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To my amazement, never mind yours, my two picks for today's stage managed to triumph on the final sprint. Thomas De Gendt had been in the breakaway for most of the stage, finally going solo, but was hauled in by the peloton with 12km to go. After a fair bit of toing and froing, the scene was set for a hard slog up the final crest, with Michael Matthews winning comfortably, easing off in the last 40m. A fast finishing Greg  Van Avermaet was a clear second, with a group led by Edvald Boasson Hagen and including Froome, Martin and Uran 1 second behind. Bardet and Yates were 5 seconds behind and Landa was 15 seconds adrift. The one leading GC rider to really miss the final surge to the line was the Yellow Jersey of Fabian Aru, who somehow managed to lose ground by finishing 25 seconds behind.

This now means Chris Froome regains the Yellow Jersey, leading Aru by 18 seconds, Bardet by 23 seconds and Uran by 29 seconds. Landa is 1m 17 seconds behind and the amazing Dan Martin - when he gets off the bike he can't stand up straight, can hardly stand, in fact - is a further 9 seconds away. Marcel Kittel still leads Michael Matthews by 99 points for the Green Jersey and Warren Barguil dominates the Polka Dot Jersey, although there are lots of points to be won in the 3rd week. Simon Yates leads the White Jersey rankings from Louis Meintjes with a 3m 7s advantage.

Back in the mountains for tomorrow's stage from Laissac-Severac l'Eglise to Le Puy-en-Velay, which features Category 1 and Category 3 climbs with an uphill sprint at the halfway point, immediately followed by an long uncategorised climb. Later on there are another 2 climbs (Cat 1 and 4) with a short downhill section to a flat finish. I expect to see the usual Sky train dominating the peloton, but always expect the unexpected with the time differences so small. A fully fit Dan Martin would be a strong favourite, even a half fit one will cause problems, but I'd go for Lilian Calmejane to repeat his Stage 8 win with a long range solo effort.

As an aside and in recognition of the Wimbledon Ladies Final today, Le Puy-en-Velay is the birthplace of the 2013 champion, Marion Bartoli.

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A very quick report tonight to confirm I was right about a long solo breakaway winning the stage, but totally wrong about the rider. Bauke Mollema held off the pursuing pack of Diego Ulissi, Tony Gallopin and Primoz Roglic by 19 seconds with Warren Barguil a further 4 seconds behind. Lilian Calmejane finished 7th 1m 4s behind.

There's noreal change in the overall rankings with all the main players coming in 6m 25s behind the winner. Warren Barguil and Michael Matthews continue to impress in their respective categories.

We'll all get a wee break tomorrow with a rest day before a half mountain/half rolling hills stage on Tuesday.

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Tomorrow's 169.5km stage heads east towards the Alps from Le Puy-en-Velay to Romans-sur-Isere, crossing the Rhone on it's way, and should be a good one for the sprinters, as it has two climbs early on (Category 3 at 20.5km and Category 4 at 65km) with an intermediate sprint at 121.5km before a long rolling run to the finish. There are long downhill stretches between the second climb and the sprint line, surely the scene of organised, meaningful attacks.

Sky will hope for a quieter day than yesterday and AG2R will hope for a more productive day to put pressure on Chris Froome. I expect Warren Barguil and Michael Matthews to be to the fore again in the hunt for points, with Marcel Kittel keeping his powder dry for a frantic finish. It's a toss-up between another long run for home to deny the sprinters or a mass attack at the end. I foresee a cat and mouse game between the top seven GC contenders, as the rest are too far back. Any rider wanting to mount a serious callenge to Froome must make inroads soon before the Time Trial in 4 day's time. To me, Bardet and Uran are the likeliest, as Aru has not shown enough awareness to make the decisive move. Now into the third week, tired legs could make all the difference at the end of stages and a few seconds deficit can turn into a few minutes in the last 10km.

The town of Romans-sur-Isere is famous as the birthplace of Phillippe Saint-Andre, French rugby union star of the Nineties and successful coach.

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Michael Matthews made a determined bid for the Green Jersey winning both the intermediate sprint and the stage, just pipping Edvald Boasson Hagen on the line with a group of 20 more riders being given the same time. A decidedly under par Marcel Kittel was nowhere to be seen all day. His teammate, Phillippe Gilbert, was forced to withdraw before the start suffering from gastro-enteritis and the suspicion is that the Quickstep team is definitely under the weather with even Dan Martin struggling to keep pace.

