What a stage to finish the mountains in a Tour de France. Double Alpe d'Huez which can theoretically mix up the GC a lot. Gaps are there, but they aren`t that big to talk about secured positions yet.
Andy with a 1'06 advantage. Dombrowski and Taaramae both within 49s only and even Spilak in 4th is just ~100s behind those. So the fight for the podium is not done yet and with a TT to come tomorrow, Spilak could still attack the top 3.
Phinney looks rather safe there as 5th with a TT to come. Same for Kritskiy in 6th or Sicard in 7th.
Then closer again with Wellens having a bit over 1min to Lecuisinier and another to Arndt.
Goos, Keizer surely hope for a solid stage and a good TT to potentially attack the top10 still while the positions 13-20 probably only fight against each other in that area.
Last but not least todays stage will also basically secure the KoM jersey and right now GC leader Schleck is leading by 15 points over Keizer, who collected nicely over the past week. Taaramae and Spilak follow next with Grmay being another 2nd-3rd tier GC rider, who might give it a try today.
Early breakaway of 6 riders with additional 3 a bit behind. And Keizer showing his ambitions to take the KoM, which he is wearing on loan only at the moment as he is within them.
Also Sicard in there and just like yesterday he is really going all-in to improve his GC position.
Grmay as mentioned a good bet for a break today having still chances for the KoM jersey with Squire Novikov Chiarello
being the remaining 3.
Levarlet, Destribous, La Lavandier the trio a bit behind.
Keizer takes the early Cat.3 which wasn`t easy as Frank Schleck is doing a fast pace in the peloton and all attackers were caught again before the top. So it needed a 2nd attack by the Dutch.
Behind him Sicard also followed this 2nd attempt and takes some points ahead of Pantano Gomez, who was pretty active throughout the race as well.
So from having 15 points advantage, Schleck is leading with only 9 points now.
Vesuvio not making it easy for Keizer. Right now the Aegon leader is solo in front but with a tiny 30s gap. Some riders tried to join him but were caught a bit later again. So at the moment the Dutch is having a bit of a problem to either get close to the KoM, stage or top10 GC and basically is wasting his energy only.
That said, the Vesuvio train slowed down a bit on the Cat.2 which was needed for them to control the GC top5 a bit more with twice Alpe d'Huez coming then. They just couldn`t care about the KoM too much and so Keizer was still in front on top taking another 10 points, which sees him going into the lead by 1 single point!
Some riders joined him on the way up and we see Grmay there again but it will be hard for him now to challenge for the KoM with Keizer collecing points already even though he got 8 points at this Cat.2. Kangert and Hoem the other two hoping for a stage win surely as they don`t have a proper GC leader.
Diaz, Kruijswijk and Pantano Gomez follow 1min behind not having made it to them so far.
The peloton then at 2'40 in total with the first Alpe d'Huez starting.
Not a lot happened on the first way up. Keizer clearly the strongest of them and taking the 20 points easily. This means 21 points advantage and even a win for Andy in the end wouldn`t be enough!
Hoem, Grmay and a struggling Kangert next. The Kenyan seems to realize he won`t have a chance anylonger and concentrates on a potential stage win instead. It would be his 2nd one this Tour.
This is getting interesting behind though. Sicard attacks again. Surely one of the most active top10 riders this 3rd week. He comes over the line as 8th as the trio around Pantano was still in between.
Rosch, Aru and Novak next which shows the three teams of Pendleton`s, Vesuvio and I-Gen all working for their leaders.
Sicard actually quickly opens a 1min gap and can`t be ignored any longer! Slowly becoming a solid danger for the riders ahead.
But first the Cat.3 and this time Keizer only 2nd there taking 4 points as Hoem in first and Grmay in 3rd. 25 points advantage for the Dutch though and with only 20 being rewarded to the winner, this is basically the win in this competition as no more KoM points are rewarded on the last 2 days.
Aru and Suaza did a splendid work and Sicard is caught again. And also Kruijswijk and Diaz did well catching the four in front on the descent!
Pantano Gomez though is back in the peloton of ~34 riders. Clearly seeing Sicard that strong, Phinney wanted him at his side.
For the team classification I-Gen surely not happy seeing Vasyliv behind the 34 rider group already.
By the look of it it:
Vesuvio: Schleck, Goos, Aru, Suaza
I-Gen: Spilak, Lecuisinier, Novak
Bouygues: Taaramae, Barguil, Bakelants, Solis
So all three teams with the needed 3 riders but Vesuvio and Bouygues still having an additional 4th!
And the gaps are tiny. Vesuvio leading but only 21s to I-Gen and 2'15 to Bouygues.
The peloton has done the descent and it`s now 12km uphill for the final climb of this Tour de France.
The group ahead has a 2'30 advantage, which might not be enough really.
Henao Montoya thinks the same and being outside the top10 and his team not having a stage win yet, he attacks!
