No one can get away. Scully is close to the front, but stops short of mounting a proper attack.
They’re setting it up and setting it up as the incline gently increases; if the stage were a jungle tune, the drop would be imminent.
Marco Haller, who’s ridden more competitive miles this term than anyone else, has a bash at a break.
The scenery on this stage is absolutely lush, loads of green-covered peaks. I’m sure that’s significant compensation when you feel like you might die.
Sven Erik Bystrøm of UAE Team Emirates is having a dart. He leads by about 10 metres, but it doesn’t much look like a decisive break.
It must be a right laugh setting the course for this.
“How can inflict most pain on these?”
“How about an uphill finish?”
“Chauette!”
Sagan catches up with an attempted breakaway – there are six of so riders maybe three metres clear of the rest. No one has yet put their foot down.
Various of the chaps are moving to the front – De Gendt, Mohoric, Wellens, Teuns, Geschke, Würtz Schmidt and Naese amongst others – checking to see whether anyone comes with, then allowing themselves to be caught.
Thomas is already at the front of the group. We’re expecting a succession of attacks through the stage, which should make for an entertaining little jaunt.
Wiggins reckons yesterday’s stage winner, Thibaut Pinot, will win again today. That’d be an absolutely ludicrous effort.
Bradley Wiggins is showing off his tattoos on Eurosport; I can’t even. He thinks today is do or die for Thomas, and if Alaphilippe is wearing yellow at teatime, he’ll be very difficult to stop.
Here’s William Fotheringham’s stage guide:
A second summit finish in a row, and a different proposition with two first category mountain passes beforehand, both short and brutally steep, as is the ascent to the chequered flag. A pure climber’s stage, a target for a rider who is going for the mountains jersey, with lots of points available on the three first cat climbs in quick succession: Julian Alaphilippe springs to mind. There should be a straightforward selection among the yellow jersey contenders who should be down to a handful by now. It’s the kind of stage that screams Egan Bernal or Nairo Quintana.
Preamble
Whenever I think about Le Tour, I think about something Mark Cavendish once said: “It means something to suffer that much”. Well, after yesterday’s Tourmalet, which included the bonanza of 3,000m-odd of climbing, it looks very much like this year’s suffering champion will be Julian Alaphilippe. With seven stages left, he leads Geraint Thomas by 2.02, and it’s increasingly tricky to see that gap as anything other than definitive.
Today, the sufferers take on the final Pyrenees stage, which includes, among its 185km, three major climbs: the Port de Lers, the Mur de Péguère and the delicious uphill finish at Prat d’Albis. What better way to pass a lazy Sunday?