two stages in today's episode, both of them need the knowledge of the secrets of the spring races to not lose the tour here.
First one was stage 3, finishing on the legendary Mur van Huy.
Main favourites were from the Tinkoff train, but if I have good legs already I can put the hurts on anybody.
This day was pretty calm until the last 15 kilometers. The break was always on hold, so that there was no real danger for the big guns. But coming to the penultimate climb the pace even slowed down a little as the break was caught and no one felt responsible for setting the pace.
So I decided to inject some pace over the top to see if my descending skills could create a gap without putting too much of an effort in that. The long and technical downhill section directly led into the Mur, and I had a decent advantage over the peloton.
Sadly two guys sat in my wheel, who refused to do any work as I flicked my elbow. I was not that surprised anymore when I saw that one guy was Dunbar, the master of wheelsucking in the Ardennes, who also had Aru in the pack. But from van der Poel I expected something more...
Turning the corner to the Mur they did some effort for the first time, and immediately I fell apart. But still I found my rythm, finishing third on top of the Mur with a good advantage on the crushed pack. Dunbar was victorious over Mathieu at the end, but I got a first spot on the podium going for me which is nice.
1
Eddie Dunbar
Tinkoff-Saxo
3h22'20
2
Mathieu van der Poel
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
3
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 9
4
James Oram
Phonak
+ 33
5
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
6
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
7
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
+ 44
8
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
9
Adam Yates
Bwin
s.t.
10
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
Fourth was the cobbled stage headin into France, long and tough roads until teh finishing line in Cambrai.
It should be clearly a day for the cobblers, most likely the ones with a decent sprinting ability.
And believe it or not, this was my target race for the first tour week. Time to kick some ass from the climbers which aren´t that great in terms of technical abilities. I would´ve sent my guys to inject some pace right when I felt crosswind or cobbles, but well, my team is also not made for that you know.
But this race was stunning. The teams battled in all possibble ways; Giant and Etixx seemed to be very angry about something. Vanmarcke went from 60 out to kill the break, and when the peloton was reduced to around 25 riders Degenkolb, Lampaert and Debusschere attacked one by one.
There was no stopping them, but that was no problem for me. The hard racing payed off, at the end I was completely cooked but won time on most of my opponents. Excluding Thibaut & Wilco, they look frightning.
1
John Degenkolb
Etixx - Quick-step
5h04'00
2
Jens Debusschere
Lotto Soudal
+ 21
3
Yves Lampaert
Rusal
s.t.
4
Sep Vanmarcke
Lotto Soudal
+ 57
5
Marcel Kittel
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 1'53
6
Alexander Kristoff
Rusal
s.t.
7
Bryan Coquard
Orange
s.t.
8
Lars Boom
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
9
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
s.t.
10
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
16
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
17
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
20
Ion Izagirre
Desigual
s.t.
21
Warren Barguil
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
23
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
25
Geraint Thomas
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
In the GC it´s Degenkolb now leading, while I am in a perfect position for the following weeks.
1
John Degenkolb
Etixx - Quick-step
12h08'45
2
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
+ 28
3
Yves Lampaert
Rusal
+ 48
4
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
+ 1'18
5
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 1'21
6
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 1'26
Additionally, Kittel is in green now & Vanmarcke stays in red, Benoot in white and Lotto - Soudal leading the TC.
The next days won´t be too hard, but somehow I can already see the mountains arising on the horizon.
kind of a bigger jump to my next post, coming from the first rest day up in La Pierre Saint Martin.
Stage 5 was no trouble at all for me, in Amiens Kittel was first over Theuns and Cavendish. Willy was out of the contest again sadly.
1
Marcel Kittel
Orica-GreenEDGE
4h00'27
2
Edward Theuns
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
3
Mark Cavendish
Nike
s.t.
The next day to Le Havre was similar to stage 5, just with a kick-up to the finishing line. In the tough uphill sprint some gaps broke up, so that 8 riders lead by Kristoff took 18 seconds away from my group. Kwiatek still safely in the lead.
Following one was flat again and lead into Fourgeres, where I stayed out of trouble seing Coquard winning over Theuns & Sagan and grab the green jersey.
1
Bryan Coquard
Orange
4h15'54
2
Edward Theuns
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
3
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
Stage 8 was similar to the previous ones profilewise, with also an uphill sprint at the end of it at the Mur de Bretagne. And the result was nearly the same, I lost 20 seconds to a small group sprinting faster uphill. This time the punchy sprinters weren´t involved but the pure puncheurs, from whom van der Poel was stronger than anbody else.