Surprisingly Lecuisinier is allowed to follow. Apparently a move to attack the Team Classification here while also Arndt follows seeing the danger of Henao Montoya and Keizer in front.
Goos, Aru, Suaza all working for Schleck now.
Just 1km later though I-Gen with the next move and now Lecuisinier in front could come handy! Spilak as first of the top4 attacks and is quickly followed by Taaramäe, who obviously wants to defend the podium.
Also Dombrowski
and Phinney follow with a small gap and this is the sign for Schleck to follow as well and no longer sit behind his team mates, who have worked for too long already and are all struggling a lot now.
Kritskiy and Wellens take over behind now with Abal, Sicard, Faiers sitting just behind.
The top5 all made it up to Arndt and no gaps in between them.
Lecuisinier a bit ahead with Diaz/Kruijswijk while Henao Montoya goes strong and almost joins the leading 4.
The team classification right now is seeing I-Gen in Pole Position with 2 in front and Novak in the 23 rider group, where also Aru, Suaza, Goos are.
Bouygues has lost Solis, who is together with Vasyliv now while Bakelants and Barguil both sit in the 23 rider group as well.
Henao Montoya in front now and his faster pace can only be followed by Keizer. All others have 1-2 bike lengths gap and are in danger to be dropped.
70s still to the next riders.
But the quality there is obviously a lot higher. And the steady accelerations by them is seeing the gap becoming smaller and smaller and hence Henao Montoya is also attacking in front gapping the others.
5km mark for Henao Montoya almost reached while the two groups did fusion.
Dombrowski apparently tries to open a gap as well now which might be to defend his podium, get a stage win or even attack the Maillot Jaune.
And now we get the news that the I-Gen rider is NOT Spilak. It`s Lecuisinier up there with the top riders.
Spilak is 30s behind in a group of Kritskiy and Wellens! At least strong support.
Arndt then solo behind them and ahead of a 16 rider group around Bakelants, König, Abal, Kolesnikov, Bennett, LLS, Nerz!
And ahead of Sicard, who has to pay the price for his attacking now.
5km mark for Wellens, Kritskiy, Grmay, Kangert and Arndt.
As you no longer see Spilak with them, it`s because he bridged to the top5 group. Good for I-Gen!
Sicard though struggling and as 7th with a decent gap to both sides, he still is in big danger now. He is 1km behind his direct rivals and still 6km for him. So the gap is widening!
In front Dombrowski now up to Henao Montoya, who might not get his win but he gave it a nice fight and tried.
Though Schleck behind working to close the gap. Taaramae, Spilak, Lecuisinier and Phinney right bheind.
Then 1min to Kritskiy/Wellens. Another 30s to Keizer and another 1min to Arndt, Abal, Faiers, Quintana, König.
1,4km left and Schleck wants to take it clearly. He goes past Dombrowski and into the lead.
Also Spilak with a late move but Taaramae following.
Flamme Rouge. Andy still a bit of a gap. Can anyone counter him?
No. Big win for Andy, who gets another few seconds to basically secure the title here. Tomorrows ITT can still see changes but the gap is rather big now.
Dombrowski comes in 2nd ahead of Spilak and Taaramae. So no changes for those 3.
34s in the end for them with Phinney at 51s and Henao MOntoya at 1'08.
Lecuisinier 1'50 did really well today, Kritskiy 2'18 and Wellens 2'40. Seeing Sicard really far off today, this might mean some late top10 changes here.
Abal next with a good ride today at 4'53 already!
König also solid today 5'09 and Keizer at 5'17 but more important for him clearly the win of the KoM jersey!
Faiers, Arndt and Nerz at 5'35 ahead of Kolesnikov and Hoem.
Goos comes in at 8'23! Big gaps there and I-Gen is celebrating as not only Lecuisinier made them take the lead today but also Novak as 22nd of the day, who came in 1'30 ahead of Goos and together with Barguil, who also was just the 2nd Bouygues rider.
So I-Gen is gaining big today.
Sicard the big loser today losing more than 9min finishing with puncheurs Ponzi and Bakelants! Also Aru in that group. So that makes it the 3rd riders for Vesuvio and Bouygues only and hence losing 7min on I-Gen!
Couple riders as usual on such stages lost against the time limit.
Geert Van der Sanden
Aegon - Lavazza
Gabriel Chavanne
Evonik - ELKO
Niki Terpstra
Gazelle
Roman Maksimov
Movistar - US Postal
Emilien Viennet
Orange - KLM Cycling
Gerald Ciolek
Team Puma - SAP
Sebastian Lander
Team Puma - SAP
So with Becherovka losing Bewley`s train yesterday, Aegon is losing their 3rd rider today making Pokerstars the favourites in Paris with Kluge-Mohs-Degenkolb still in the race.
Also bad luck for Puma and Movistar losing their lead sprinter while Orange is losing their TT rider ahead of the ITT.
