With only six stages left and two weeks raced so far, this Tour de France is one thing. Close. In the 104 editions of the Tour so far, the top five in the general classifications have never had three riders within thirty seconds of the yellow jersey at halfway and there have never been so many riders within two minutes of the yellow jersey at the second rest day.
Chris Froome still leads, although he has just 18 seconds on Fabio Aru, 23 on Romain Bardet and 29 on Rigoberto Uran.
The podium is well up for grabs for those three as well as Daniel Martin (1:12 down) and Mikel Landa, riding an incredible race after his Giro exploits, just 5 seconds back at 1:17.
White jersey Simon Yates is only 2:02 back, meaning there are seven riders with realistic chances of the podium and the yellow jersey to boot – a victory for the route planners so far, although it is the least many fans deserve after several days where the most entertaining thing has been the commentary.
In the race for the polka dot jersey, there isn’t really a race as Warren Barguil has 116 points with the next placed rider Primož Roglič on 38 – there are only 116 points left to be collected on the tour.
Marcel Kittel has a big lead in the green jersey race, although Michael Matthews is climbing so well that he can still close the gap – for all that there are still three flat finishes to go which could be 150 points for the German.
So, how did we get there?
Here are some of the moments of the tour so far.
So close you couldn’t see it – or could you?
Five hours. 213.5 kilometres. And 6 millimetres. Marcel Kittel will never have a closer finish – and nor will the tour – but there might be no moment which explains just how powerful the German was than this very stage finish, which was so tight that one pixel was the official difference – or 0.0003 seconds.
It’s only been in recent years that we have had the technology to even separate would be dead heats in recent years, with thousands of images taken at the same time to determine the gaps at the finish. Spare a thought for Edvald Boasson Hagen, who will always be the closest runner up in Tour history, and Dimension Data, who lost Mark Cavendish on Stage 4.
Grasping elimination from the jaws of second place?
Peter Sagan. Cooking revolution enthusiast, World Champion, and cycling everyman. Also, six time Green Jersey winner. The Slovak’s win on Stage 3 of the Tour, when he was able to take the sprint despite unclipping his foot as he started his sprint.
24 hours later he was going home, having been accused of endangering a rider – namely Mark Cavendish, who was sent crashing out sideways with 200 metres to go.
This was the beginning of a furore online and on the tour, as every fan and rider became a detective or commissare of their own. What of Arnaud Demare, whose move leftwards set a chain reaction that forced Sagan to defend his own line? Was Cavendish already falling over when he hit the deck? Was a green jersey points demotion not enough?
What would this to do a race which was hugely reliant upon bunch sprinters?
It turns out it did a lot. Sagan was sent home still, whilst the bunch finishes opened up with Cavendish now replaced by Boasson Hagen as the sprinter for Dimension and Bora-Hansgrove taking a more attacking approach to the rest of the tour.
Spills, but no thrills, for Astana
No one man can win a Tour alone, but some do have stronger teams than others. Sky have made dominance through numbers into a new art form – and they do currently have three riders in the top 15 – whilst AG2R have three in the top 20.
Fabio Aru’s Astana team came with Dario Catlado and Jakob Fuglsang to help the Italian, who is riding as well as he has done at any point during his career, but the best laid plans can be set asunder by the Tour. A small, innocuous tumble that took place on Stage 11 appeared to be your average feed zone crash at first, until it became clear that the Italian wasn’t getting up, and that Jakob Fuglsang was having a lot of trouble with his wrist.
The loss of Catalado was a blow but losing Fulgsang – who would retire later after it had become clear he couldn’t continue as they went through to the Pyrenees - was the worst possible news for Aru and it played a big part in the loss of 25 seconds to Froome on the way to Rodez, ceding the yellow jersey he had taken so well at Peyragudes.
It’s a team game
On that point, with the gaps at the top so close, the uphill finish to Rodez could be one of the race’s defining factors. Chris Froome has improved his all round stage racing dramatically since he started becoming a Grand Tour contenders, and it was the attentiveness of him and Team Sky that saw them push head as an isolated Fabio Aru, who had already been chasing on his own through a windy day
The splits inevitably came and Aru was the biggest loser, ceding back the yellow jersey, although Froome and Dan Martin – who had the backing of Quick-Step’s big train to help Philippe Gilbert.
No Gears, No Trouble
You’re riding in a race and then, nightmare…. Gears broken. Not for Rigoberto Uran, who suffered a bent derailleur hanger with nine kilometres to go, meaning that the Colombian had a choice between a 53/11 and 39/11 for the final nine kilometres – hardly ideal as he as going for his first stage on the Tour.
He asked the Mavic service man to put him in the 11 sprocket, following the favourites as they chased back Romain Bardet, only to outsprint Jakob Fuglsang and then nail Warren Barguil on the line.
No gears? No problem.
With only six stages to go, I asked Cycling Fans for their best moments of the race so far. Here are the best responses.
