Morning campers, bit late as it’s Saturday and frankly, I have a sore head. Anyway, I digress:

Emotions have been extremely high at the Tour de France with two days marred by an incident on the way to the Mont Ventoux, the tragedy in Nice and a tribute paid to the victims rather than the celebrations of Tom Dumoulin’s win by an enormous margin in the time trial held in the beautiful Ardèche. The peloton needs some quiet time to be reunited before fighting again. The 187 remaining riders will head north in the Rhône valley with three category 4 climbs on the course of stage 14. It shouldn’t disturb the plans of the sprinters’ teams. Etixx-Quick Step, Lotto-Soudal, Dimension Data and Katusha are expected to lead the bunch and prepare for a bunch gallop. Mark Cavendish is the most successful of them so far this year but he’s always hungry for more. Marcel Kittel can’t be satisfied with only one victory. André Greipel and Alexander Kristoff are yet to strike. There are the young ones as well, like Bryan Coquard, Dan McLay, Dylan Groenewegen, kncking on the door. The Parc des Oiseaux (birds’ park) is watching them…

The route, but not mega flat:

The contenders:

The Contenders: a real dragstrip finish this is ideal for Marcel Kittel but is he ideal for the sprint? He’s not the certainty we imagined coming into this race.

Mark Cavendish is still in the race when we imagined he might have left. With the green jersey contest looking like it’s over no need to contest the intermediate sprint so he can save himself. With his win rate this Tour he’s hard to bet against but still doesn’t seem the surefire winner of old.

Alexander Kristoff looked a lot better in Montpellier than we’d seen him all race and Katusha are bound to work hard today to set up a sprint for him. Still one fifth place is not much to go on either.

Can André Greipel get that elusive stage win? Lotto-Soudal have their win thanks to big game hunter Thomas De Gendt but they’ll work to set up their sprinter once more. It’s his birthday which make his chances of a win no higher, just that more poetic.

Will Peter Sagan sprint? That crosswind section in the finish could be a sneaky place to get away but the weather will be calmer the further north they go meaning a less windy finish. Otherwise Dan McLay and Dylan Groenewegen are still in the mix. If you like omens or signs then maybe Bryan “Le Coq” Coquard will triumph in the Parc des Oiseaux.

And some pics from a sombre day yesterday:
Dumoulin, a fine looking fella:

Froome:

Alaphillipe

And once again, more great pics over at Cycling Tips

This pic

I must look into the aero-chainline idea. Clever !

Good work lunge.

Yes good work lunge.

Quiet stage for the GC I say.

Quiet stage for the GC I say.

Yep but Sunday, Weds, Thurs, Fri and Sat have potential!

Kittel, Greipel and Coquard today. Possibly even in that order

Well, this is dull. Might go out for an hour or 2 and see if it livens up.

Awful stage to stick in a weekend in the middle of the race 😕

This

Bike change for Frank Schlec… I didnt even know he was in the race!

Me neither

And number 4 for Cav 🙂

Excellent news thanks – will watch finish then

Marcel whinging like a baby as usual

not exactly straight from Cavendish but Kittel was well beaten by then

the old boy keeps dishing out the pain!

four finger salute 🙂

Awesome to hear. Just watching it on ITV4 + 1, lets see if Cav is playing fair.

Patrick Lefevere must be annoyed.

Fair result, kittel was beaten by the already

just caught up with this, what a moaning bitch Kittel is, 2nd time? just basically getting out raced by Cav, he’s using Kittel as his leadout man, racing smart

The summary at the end of the highlights….What was Gary Numan doing there?

🙂

Cav. The greatest sprinter in TDF history. Can anyone really disagree?

Fair result, kittel was beaten by the already

This. Aside from Cav’s win best part of stage (from highlights) was the two breakway riders acknowledging each other just as they where finally caught.

I really hope Cav can carry this form to Rio

I got the right racers in the right order, I just forgot to mention the other guys who would finish ahead of them. 😳 😆

Patrick Lefevere must be annoyed.

without doubt. Why is Cavendish so back on form now compared to the QS years? It’s brilliant to see

Training for Rio is supposed to be a factor,seems to like his team ascwell.

Why is Cavendish so back on form now compared to the QS years?

One theory is that his extended track work has got his leg speed up, which would really annoy Lefevere as he was so very against it.

Interesting. Maybe he just put more into the training and/or the track coaches are that bit better. Last chance saloon for Oympics so maybe he is much more motivated for thie season ?

Just reading the Telegraph, he reckons it is the track but not a physical thing, has reinvigorated him more racing nous.

One theory is that his extended track work has got his leg speed up

I reckoned that was going to be the case before the first win this year!! I’m dead clever me.