Matthews is now only 29 points behind Kittel and must now have massive belief that he can win in Paris. The Yellow Jersey rankings are unchanged at the top, but Martin has slipped back to 2m 3s behind. Warren Barguil still has a big lead in the Polka Dot Jersey and a good performance today will consolidate that lead.

Today's stage in the Alps is from La Mure to Serre-Chevalier and features a Category 2 climb, an intermediate sprint and then 3 massive climbs -

[ritchiebaby]

Internet now back on, but for how long?

The second climb is the 24km long HC category Col de la Croix de Fer, followed by a 28 km downhill, preceding the double whammy of the Cat 1 Col de Telegraph and the 17.7km HC Cat of Col du Galibier. There is then another 28 km downhill run to the finish before a short uphill, all of which should suit a rider like Romain Bardet. To have any chance of beating Chris Froome in Paris he must build up a substantial lead in the next two days before the Time Trial in Marseille. The time to do it will be up the Galibier and go like the wind on the downhill.

I see that Marcel Kittel is in deep trouble on today's stage, having been involved in a crash at the back of the peleton, which also included Warren Barguil riding into a field to avoid the fallen riders. Both riders now have a huge deficit to make up to defend their leading positions, especially considering the number of KOTM points Barguil could lose to his rivals.

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At home in the mountains, former ski-jumper Primoz Roglic did what I expected Romain Bardet to do to his GC rivals and rode away from the rest before the summit of the Galibier. Despite being chased on the long downhill sections by 5 committed riders all with their own agenda, he comfortably held them off by 1m 13s. A battling sprint in the last few metres resulted in Uran holding off Froome, Bardet and that man Barguil (how could I have doubted him) with Landa a further 3 seconds adrift.

There's a slight reshuffle in the GC rankings with Uran and Bardet 27 seconds behind Froome and Aru falling further behind at 53 seconds. Landa is still hanging on at 1m 24 s, with everyone else surely out of it now.

Once again Michael Matthews was a revelation, even winning the first KOTM points of the day, and kept up the pressure on the faltering Marcel Kittel's lead in the Green Jersey, which was reduced to 9 points. It turned out to be irrelevant as Kittel withdrew at the halfway stage to hand the prize to Matthews. The other notable abandonment was Thibault Pinot and also Briton Dan McLay.

Thanks to his consistent performances, Warren Barguil tightened his Grip on the Polka Dot Jersey despite Roglic scoring 30 points on the day. There are just enough mountain points available for Roglic to topple Barguil, but that totally depends on Barguil not scoring points over the next 2 days. Another productive day for him meant him forcing his way into the Top Ten GC rankings.

In the White Jersey competition, Simon Yates holds a healthy lead of 2m 28s over Louis Meintjes with 3rd placed Emanuel Buchmann a further 20 minutes behind.

Team Sky always seem to have a fantastic group of riders who work their socks off for both Froome and Landa and they deservedly lead the Team competition by 10m 35s from AG2R Mondial, with the other teams over 90 minutes behind.

Tomorrow sees the last day in the mountains, with the stage heading south from Briancon before turning back north to the finish at the Izoard, almost back where they started. There's an fairly gentle first half with a Cat 3 climb and an intermediate sprint before the Cat 1 Col de Vars and the 14.1km long HC climb of the Col d' Izoard.

If Chris Froome is to be challenged for the Yellow Jersey, he must be attacked on the final few kilometres of the Izoard, although he does seem to be back at his imperious best after his wobble on the Peyragudes. With the outstanding protection he receives from his team, Froome is normally as fresh as a daisy for the latter part of each stage and I wouldn't be surprised to see him win tomorrow. As far as Froome is concerned, there will be no need to keep tabs on anyone other than Uran, Bardet, Aru, Landa (who should be riding for Froome) and Martin. All other riders will be allowed a great deal of latitude, even the stage win. For a real outside chance, keep Alberto Contador in mind.

