How could Eder not join the break of the day on such a major stage? His companions looked familiar as Elissonde, Atapuma and Simon Clarke had made the group too. Brambilla and GC 15th Bardet completed the group.
For an unclear reason, the peloton imposed a very high pace. As a result, everyone but Brambilla was reeled in again. He opened up a 1'50" gap on le Col du Galibier. Groupe Maillot Jaune was down to less than 50 riders.
The pace came down beyond the intermediate sprint, which gave Eder a new chance to attack. He sat 1'20" behind Brambilla, 4 km from the top.
The Italian hit a wall near the summit & saw Eder taking valuable points.
The duo was caught again before the 2nd sprint. Stuyven took the points.
Sky took charge on the Col de la Croix-de-Fer. Seba led Ruben towards the front. The bunch was 59 strong at the foot, including all GC favorites.
The pace dropped a little, as five non-GC threats attacked: Colla, Guerin, Fuglsang, Gouault and Vincent. The last two had to let go before the top.
Talansky's attempt to attack the overall contenders failed, but Quintana's succeeded! Quintana'd put 1'15" into them on the Col du Mollard descent.
He joined Gastaurer, Colla, Boswell ahead of la Toussuire. The gap to the GC contenders' group had come down a little. Quintana had still 48" left.
In the above group, Eder left Ruben's side just ahead of the final climb.
After the first slopes, Ruben sat 30" down on Pinot, Kelderman & Pardo. He had to let go Mikel Landa, Warren Barguil and Tom Dumoulin as well.
Thibaut Pinot cracked very early, 11 kms from the top. When Kelderman attacked, Ruben had managed to catch the group of Landa & Dumoulin.
Kelderman kept closing in on Quintana but could not bridge the final 15". Beyond the steepest slopes, Quintana started to reextend his advantage.
Ruben remained in the E3, which was gaining 45" on Pinot. A stage win was definitely out of reach though. The E3 sat 2'30" behind on Quintana.
Credit where it is due: nobody but Quintana deserved the win today. The eventual gap between Quintana and Wilco Kelderman was 52". Le Maillot Jaune will be on the latter's shoulders on the last stage through the Alps.
Ruben came in 6th as he dropped one place in the overall standings. The gap behind our Portuguese team leader looks more than promising now.
Seeing that putting some into Dumoulin was necessary to challenge him for 4th in the overall, Eder decided to sit one out. Daniel Martin, Tvetcov, Jesús Herrada and Carlos Verona became the last of the alpine escapees.
The four were given several minutes by the pack. Ahead of the HC Col de Joux-Plane, only Verona was dropped. Boswell had accelerated from the peloton and sat 1'52" down on the leaders. The pack itself came at 8'15".
When our team started to pace uphill, Dumoulin started to struggle. This was the perfect moment to start gaining the very time we are in need of.
Out front Tvetcov was the strongest. We could be watching the very first Romanian rider to ever land a Tour de France stage win; 6 km to the top.
Our plan was torn to shreds when Ruben suffered a weird-looking uphill crash. Landa was the other rider involved. Both took long to get back up again; and the pace in the pack was not going to decrease anymore now.
Herrada'd managed to keep Tvetcov within sight, all the way to the top...
But the Spaniard could only make up a couple of seconds on Tvetcov. He and Romania finally bagged their long-awaited Tour de France stage win.
The first GC action came near the Joux-Plane summit. As Pinot attacked, Kelderman and Quintana tried to bridge before starting the final downhill.
Only the yellow jersey succeeded. Both gained more time on their rivals.
Ruben lost about 5'20" to Pinot, Kelderman yet without drops in the GC.
Some really bad luck there. At least his 6-minute buffer was put to good use. Hopefully he won't be bothered too much on the ITT the day after tomorrow.
It is not the most common sight, having Carlos in a breakaway. With 35 kilometers left to go, the lead over the peloton amounted to about 1'35".
Inside the peloton, Ruben desperately tried to hide that he was having a really awful day. Yesterday's crash could have been amongst the causes.
The high pace of the bunch did cause heads to roll. Juan Pardo (GC 10th) was left behind 8km from the line, put in the city of Mâcon close to Lyon.
Team Sky's day couldn't get any worse, as Pinot was involved in a crash.
The breakaway fought for the stage. Moreno Moser, who turned down an offer to join us next year, succesfully avoided the sprint. Barbero had a good sprint but stranded in 2nd. Ruben concluded his offday in the pack.
Tour de France (2.UWT) 
PaÃs Vasco, 163.1 kms 
