With all time trialing behind us, the GC will only be decided in the mountains from now on. Phinney has parlayed the TTs and a few other stages that suited him well into around a minute of advance over Madrazo and Sicard, and around two minutes on Morton and Dombrowski.
Five mountain stages remain for him to defend his lead on, four of which end in a summit finish - the first one is up today. And it’s a fun one: 121 kilometers short, the peloton tackles the Col du Soulor halfway through and then heads on to the iconic Col du Tourmalet, the first HC climb of the race.
With 21 mountain points to collect on the first two climbs and another 20 atop the Tourmalet, it’s no wonder that polkadots Brenes is the first to attack today. A bit more surprising are the first two of his followers: Velits and Machado, 14th and 16th overall, respectively.
A few more illustrious names want in, including 17th overall and white jersey Lopez and 26th overall Novikov. If they break free, this would be by far the most potent breakaway group of the race so far.
More and more riders from all sorts of teams go after them. How much is the peloton willing to tolerate?
A whole lot, apparently. Comparable to previous mountain stages, a large group of 26 riders gets away. I’ll try to list them in approximate order of climbing proficiency this time, from top to bottom:
Machado
Velits
Lopez
Brenes
Carthy
Dekker
Novikov
Ndayisenga
Raileanu
Novak
Hacecky
Frankiny
Cataldo
Jang
Lemus Davila
Sergis
Vuillermoz
Mamykin
Dees
Rybalkin
Foliforov
Ioannidis
Belgasem
Castroviejo
Kung
Walsleben
Of course, we’ve seen two days ago, when Vosekalns and others cratered while Vangstad excelled, that pure climbing isn’t all that counts at this point in the race, so a lot is possible.
In terms of the GC, the riders mentioned above plus Brenes (25th) are the highest-ranked riders. The Costa Rican also leads the mountain classification with 80 points, his closest competitors in this group are Frankiny (30) and Hacecky (28).
Brenes increases his lead at the first mountain sprint, but only by three points as Lopez beats him. Carthy and Velits are closest behind them. The group has a gap of almost four minutes to the peloton.
The teams of the main GC riders evidently aren’t too happy with the situation and set a pretty high pace. Nearing the foot of the Col du Soulor, the gap is down to under two minutes.
We can see that the pace up front isn’t too high yet by the fact that the breakaway is still almost completely intact halfway up the climb. Walsleben is the only one who has to let go. The gap to the peloton stays stable.
In stark contrast, the peloton is losing guys left and right. We can spot the green jersey of Demare in this group here, but so far there hasn’t been any surprise among the dropping riders.
Sensing that the group is moving too slowly, Velits takes charge up ahead. His efforts start to thin out the breakaway a bit.
Meanwhile, Gazelle sets a very high pace in the peloton, which is by now down to 40 riders. Arndt is in trouble, already a minute behind. He’s the only Top 35 rider who is not either in the peloton or the breakaway group.
We’re about two kilometers from the summit and Brenes has problems. He’s been in so many breakaways already that it’s maybe not too surprising that he has to sit up. No more points for him today and maybe he should think about taking it slow for a day or two coming up.
The selection at the front continues: Lopez attacks, Machado follows closely and so does Velits. They open a gap to Cataldo, Carthy and the Tinkoff trio around Novikov.
Lopez just kept going and left his two chasers behind. Velits still has some energy left and tries to catch up again, but both will probably come back on the descent.
A group with Cataldo, Carthy, Novikov, Mamykin, Foliforov and Novak crosses the summit already 1’45 behind Lopez.
The peloton hasn’t lost any more riders and many of the original escapees are still ahead of them. The accelerations up front have caused the gap to go back up to four minutes.
The trio did indeed come back together on the descent and their chasers are also just half a minute behind. Unfortunately, none of them are particularly great descenders and the peloton has reduced their advance to under three minutes again.
Having reunited at the front, nine riders enter the final 20 kilometers together, but the peloton is coming closer and closer, the gap is almost down to a minute.
A closer look reveals a somewhat uneven climb with its steepest sections in the final two kilometers - spending too much energy too early could be very costly today.
With Vervaeke at the helm, the peloton swallows all of the remaining escapees pretty much at once. No one seemed to want to take responsibility, with the exception of that one burst by Lopez, which eventually meant an easy catch for the peloton.
But two riders are not done just yet! Just as the peloton makes contact with the backend of the breakaway, Velits accelerates again. Machado tries to follow, he’s a bit behind.
Arndt has not made it back to the peloton, by the way. He trails it by more than three minutes now and is in danger of dropping out of the Top 30, but as we've learned, the GC is not his primary goal here anyway, so maybe he's simply conserving some energy.
More and more domestiques are falling behind the peloton, among them Iturria (20th overall) and Laengen (23rd). Only Nesset is still with Phinney - not great for the yellow jersey, and also not great for Grieg in the team classification.
Velits has built a 35-second lead to Machado, who in turn has around 35 seconds on the peloton. 13 kilometers to go.
The peloton, weirdly, is currently led by former escapees Hacecky, Cataldo and Vuillermoz. They have GC leaders in this group, of course, in Wellens and Lecuisinier, but the teams previously most active have taken a step back. Velits’s lead is up to a minute and a half.
Machado is caught again and he doesn’t look very fresh anymore. It’s damage control for him from here on out.
We’re inside the final ten kilometers and Velits is still going strong, now two minutes ahead of the peloton, which still contains 32 riders. Could we maybe get some action soon?