1
Mathieu van der Poel
Lotto Soudal
3h40'12
2
James Oram
Phonak
s.t.
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
4
Eddie Dunbar
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
5
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
s.t.
6
Rui Costa
Rusal
s.t.
7
Nairo Quintana
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
8
Moreno Hofland
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 20
9
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
13
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
Stage 9 was just horrible. A medium long TTT to Plumelec, and we lost 1'19 to the fastest team. Only bright side was that Giant was even slower, but they had already men going out of the Tour. Leaders team Desiqual was unbeatable that day.
1
Desigual
32'51
2
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 4
3
Bwin
+ 12
4
Nike
+ 19
5
Phonak
+ 25
15
Bora - Argon 18
+ 1'20
20
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 1'44
And finally there was stage 10, with the horrible climb up to La Pierre Saint Martin waiting for us.
And this turned to be an epic 3-way battle. Kwiatkowski wasted all his men including Herrada, Intxausti and finally Contador on the climb. He couldn´t hold onto it though when the first big attacks came. Quintana brought Kelderman up and he launched his attack on the right, while I went on the left for an acceleration. The only man to follow was Thibaut Pinot, even Yates couldn´t bring Froome back.
But Kelderman stayed behind having Nairo in his mind, while Thibaut and I shared the pace. At the end we couldn´t hold him, but didn´t lost time to him.
1
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
3h56'00
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
3
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
4
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 1'22
5
Chris Froome
Bwin
s.t.
6
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
s.t.
7
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 2'11
8
Nairo Quintana
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 2'24
9
Alberto Contador
Desigual
+ 2'32
10
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
Any other rider suffered, but Kwiatek stayed in yellow for the rest day. The GC looks good for now, a third place at the moment with nothing lost yet...
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
32h52'45
2
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
+ 25
3
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 1'29
4
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 1'38
5
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 4'31
6
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 5'33
7
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 5'37
8
Lawson Craddock
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 5'40
9
Julian Alaphilippe
Nike
+ 6'08
10
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto Soudal
+ 6'23
Additionally Coquard stayes in green and Nike leads the TC.
two tough climbing days coming up for you now. First of them was the stage from Pau to Cauteres. This had some seious action for me, and after that well looking day to La Pierre Saint Martin I felt pretty confident for this.
On this day over the Col d'Aspen and the Col de Tourmalet abigger group escape as the stage seemed perfect for barodeurs with climbing abilities. In the front group an elite group containing Dunbar, van der Poel, Wellens, italian champ Bagaglini, Coppel, Herklotz, french climbing talent Lafay, Ulissi and Conti lined up. We took over the chase ourselves, making sure to have a shot on the day.
Attacking over the Tourmalet and time after time on the descent to crack Pinot didn´t work, he seems to have worked on his downhill problems. But instead we caught what was remaining from the break to work together. The later slopes up the Cote de Cauteres weren´t too much of a problem, so as a group of seven we came to the finishing line (Eddie lost contact on the Cote). There I was the strongest of us, celebrating one of the greatest victories lately.
How good a victory at Le Tour smells, especially beating the likes of Pinot, Kelderman and Froome.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
4h47'52
2
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
4
Chris Froome
Bwin
s.t.
5
Adam Yates
Bwin
s.t.
6
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
s.t.
7
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
8
Eddie Dunbar
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 1'43
9
Nairo Quintana
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 4'08
10
Alberto Contador
Desigual
s.t.
Riding up to Plateau de Beille was the next thing waiting for us. Starting in Lannemezan we went over some minor climbes to the huge Plateau. The calm race was controlled by Kwiateks team, and they sucessfully blocked everything until half of the last climb.
Then he exploded due to an attack of Pinot, which many riders including me sucessfully countered. So at the end it was a mountain sprint for the victory excluding the yellow jersey. Adam Yates took it, coming around me just when I was almost sure to have successfully outsprinted all others. So kudos to him, and shame for me to miss out on another win.
1
Adam Yates
Bwin
5h34'38
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
4
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
5
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
6
Chris Froome
Bwin
+ 17
7
Nairo Quintana
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
8
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
9
Louis Meintjes
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 1'07
10
Lawson Craddock
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 2'38
On the bright side of the day we gained a place in the GC due to the crack of Michal. Thibaut Pinot is now the new leader.
The GC after the first days of the very hard second week now looks like this:
1
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
43h15'40
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 1'04
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 1'13
4
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
+ 2'24
5
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 5'12
6
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
+ 6'29
7
Chris Froome
Bwin
+ 6'40
8
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 8'14
9
Nairo Quintana
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 10'50
10
Lawson Craddock
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 12'01
Coquard, Dunbar (11th GC) and Kelderman still in their jerseys, Bwin is first in the TC.
