You seem to be assuming that Matthews won’t pick up any points there. I doubt he’ll pick up all the possible points available elsewhere though and realistically stage 19 probably will be a bunch sprint, so suspect it will come down to the final sprint. Probably still advantage Kittel, though there’s a good chance Matthews will be wearing the jersey when they arrive in Paris.

Well yes, he probably will. I was just playing with the points to see what was possible. Whether Matthews could win it before Paris, which he can. Or whether a win on the champs alone would seal it for Kittel, which it won’t.

Think it really hinges on stage 19 and whether Sunweb can drop Kittel early and get themselves a sack full of points.

I think Kittel would get it if he won in Paris. But can he make it over the mountains? Intriguing.

Handy that they have a KOM classification to push the pace for then I guess. If they get Bargeuil and and similar riders to push the pace, Kittel could easily explode over the next few days. But a few minutes over the cutoff won’t do it, he’ll need to be 10+ I’d guess for them to boot the green jersey (although maybe it’d leave Greipel to win in Paris which would be nice).

As Chris Boardman just pointed out, Quickstep put all their eggs in the wrong basket today.

You don’t enter a grand tour as a GC candidate with Kittel in the team and expect proper support. Jungels got good support in the Giro for the young rider classification but half the team was there for Gaviria and he rode a lot of the mountain stages alone.

Yes, will be interesting. It definitely feels like the advantage is with Matthews at the moment. He could have it all wrapped up before they get to Paris. Though I think most likely he’ll still need some points in Paris if Kittel wins there. Surprising really given that most thought it was all over when Sagan got the boot.

Degenkolb supposedly hit Matthews after the finish…

After Stage 16 @johndegenkolb struck @blingmatthews #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/Z2WS5Jqe7q

— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSNCycling) July 18, 2017

I was slightly (ok, a lot) dissapointed to see Mathews pin Degenkolb in in the last 200… So close John, so close.

Great ride,

Not sure if he ‘pinned’ him in. Still think there was space to play with on barriers, he didn’t put him into them.

I don’t care TBH, John did a good ride, that’s all I care about.

Crazy stage. This Tour has certainly kept everyone on their toes.

Matthews definitely drifted across the road, but I’m not sure it was dangerous. Degenkolb is a right nob for smacking Matthews though.

QS you useless bastards. I hope Dan Martin eats kittel’s pudding tonight.

From what Martin was saying at the finish, it sounds like half the team (the ones dropped with Kittel) had been sick. Hopefully he doesn’t get wiped-out by it as well. 😕

Not sure if he ‘pinned’ him in. Still think there was space to play with on barriers, he didn’t put him into them.

I didn’t see any issue with the sprint – looked fine to me.

I’d like to see Dan Martin with stronger support from a team. I suspect he’s maybe not quite at the Froome level but surely wouldn’t be far away, plus he’s always entertaining.