A stage which should really favour the Puncheurs rather than the Climbers. The favourites list suggesting this should be the case as Demare, Bobridge and Mohoric are the Top 3 favourites.
A smaller breakaway today of just 6 riders. Not much for them until the middle of the stage where there is an intermediate sprint,2 Cat 4 climbs and 1 Cat 3 wedged between. Geoghegan Hart (18th in GC @ 18'50) Korsaeth Inkelaar (19th in GC, 2nd in KOM) Roman Velasco Chernetskiy (11th in KOM)
There was no battle between these 6 for the Intermediate sprint. With just under 100km still to go, their gap is only 2'17 with the Peloton only allowing them up to 3 minutes earlier in the day.
Over the Col de la Buche and it's a 1-2 for Isostar with Inkelaar taking the 5 points to move only 5 points behind his team mate Bardet. Their gap over the top is 3 minutes back to the Peloton.
Through the 2nd KOM at the top of the short but steep Cote de Thizy and Isostar get the 1-2 again. The 6 points for Inkelaar actually means he moves into the KOM lead ahead of his team mate by a single point.
The final KOM of the day and the same result as Inkelaar gives himself a bit more of a buffer. 60km to go and the gap is 3'15 but with little climbing remaining their chances of holding on until the end are looking pretty slim right now. Korsaeth was dropped on the previous climb and is now back in the Peloton.
40km to the line and the Peloton are moving at quite a rate. They have brought the gap down to 2'13. The work being shared between Puma-SAP for Demare, Xero for Houle and Aegon which looks to be for Groenewegen.
With still 30km to the line, this front group is going to have to up the ante as they are only 1'09 ahead of a charging Peloton.
An Inkelaar attack dropped his team mate but the other 3 are with him with 20km to go. The gap is back out to 2'05 with the latest incline really favouring those out front as opposed to the chasers behind.
12.5km for the front group and their gap is 2'53. It appears the Peloton has decided to give up on any effort to go for a stage win. Roman is halfway between both groups and could be looking at freewheeling his way to 5th.
An attack from Mohoric and Bobridge with 9km to go but they're only riding for 5th on the stage…
3km to the line for the leading quartet as they hit the start of the Cote de la Duchere which summits only 1.3km from the line.
Meanwhile in the Peloton there is a split which means only 77 riders in the Peloton at the moment.
3km for the Peloton and Bobridge goes again after his earlier unsuccessful effort.
Under the banner for the leaders and this will be a sprint to the line!
500m and impossible to tell who will win this one.
It's Inkelaar who benefits from being the first rider over the top of the climb and he has enough of a kick to make it a 2nd stage win for the youngster! Velasco is 2nd, Geoghegan Hart is 3rd and Chernetskiy is 4th.
Bobridge holds on for 5th.
Demare is 6th ahead of Sagiv who takes a surprising 7th. Houle just pips Vakoc to 8th and Groenewegen rounds out the Top 10.
No change in the Top 10 so Lecuisinier is 1 day closer to the Overall Victory.
Interesting day in the battle for the Polka Dots as Inkelaar moves into the lead by 6 points over his team mate Bardet who may not be too happy.
It may not be a stage win but Demare further extends his lead in Green to 103 points! Inkelaar even more comfortable in White now as well. Isostar - Specialized increase their gap at the top of the Teams Classification.
le Tour de France - Stage 16 Report 