For the moment it seems like Thibaut & Wilco are the biggest shots on the GC, but don´t count me out, I´m not that of an old man to crack.
yep, we came here to Gap, the fmaous finishing town for transitional stages between Alpes and the Pyrenees. We´re already into the third week, and we can see the big climbs on the horizon yet. Still it´s anybodys game, but over the four more or less hilly transitional stages the GC got slightly mixed up. Let´s see how we did.
Starting up with stage 13 there was a hilly finish in Rodez.
A typical Sagan stage, if e wouldn´t have to work for his superb team, where Alejandro Valverde! (with 80 HI by the way) is the weakest rider of the tour team. However, a group of 6 managed to pull aaway on the final hills and battled out the winner. Kwiatek was the strongest of these to strike back from his mountain losses and gain some time on the yellow jersey.
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
4h25'37
2
Eddie Dunbar
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 8
3
Louis Meintjes
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
4
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 25
5
Mathieu van der Poel
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
6
James Oram
Phonak
+ 36
7
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto Soudal
+ 50
8
Rui Costa
Rusal
+ 59
10
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
12
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
14
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
From Rudez the Tour train went to Mende the next day.
The steep ramp near the finishing line invited the guys to attack each other, and guess who nailed that: Michal Kwiatkowski. He killed it again beating everyoneand finishing 50 seconds ahead of me and Wilco. The couple of us worked brilliantly together to set Thibaut under pressure. At the end of the day he really cracked, losing 1"50 to us. That would´ve brought me into yellow, if Kwiatek wouldn´t have gained enough time to take it back.
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
4h04'29
2
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 29
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 44
4
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
17
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
+ 2'34
The next one was just a flat day into Valence, no big actioned happened there for us. The GC stayed the same while Alex Kristoff took the day. There we had a well deserved rest day, before the final week of racing started.
Over the Col de Manse this one headed into Gap, from where I´m writing you right now. And you might have guessed it, Kwiatek won again.
I fought for my life to hang onto him, while Wilco looked pretty strong down them roads. That might be a bad indicator for the upcoming horrible climbs, but the results of this stage don´t look too bad.
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
4h27'57
2
Julian Alaphilippe
Nike
s.t.
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
4
Adam Yates
Bwin
s.t.
5
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
11
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
+ 44
Pinot lost some seconds again, which might be clinical for him. Still Kwiatek is in the lead, but he should struggle in the mountains. The task is to beat Wilco, who seems to be the invincible guy for the moment.
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
60h21'43
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 23
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 32
4
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
+ 1'53
5
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 3'42
6
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
+ 7'42
7
Chris Froome
Bwin
+ 7'53
8
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 9'27
9
Louis Meintjes
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 13'06
10
Rui Costa
Rusal
+ 13'12
By the way Dunbar defended his jersey as well as Nike the TC. But anyway, with Pra-Loup, La Toussuire and Alpe d'Huez coming up everything can change. I´m looking forward to that.
here we go again, with 2 stages before the double-screamer waits for us.
Stage 17: Digne-Les-Bains -> Pra-Loup
Stage started very badly, crashing at Col d'Allos made me already feel that I lost this tour, but Buchmann did a great job to bring me back to the fore. Still we lost Konrad and Willwohl on that crash, especially bad thinking of Patrick being my only climbing domestique.
I made it over the Col with the second group, while Adam Yates was 2"30 in front with some others, so danger there. But Quintana pulled him back for Wilco, who rode the final climb to Pra-Loup from the front. If there weren´t riders between us I would´ve lost a couple of seconds to Wilco and P2, but luckily I just could hang on to the group of 19 getting ranked on the same time.
There were no changes in the GC at all for stage 18.
1
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
4h18'51
2
Nairo Quintana
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
3
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
16
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
Stage 18: Gap -> St-Jean-de-Maurienne
This one was over the huge Glandon, and one of the few days for the breakaway. No one was willing to put some effort in it, they somehow all watched me. And without Patrick we had nothing to offer, I even had to do some riding myself up the Glandon and the ramps before Saint Jean de Maurienne.
As said the break won comfortably, Diego Ulissi was victorious. I have the feeling that I wasted loads of energy to stay safe in my good overall position:
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
64h40'34
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 23
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 32
4
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
+ 1'53
5
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 3'42
6
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
+ 7'42
Now there are to jobs left: Crack Kwiatek and stay with Kelderman. Not the easiest of imaginable tasks, especially feeling not too good today. Let´s see what is left in the tank.
Cambrai, 8.7.2018 