I guess you just have to ask nicely! Denifl attacks! He’s looked very good so far, is currently sixth overall and wants to improve on that!
Inspired by a Spanish fan, Madrazo takes charge of the chase himself and simply rides away from the peloton! Dombrowski and Lecuisinier move to the front there.
Madrazo catches up with Denifl, just under five kilometers to go now. Velits is already almost in reach, the peloton is some 40 seconds behind.
Although it’s questionable if this can still be called the peloton. Dombrowski’s pace has shed a lot of riders. With him still are Morton, Phinney, Lecuisinier, Sicard, Monsalve, Barguil, Wellens, Alarcon, Schleck and Galta, as well as, incredibly, Novikov and Mamykin! The Tinkoff duo outlasts riders like Brambilla, Lopez, Henao Montoya and Guldhammer, who follow in the next group.
With three kilometers to go, Monsalve, Wellens, Schleck and Galta (and the Tinkoff men) lose contact with what are now the seven chasers.
Denifl does almost all of the work in this duo that now has 45 seconds on that group, Velits still holds on to his tiny lead. But remember, the steepest parts are yet to come.
As soon as Madrazo comes to the front, it’s over for Velits. The Spaniard trailed Phinney by just 54 seconds before the stage and he’s getting dangerously close to that margin now.
Meanwhile, Alarcon gets dropped from the chasing group. Galta catches up with him and the two continue their way to the summit together.
The chasers move past Velits and under tremendous pressure by Morton, Sicard has to let go. Barguil has held up really well so far, but he is in trouble now, too.
Further down the road, a somewhat large group has formed around the T-Mobile leaders, Lopez, Machado and Brambilla. Nesset, Carthy, Vosekalns and Dekker are also in there.
They are around a minute behind Monsalve, Wellens and Schleck, with Novikov and Mamykin still in between.
Alongside Barguil, Dombrowski can’t keep up anymore. Only Lecuisinier and Morton remain with Phinney.
Meanwhile, Madrazo enters the final kilometer alone. Denifl wasn't able to follow the pace any longer and will try to hold on to the trio around the yellow jersey. Madrazo has a bit more than 30 seconds on them - not enough for yellow just yet!
Even less so because Phinney attacks! The yellow jersey really gives him wings and Lecuisinier and Morton can’t keep up!
Denifl manages to stay third on the road for now as Madrazo continues to ride towards the stage win. Phinney keeps the distance stable, but can’t come closer for now.
A quick look back, and we see that Galta is having a great comeback! He left Alarcon far behind and even went past Sicard, drawing level with Velits now and making a strong Top 10 case!
But before we process all of that, Madrazo takes the win at the Col du Tourmalet, and 20 bonus seconds with it! Now, the clock is ticking. Can Phinney save the yellow jersey?
He can, but by the slightest of margins! With the 12 bonus seconds, he keeps Madrazo a whole 4 seconds behind him!
Denifl enters the podium conversation with a fantastic ride today. He finishes third and moves up to fourth overall, still one place behind Morton, who finishes 12 seconds later alongside Lecuisinier. The French shows his potential in the mountains, but he has to do even more in the upcoming days to make up the time he had lost up until this point.
Dombrowski loses almost two minutes to Madrazo, and many seconds to the other podium contenders as well. Not his best day. Barguil, in contrast, will be very happy with his seventh place here as he confirms his Top 10 ambitions.
So does, Galta, who comes next …
… followed by Velits and Sicard. A strong result by the Aegon rider on the back of an aggressive performance that pays off. Sicard, in contrast, takes a big hit and loses some two minutes to the likes of Denifl and Morton.
Alarcon finishes next, followed by Schleck, Wellens and Monsalve, none of whom will be particularly happy with these results either. On the other hand, Tinkoff should be delighted by Mamykin, who hangs on all the way to finish 15th.
His captain Novikov comes in alongside Lopez (still firmly in white, of course), Henao Montoya, Guldhammer, Brambilla, Machado and Nesset. Arndt, by the way, ends up only around two minutes behind this group and because a couple of domestiques like Iturria and Vervaeke lost way more time, he actually gains two places instead of dropping further - who would have thought?
The GC becomes clearer in some places after today and more muddied in others as a few tiers of riders seem to emerge. The fight for the overall win looks set to be a duel between Madrazo and Phinney, since Morton in third place is already two and a half minutes behind - although it seems dubious that Phinney can hold his own against Madrazo throughout four more mountain stages. Morton looks like the clear number three at least for now.
Denifl, Dombrowski, Sicard and Lecuisinier in places 4 through 7 are seperated by less than 40 seconds. Then there’s a sizeable gap to Barguil and Galta, with Alarcon not far behind. Velits jumps past Monsalve and Wellens all the way up to 11th, the latter two already a minute and a half behind Alarcon. But there’s still so much road left before Paris, and today serves as an example of how big gaps can be on just one day alone.
No jerseys change hands today, although Madrazo moves up to fourth in the mountain rankings - still 51 points behind Brenes, of course. And Phinney continues to make strides in the points classification. Demare holds the lead with 29 points, but only three of the remaining seven stages lean in favor of the French. He still holds all the cards, but this might become closer than it looked a few days ago.
All riders make the time limit today and live to fight another day - although Bernaudeau comes really, really close. Vlatos continues as the lanterne rouge.
Tour de France 
