Stage 10 – British Invasion for Bastille Day

The first mountain stage rolled out perfectly for Chris Froome and his British Team Sky.  As predicted the Sky train set a fast pace into the Pyrénées causing a steady erosion of GC contenders and pretenders from the peloton.  Once on the final climb, Valverde (Movistar) tried the strategy I suggested yesterday: namely attack the peloton in hopes of causing panic, over-reaction and blow-up by Sky,  He tried it several times, but each time Sky kept their cool and steadily reeled him in.  Then Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) tried it.  Same result: no panic, steady recapture.  The victims of these assaults were not Sky and Froome, but other GC boys such as Nibali and Mollema.  The French hopefuls for Bastille Day fireworks (Pinot, Péreaud, and Bardet) steadily lost ground.  French riders Gallopin and Barguil managed best to save face for the host country, moving up in the standings, but still losing time. 

About when Contador and Van Garderen began to slip off the back end of Sky’s dwindling peloton, Froome launched a counter-attack of his own that left Quintana in the dust.  He raced the final kilometers by himself for the victory.  His own teammates, Richie Porte and Thomas Geraint led a dozen stragglers home with time gaps ranging from one minute to three. 

Before today, 4 riders were within one minute of Froome, and 11 others were within three minutes.  After today, the closest rider (Van Garderen) is almost 3 minutes behind, and only six others are within five minutes. 

Of my original top-6, only Van Garderen, Quintana and Contador are in that small 5-minute group (along with Quintana’s teammate Valverde – the “other Spaniard”).  Nibali and Mollema are at minus 7 minutes, and seem lucky to be that “close.”   Three who have exceeded my expectations are Gallopin, Gesink and Barguil in 7^th, 8^th and 9^th places at deficits of 4:33 to 6:12. 

One or two more days like today, and Froome will have demoralized everyone except Sky, and he will have an iron grip on the Yellow Jersey.  Team Sky demolished BMC’s former lead in the team competition, going from a 7:30 deficit to a 6:03 lead.

On the Green Jersey front:  The see-saw battle continues.  Greipel collected six more points than Sagan at the intermediate sprint, jumping back into the Green Jersey with a lead of three points.  This pattern of small changes will likely continue for two more days, before a stage-ending sprint might occur in Stage 13, with really big points at stake.

Two bits of sad news:  You may remember that Lars Boom (Astana) nearly missed the Tour this year when a pre-race lab test showed he had low cortisol levels.  Astana chose to include him on the squad anyway, with doctors saying his health was not at risk.  Today, Lars Boom withdrew from the Tour, and we learn he has been suffering with a fever.  Ivan Basso (Tinkoff-Saxo) also abandoned overnight, having been diagnosed with testicular cancer.  Best wishes, to both of them.  Ivan, get the cancer treated, and may you recover fully and quickly.

We enter the Pyrénées!  Let the climbing begin!

Another view:  Mont Canigou (Pyrénées) from Perpignan in February.  The snow will be off the roads, but if a storm comes through, it could snow on the riders even in July.