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It's that man Warren Barguil again, as he triumphed with a breakaway move on the Izoard, overtaking the other solo leaders, Alexei Lutsenko and then Darwin Atapuma in the last 6km. Barguil won by 20 seconds ahead of Atapuma, Romain Bardet and Chris Froome with Rigoberto Uran a further 2 seconds behind. Although well-placed for a long time, Alberto Contador fell back late on to finish 10th.

Bardet's 4 second time bonus narrowed Froome's GC lead to 23 seconds, but it's surely too little, too late. Uran slipped back to 29 seconds behind. Mikel Landa is 4th 1m 36s adrift ahead of Fabio Aru, who slipped back again to 1m 55s behind. Warren Barguil confirmed his position as King Of The Mountains today, and all things being equal, will be crowned in Paris on Sunday. Michael Matthews is virtually certain to be the Points Winner in Paris as well, being 160 points ahead of Andre Greipel with only 160 points available.

The longest stage of the Tour takes place tomorrow with 222.5 km heading south-west between Embrun and Salon-de-Provence, home of the reigning world champion aerobatics team. There are 2 Category 3 climbs early on, favouring a breakaway or two, then an uphill intermediate sprint and another Category 3 climb 45 km from the fairly flat finish. There will be the usual cat and mouse games involving the Top 5 GC contenders and there might not be a great deal of interest in chasing a breakaway for the sprinters to take over, although the stage is perfectly set up for that. I'll go for another breakaway win, expecting a few riders being given free licence to do their own thing - Steve Cummings, Lilian Calmejane and Maciej Bodnar spring to mind.

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Missed all today's stage and tonight's highlights due to family commitments, so it's only a results programme on here.

Basically the breakaway ruled, but one of the great sprinters got into the breakaway and won the stage. Edvald Boasson Hagen won by 5 seconds from Nikias Arndt with 6 riders 17 seconds behind and 1 rider 19 seconds behind. The next closest was 92 seconds and the usual suspects for the GC and about 140 others all rolled in over 12 minutes behind - no doubt saving themselves for tomorrow. Calmejane finished in 11th place, 1m 37s behind the winner.

As for tomorrow's Time Trial in Marseille, Chris Froome sets off last and has a really strong chance of finishing first. Just to make it more interesting, I'll pick Tony Martin to win, but still expect Chris Froome to extend his GC lead before the Coronation Procession on Sunday.

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Froome to win a TDF for a 4th time???? I must say certain sports like this one seem to be dominated by the same individual winners who win these titles year after year after year....... Maybe it's just me and my 'pet foibles' but what happened to true competition and other sportsmen/women from all over the world who effectively 'come through', compete and win this kinda competition to make it interesting and have a different winner for a change rather than the same of the same!!

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We now know why Maciej Bodnar was one of the riders taking it easy yesterday as he won the Time Trial in a time of 28m 15s, 1 second ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski and 6 seconds ahead of Chris Froome. Tony Martin was 4th a further 8 seconds adrift.  There was a slight reshuffle in the Yellow Jersey competition behind Froome, as Rigoberto Uran rode a good race to move up to 2nd place overall. Romain Bardet just made it onto the podium in 3rd place, despite a poor race, holding off Mikel Landa by 1 second overall.

In summary, no stage win for Chris Froome in a very competitive Tour, but he was always in command thanks to a tremendous effort by Team Sky. It seems that Michal Kwiatkowski was regarded as the Man Of The Tour for his work for Froome and Landa and he almost got his reward today in a strong ride. It was always going to be too much to hope for the close challengers that Froome would lose an advantage going into any Time Trial and it proved to be so.

I somewhat agree with 0762 regarding competition, but it has been gratifying to see a close race this year and Froome having to dig deep and show his true class and commitment in warding off all attempts to overtake him in the 3rd and decisive week. However, Mikel Landa will be joining Movistar (presumably because of Nairo Quintana never really being able to mount a serious challenge) for next season and must be considered to be a definite GC contender in 2018.

As usual, I'll not be watching tomorrow's procession into Paris but will try to catch the last lap hoping for a sprinters' charge for the line to give a bit of excitement. In the absence of Sagan, Cavendish, Demare and Kittel, there still will be a competitive finish with Michael Matthews the man of the moment. Even so, there is still plenty of choice for the last stage winner, including Andre Greipel, Alexander Kristoff and Greg Van Avermaet, who would be the one for me.