For the third and final time, the peloton has to climb its way through the Pyrenees today on what could be considered the race’s queen stage. Starting in Limoux, they ride for 191 kilometers, crossing a Cat 2 and two Cat 1 climbs to end the day with a grueling ascent up to Foix Prat d’Albis, another Cat 1 climb.
Phinney is still in yellow but only by four seconds after Madrazo won yesterday. Conventional wisdom would predict a lead change today, but that’s far from a guarantee.
We also had multiple Top 20 riders in the breakaway yesterday, so it’s interesting to see who tries it today - although the stage is 50% longer today, so maybe not as appealing.
A few familiar faces lead the first breakaway attempts. Vosekalns is followed by Frankiny, Vuillermoz, Chernetskiy, Goos and Brenes, but more riders keep trying
Like yesterday, Velits (now 11th), Lopez (17th) and Machado (18th) actually do make their way to the front. Arifin and previous stage winner Hacecky join them to form a group of 11, currently a minute ahead of the peloton.
Another contender who lost some time yesterday attacks: It’s Guldhammer (15th), followed by Dees and Carthy, both also with breakaway experience.
The peloton seems content with that group, so after a quick chase, we have 14 riders as our break of the day.
Approaching the first mountain sprint, Frankiny attacks with Brenes close behind him. The group has more than six minutes on the peloton at this point.
Brenes scores the full ten points and increases his lead in the mountain classification even further.
On the flat between the first two mountains, Moser, Aker and Repsol begin to increase the pace in the peloton in an effort to defend the Top 10 positions of Barguil, Galta and Alarcon. The distance to the breakaway, which had peaked at over seven minutes, is slowly coming back down.
Towards Port De Lers, the first Cat 1 summit of the day, Arifin drops from the breakaway group, which is only about three minutes ahead of the peloton at this point. Chernetskiy and Dees follow soon after.
Kangert leads the pack, which is already down to 50-odd riders.
Brenes is going for all the mountain points again. This time, the group fractures a behind him. Goos and Lopez stay with him, Carthy and Machado have a small gap, as does the group behind led by Velits.
Brenes went too early and is overtaken by all the riders mentioned above. Similar to yesterday, Lopez is the strongest, ahead of Machado and Velits.
A quick look at the mountain standings reveal that the Indosat leader is still firmly in first place. Lopez moves up the rankings, but it would take a lot for him to wear a jersey other than white.
At the foot of the Mur de Peguère, Guldhammer and Frankiny have made their way back to the group, Hacecky not far behind. The gap to the peloton is very volatile and has increased back up to six minutes, which currently puts Velits on the virtual podium.
Guldhammer accelerates first as the group nears the summit. Brenes is towards the back of the group, Frankiny has already been dropped again. All other former escapees including Hacecky have been caught by the peloton.
Once more, Lopez leaves his companions behind with ease, moving into second place of the mountain classification with another 16 points. Guldhammer has a small gap on the rest of the group, where Goos and Brenes are in danger of falling behind. Lopez has around five minutes on the chasing pack …
… which seems to make a few of the favorites nervous! Madrazo and Lecuisinier set the pace for the final few kilometers of the climb, and the peloton blows up immediately! Almost all Top 20 riders are there, except of course for the four further ahead and Novikov, who has to pay for yesterday’s efforts.
At the front, the group reunited on the descent, with the exception of Brenes. This is the situation at the foot of the final climb up to Prat d’Albis. It’s 15 kilometers long, but this could work out for the escapees. And that would mean big steps in the GC for a few of the riders here, Velits would still be Top 5 at the end of the day with this advance. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Here’s a detailed look at the climb. In contrast to yesterday, it flattens out in a few places towards the summit.
We’re not even really in the climb yet and already, Carthy attacks, apparently lacking faith in the cooperation of the group. Machado is the only one to react immediately.
The group of the GC favorites is down to 18 riders at this point, Smith and Brambilla are the only domestiques left. The former, Vosekalns (as a remainder of the early breakaway) and Arndt (22nd overall) are the only non-Top 20 riders present. None of the big names are missing.
Carthy and Machado hold a 25-second lead through the first few kilometers of the climb. Lopez is leading the chase.
With Carthy slowing down a bit, Machado goes solo! What a day this could be for the wild card team, but he’s still got 11 kilometers to go.
Only a few hundred meters later, Goos can’t keep up anymore, Lopez’s pace is just too high for him.
Brenes gets caught by the Smith-led group of favorites. Their pace hasn’t been too high, but after a lot of previous work, Brambilla had to let go. Machado is still more than four minutes ahead, but that gap is slowly coming down.
In part, that’s because the Portuguese can’t keep up his high pace. Lopez’s steady tempo reels him back in and is too much for Carthy. Guldhammer and Velits remain with the white jersey.
Things are happening! Like yesterday, Denifl is the first top GC rider to attack! Dombrowski counters! But you can also see a split in the group behind them with a number of big names on the wrong side of it, spectacularly including the yellow jersey of Phinney! Let’s take stock in a few moments.
Denifl gets a gap, but it’s very small. Smith with what is possibly the best domestique performance of the race so far leads the group chasing Dombrowski.
