hitting the Pyrenees first. Long before the mountains though came the sprinters stages. July 6 was the first one; a 192km ride to Froges les Eaux.

The Tour moves on and so does the yellow jersey

The Tour de France moves at a frantic pace, and not only on the road. Today's newspaper is tomorrow's chip wrapper, as the old saying goes. Yesterday morning the papers in France led with the Sagan-Cavendish incident, but today it is already old news. It was the first summit finish of the Tour, and the climbers have taken over the narrative.

The first mountain stage will do that. Everything that has gone before no longer matters. Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish may be two of the faces of the sport, but we all know the Tour belongs to those who can ride in the mountains. The incident that eliminated the pair will live long in the memory, and go down in Tour history, but the race goes on. It always does.

Fireworks on the 4th July...in France: Sagan disqualified and sent home

Let me start right at the top with the major news to come out of today's stage: Peter Sagan has been disqualified from the Tour de France and sent home. A bombshell that nobody seen coming. Not before the stage and not even after the incident that led to the penalty.

For a lot of this stage I thought the talking point would be about how this was the most boring stage of the Tour. In some ways it was, but it won't be remembered that way anymore. I felt that once we had digested another bunch gallop that talk would centre around Guillaume van Keirsbulck's brave solo attack. But bunch gallops in themselves often throw up drama and there was enough inside the final kilometre of today's stage to keep everyone talking well into the night.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 3: Boardman regains his prologue crown

Saturday, July 5, 1997

It was a sunny day in Rouen on Saturday, July 5, 1997, and Chris Boardman was happy. The Englishman was a prologue specialist and this was the prologue of the Tour de France. But it was the sunshine that mattered to him most.

Advantage Froome, and Sky, on the opening weekend

We are three stages in now and each stage has been different than the other. The first was a time-trial that gave us a classification and the chance to look at time gaps. The second stage gave the sprinters a turn to stretch their legs. And the third stage was designed to shake up the sharp end of that classification with a short but steep uphill finish. And while Geraint Thomas may have presented himself as a surprise winner of that time-trial, Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan winning the next two stages, was right on script.

I spent the opening weekend of the Tour out of town. It was the Canada Day 150th anniversary celebrations on the day the Tour started. The celebrations ran through the weekend and into Monday. I was able to watch the Tour, or at least the parts that mattered, and I even clocked up 185km of riding. But I had no time, nor desire, to sit in from of a computer and write about the Tour. Best to let it all play out anyway; let it settle down, bed in, and give me pause for thought before making comment. And so here I am then on Monday evening, looking back at what has been over the opening weekend.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 2: Building up

Friday, July 4, 1997

In those days, as a teenager, I did a lot of my own cycling but watched far less. In many ways my cycling season, with regards to the television, began and ended with the Tour. The rest of the year was football. Sometimes I would go out of my way to watch Paris-Roubaix, but there was little beyond that. I lived for the Tour and my month of July belonged to it; set to a soundtrack of the voices of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.