07-07-2017, 20:24
The breakaway didn't let me down and the peloton catch-up didn't let me down, but Michael Matthews could "only" finish 3rd and Andre Greipel 9th. The mad-cap sprint was won by Marcel Kittel by the narrowest of margins - enter your own narrow margin simile here - from Edvald Boasson-Hagen. Alexander Kristoff and John Degenkolb followed them home. That's three out of three for Kittel and there could easily be more to come in the next two weeks. Because of the sprint timing rules the first 124 riders were given the same time as the winner, so don't expect any changes to the overall classification.
What did change was the Green Jersey Points competition. Marcel Kittel took over the lead with another 50 points to reach 197 points. Arnaud Demare is on 184 points with Michael Matthews 3rd on 123 points.
After the tedium of the flatter, benign stages, tomorrow sees the Tour going up into the Jura Mountains from Dole, reaching Station des rousses 187.5km later, almost at the Swiss border. Dole is famous as the birthplace of Louis Pasteur and not much else, while Station des rousses is well known as a ski resort, hopefully snow-free just now. My apologies for banging on about it, but this stage is tailor-made for a Steve Cummings breakaway attack. He fancies winning a stage and tomorrow's is fairly hard with an early sprint, then 3 climbs for Category 3, 2, 1 (remember that?), followed by rolling hills for the last 12km. The Category 1 climb lasts for 11.7km and is steadily uphill with gradients between 3.5% and 8.1%. In the absence of Cummings at the front, I'll fall back to Rolland and Pinot to make a bold move for the stage and they will hopefully be joined by other experienced riders who don't pose a challenge to Chris Froome and the rest of the Yellow Jersey contenders, who will probably too busy watching each other to make a positive move, keeping their powder dry for Sunday.
What did change was the Green Jersey Points competition. Marcel Kittel took over the lead with another 50 points to reach 197 points. Arnaud Demare is on 184 points with Michael Matthews 3rd on 123 points.
After the tedium of the flatter, benign stages, tomorrow sees the Tour going up into the Jura Mountains from Dole, reaching Station des rousses 187.5km later, almost at the Swiss border. Dole is famous as the birthplace of Louis Pasteur and not much else, while Station des rousses is well known as a ski resort, hopefully snow-free just now. My apologies for banging on about it, but this stage is tailor-made for a Steve Cummings breakaway attack. He fancies winning a stage and tomorrow's is fairly hard with an early sprint, then 3 climbs for Category 3, 2, 1 (remember that?), followed by rolling hills for the last 12km. The Category 1 climb lasts for 11.7km and is steadily uphill with gradients between 3.5% and 8.1%. In the absence of Cummings at the front, I'll fall back to Rolland and Pinot to make a bold move for the stage and they will hopefully be joined by other experienced riders who don't pose a challenge to Chris Froome and the rest of the Yellow Jersey contenders, who will probably too busy watching each other to make a positive move, keeping their powder dry for Sunday.
Cabbage is still good for you