Also in that group are Madrazo, Lecuisinier, Morton, Alarcon, Schleck and Sicard.
Some 30 seconds behind, Phinney is in hot pursuit, Barguil, Henao Montoya and Galta are desperately trying to hold on. Monsalve, Wellens and Arndt are another few seconds further down the road.
Smith finally cracks, Madrazo leads the group now as they pass by Goos. Phinney is close, but still not there just yet.
But then he makes it back (alongside his three companions), and instead of relaxing a little, Phinney immediately accelerates! Dombrowski is back in the fold, but Denifl still has a small gap.
The yellow jersey group is now only two minutes behind the leaders, where Velits is struggling to hold on!
Henao Montoya and Galta, who originally made it back with Phinney, now suffer from the increased pace and can’t follow anymore. The EA Vesuvio rider here is Goos, Schleck is still with the other favorites.
Denifl passes Carthy, only four riders remaining up the road. The Austrian still has a very small gap, but Phinney is relentless. Alarcon and Barguil are the next to drop, Schleck and Sicard already struggling.
Then Madrazo takes the lead in the group and immediately brings Denifl back.
The leading trio still has around a minute of advance left and they’re reaching the flat-ish sections now before the final ramp to the finish. Three kilometers to go, this could be very close.
Madrazo dropped the pace just a little bit and Denifl immediately attacks again! This time, Morton tries to go with him!
Denifl moves past Velits, the other escapees now in sight! Behind him, Schleck loses touch with the other favorites.
Looking further behind, Wellens and Monsalve have recovered well. They have overtaken Galta and Henao Montoya and are now chasing Barguil and Alarcon.
Galta in turn is trying to stay ahead of a group with Henao Montoya, Goos and Smith. Arndt is next, another minute or so down the road.
But let’s turn our attention back to the front, where things are happening again! Approaching the red kite, Phinney is in trouble!
And so is Sicard. Morton and Madrazo lead the remaining quintet alongside Dombrowski, Lecuisinier and Denifl, who was caught again.
They reach Machado, whose dream of a potential victory ends, but who should still make a jump in the GC. Lopez tries to get away from Guldhammer in a final push towards the stage win.
The white jersey even has another acceleration in him! He only has a few meters on Morton, Madrazo and the others, who are in turn fighting for at least valuable bonus seconds.
Lopez can’t keep it up and loses the lead only 300 meters from the finish. What a bitter moment! Madrazo sprints towards a second consecutive stage win, but Dombrowski is right there with him!
Lecuisinier and Denifl try to keep up with them to avoid losing time, but as you can see, there’s a big gap to Sicard, and Phinney is obviously even further behind!
Dombrowski has to sit up and Madrazo wins! He takes the stage and also the yellow jersey, making a huge step towards the overall win!
Morton and Lopez make it within the same time as Madrazo and Dombrowski, the Australian collects an additional 8 bonus seconds. Lecuisinier and Denifl end up with a gap of 22 seconds.
Guldhammer and Machado finish with the same time as those two, a strong result after a long day in the breakaway. Guldhammer moves up to 14th in the GC, Machado up to 16th with Lopez now between them.
Sicard loses 1'06 to Madrazo, but more prominently, Phinney loses 1'21 and the yellow jersey along with it. He's still in second place overall, but now only about a minute ahead of Morton.
Wellens had a phenomal second half of the climb, overtaking not only Barguil and Alarcon but even Schleck! He finishes 11th.
Monsalve also moves past Barguil and Alarcon in the final meters, but they stay behind Schleck and also Velits, who finishes 12th today and actually moves up to 10th overall.
That's because Galta is among the bigger losers today. After yesterday’s great ride, he only finishes 18th today, losing 4 minutes to Madrazo, but more importantly more than two minutes to Wellens and a minute and a half to Schleck, Monsalve, Barguil and Alarcon.
Finally, we also have four riders missing the time limit today. After a long reign as the lanterne rouge, the race is over for Vlatos. With him, Quaade, Andersen and Van Winden have to leave the race, which puts Frison in charge of the last place in the GC.
We had out first lead change in over a week today, and if everything goes as expected, it will be the last one. Madrazo was flawless both yesterday and today, Phinney showed weakness today and Morton is already more than two and a half minutes down. Never say never, but this looks very good for Gazelle.
Meanwhile, Sicard drops another place in the GC and is now two and a half minutes behind the podium - but he still has his fantastic recovery to maybe make some strides in the Alps. Dombrowski made a step in the right direction and moves up to fourth, closely followed by Denifl, who had another strong performance today. Both of them, as well as Lecuisinier will hope for a bad day or two by Morton or Phinney in the Alps to still attack the podium as well.
There are a few more shuffles in the backend of the Top 10 as well as in the Top 20, Henao Montoya’s drop from 14 to 18 is the biggest difference. Looking at the jerseys, Lopez is now the biggest rival for Brenes and his polkadots (61 to 99 points). Demare will be happy with Phinney’s failure to score significant points, but now Madrazo is second in the rankings, 20 points away. Lastly, Gazelle takes a commanding lead in the teams classification after a bad day for Grieg.
Tour de France 
