Oh, France.
What you can give us on Bastille Day. The National holiday is meant to be enjoyed by the French but on the day that the world was treated to Daft Punk played by The French Army, the country saw its first winner of a Tour Stage on Bastille Day for 12 years, as Warren Barguil took his first ever stage win at the Tour and tightened his grip on the polka dot jersey.
In behind, the yellow jersey dynamic changed once again although Fabio Aru retained his yellow jersey, whilst Sky played a tactical hand with the incredibly strong Mikel Landa putting himself in the running for the yellow jersey on a good day for Simon Yates and Dan Martin.
Of course, it was two of the most attacking Frenchmen in the Peloton that started proceedings, Thomas Voeckler and Warren Barguil of Direct Energie and Sunweb, the pair jumping right from the gun and pulling out an 11 second lead on the peloton.
The next counter attack would come from Fortuneo’s Bruce Feillu whilst Jakob Fulsang’s suffering continued, wit the Dane dropped before five kilometres had been raced.
The pace was furious and the leading pair were caught before the intermediate sprint.
Alessandro Di Marchi (BMC) Sylvain Chavanel (Direct-Energie) and Philippe Gibert (Quick-Step) took the main points whilst Michael Matthews took fourth ahead of Marcel Kittel, clawing back a couple of points on a 130 point lead.
The trio took a 16-second lead whilst it was announced that Arthur Vichot pulled out, a sad tale of a Frenchman pulling out on Bastille Day and leaving one of France’s best teams with just four riders.
Bora-Hansgrove tried to get Marcus Burghardt and Pawel Poljanski into what was a strong break, especially given that the peloton were still riding on rolling roads.
More attacks were launched, with Stage winner Lillian Calmejane (Direct-Energie) amongst a number of illustrious names to try and he was a joined by Diego Ulissi (UAE) and Bauke Mollema (Trek).
De Marchi ended up pulling ahead and going 45 seconds of the yellow jersey although the pace was a fierce one; Gilbert and Chavanel began to struggle in their chase against the superior climber.
And then the fireworks began. Alberto Contador was followed by Mikel Landa and Fabio Aru as Di Marchi took the points over the Latrape, followed by Barguil, Landa and Contador over the top. They had 12 seconds over the rest of the main leaders, including Aru and Froome amongst their main rivals.
Warren Barguil was dropped at the beginning of the col d’Agnes whilst some big named were struggling badly. Pierre La Tour’s absence was not doing any favours to Romain Bardet, whilst Nairo Quintana decided to go off the front with Movistar team-mate Carlos Betancur, and Alexis Vuillermoz, the trio re-joining Warren Barguil.
Landa and Contador were now leading and the Peloton was only 21 riders strong, about 90 seconds behind the two upfront with the Quintana group in the middle, equidistant between leaders and yellow jersey men
This gap increased and increased, with riders catching up to the peloton as Landa, at the top of the Col d’Anges, had a lead of two and a half minutes along with Alberto Contador to the yellow jersey group, in a situation which suited Chris Froome down to the ground. Alexis Vuilermoz was dropped and Romain Bardet found the situation intolerable and attacked over the Agnet, bringing Froome and the other favourites with him.
Such was the pace of the day that the main contenders had already made it to the wall that would decided the end of the day, the Mur de Péguère. It was around this time where Jakob Fuglsang pulled out, his wrist injuries having proven too much despite a brave fight.
The early slopes of the Pèguere saw a closing between Landa, Contador and the then chasers but as they hit the hardest slopes the two Spaniards really pushed away again as Michal Kwiatkowski began to suffer, dropped by Quintana and Barguil.
AG2R drove in the main peloton into the beginning of the climb although two of their premier climbers were shot out of the back door. Dan Martin began to push on, with the climbers now worried about their general classification places; The Irishman’s push was impressive, shedding all the remaining team helpers as the field hit the hardest percentages on the Pèguere.
Upfront Quintana was suddenly now the climber we know, being driven with Barguil, the pair of them getting a sight of Landa and Contador as they snaked through to the top of the Pèguere.
Behind Martin pushed on with the fearsome nature that Guinness used to advertise their stout in the past decades, but he sadly paid for his earlier efforts as Froome pushed hard for an attack out of the wheel of Uran, dropping Martin and leaving George Bennett – who had been struggling for a good while – in the dust. Conveniently, in what had the look of a masterstroke from Nico Portal, Michal Kwiatkowski was ready to take the pull.
Meanwhile, Barguil took the points over the Pèguere, followed by Landa, Contador, and Quintana.
The favourites were led by Aru, leading a big group together what was going to start attacking each other from the off. Romain Bardet – who else – was first to attack although he was followed by Froome when Bardet was bought back. Meintjes caught Froome and went off on his own before of all the people Dan Martin, then ended up leading down the descent.
The group split when Froome went again but Aru, putting in a manful defence of his first ever yellow jersey, chased hard before Dan Martin, having chased back, hauled himself onto the front. It was up to Rigoberto Uran to try and pull things together, which the Colombian did even if he was at pains to do so.
He then took another bite at the cherry, so to speak, and began to find seconds where others had failed to find metres before, but he was pulled back at the end of a crazy descent. Dan Marti was the first to go on the false flat, powering away through a set of corners and getting a gap of 10 seconds.
Chris Froome decided to push on going through the false flat, stringing the group along, but Martin was pushing ahead and pulling out more power.
Meanwhile, the four in the lead went to the last 500m, with Contador launching a sprint early, pushing to the front and then taking the inside route for the final corner. He did not have the power, however, to hold off Warren Barguil, who beat Nairo Quintana to the stage win with Alberto Contador in third.
Mikel Landa was fourth, taking back a large chunk of time and now getting himself in the yellow jersey fight, whilst Simon Yates ended up pushing on with Dan Martin to take seconds out of the main favourites.
It had been quite the Bastille Day.
