Climbs of Italy. Monte Velo AND Lioni to Salza Irpina

Climbs of Italy. Monte Velo
and
Lioni to Salza Irpina

ition committed they’ve been together. Wrong side of the roundabout, but that was deliberate to get out of the way. Yeah, work done for that rider. That looks like one of the Sudal Lotto riders pulling out of the road. Looked like it might have been Y Kirk there. This is the breakaway railing it through that corner. That is that sharp left. 4 1/2 km to go. Pelon about to swing out of it and the gap still just opening a tiny bit. Good news for Alexander Crystal. It wasn’t him. He is still in the pelaton. I thought it was 124 Ruy Costa that was involved in that four. Either way, confirmation. The last winner here. Alexander Kristoff is in with a chance. The gap back down to 10 seconds now, but they’re finding it very difficult to close these last few seconds on the break as they continue to work in unison. This is exactly what they need all the way in. They may as well be wearing the same jersey in the manner in which they’re riding. It’s impossible to split the red number for the most combative prize today. Anyone who chooses to try and do a little bit less, to try and take a rest, call someone in for a turn in front will ruin the rhythm of the group. They’ve got absolutely no hope. But at the moment, 11 seconds with 3 1/2 km to go and the chase a little bit disjointed behind and Bonafatio has just been delivered to the front for total direct energy. They still have Oralon in this breakaway, but they are setting up for the sprint finish. Yet the breakaway, they’re out to 12 seconds. It’s just that holding off. The team’s not wanting to start their sprint train too soon. They know when they get to 3 km to go, it’s very narrow. A right right hand bend brings them onto the final straight straight road. Very wide. They’ll have them in their sights all the way down. I doubt they’ll be making a mistake on this one. Here’s that tight righthander. It could be a Jack Bow moment with his last 100 meters a little bit sooner than that. Either way, it’s Daniel OS who’s at the front looking for Peter Sag who sits in fourth position. This is L’s back. Who’s not at the back? He’s at the front with a flick at the elbow. Let’s go. Let’s keep working. They’re breathing down their neck now though. That’s no longer 11 seconds. Taylor Bjorn at the end of the train for Sudal Lotto followed by Edal Bosenhagen. Peter Sagan a few positions ahead of him. No sign yet of the lead out train from Duning Quickstep but look for those blue jerseys. They’re starting to get formed up. Vivani is on Richi. He’s wearing white with the light blue bands long through the roundabout. A few smart cookies through the inside and the yellow colors Yambo Bismar. They’re led by the rider in red Jansen bringing them forward. Turnison is the man who will deliver Dylan Krunagen. Small sprint train. Can they take on the likes of Dernie Quickstep who are waiting? They’re just getting grouped together waiting for their moment to ride to the front. And from the original breakaway, Orcelan is trying to attack. Rosto steps out of the way. Gruner, he’s got support. He sits on the wheel of Mike Turnerson. This is Jansen now who’s on the front early at the front. 2 km to go. Slight headwind. Remember Narro Kintana? He is drifting back, but he’ll get back in no problem. Already lost enough time. We don’t need to worry about his GC anyway. He’s actually off the back. Well, he’s had a problem here, Natal Kintana, and he’s conceding more grounds. Nitana, he’s out of contention to start with. He’s in 13th position overall. The race is out in front. You’ll spot the line. 250 m to go. Slight headwind a little bit from the left hand side. Marco, he’s the man on the front. Turn he thinks this is too early. He looks back. Where’s He’s got a rider from Lotto Sudal. Behind him on wheel is Caleb in fourth wheel. But into this headwind, it is very easy to get swamped. And that’s what’s happening now. He’s got in the wheel. They passen with he behind. Seven position goes now. He goes when starts out in the wind. He comes in a little bit. Picks up a tiny bit of slipstream. Richi gives him a bit of a check. He’s just too strong over the top. Clear victory for viewers. What a win. This is the team that made the commitment from the first meter of the race. And this is the man who came and rode the final kilometers before the stage started. He had to negotiate his way around who lost off a little bit of speed but not much because Caleb was coming with momentum. Photo for second and third. Here we are near. We’d like to see the other angle. Certainly Sagan has won this sprint on brute strength at first. Tactically good following Hunu, but they were on the front two early with Tison and Jansen. They got swamped from behind. He has ignited the jetack. track him on the left hand side. 64k an hour and this is into a slight headwind a lot for seven getting down getting arrow he’s coming it’s too late it’s already been won second for Viviani third for that is a win by a length and that’s a fifth mind you so their first top 10 finish and you see he’s finishing well for he had getting there earlier with first part of the last lead out, but it wasn’t a classic style lead out. A lot of that last 500 meters, in fact, all of the last 500 meters was on instinct. He’s a natural born sprinter. It is he was just searching for the line and knows his way to go and get it. But you’ve got to have the legs. He had huge motivation. He hasn’t switched off after that first stage win. He liked the taste and he’s back for the second course. He can get through the mountains. He’d love to win in Paris. Who wouldn’t? That’s that’s the next goal of course. So over the hundreds of years in you enjoy rest days. You won after rest days to do it again. Yeah. Yeah. To be honest, I felt so bad today during the day. Um, I think the the heat really got to me and I was actually suffering so much and I was almost back this whole match to get off the run because I was really yeah suffering but uh you know I had extra motivation today. My my daughter and my wife are here. So um yeah, I’m so happy I could win today. Take us through that final kilometer. Um yeah, we were I thought we were too far forward. Um and we had Jasper on the front with Dylan on the wheel with moments to go. So, we weren’t in an ideal situation with 1k to go, but then he did such a strong pull. Quick step came past and I lost a few more positions than I wanted to, but I looked at this finish actually at the start of the day and I played all the scenarios in my head and one of the scenarios I played was if I was too far back. I think if you watch it, I lay off the wheel and really take a run at it and start sprinting before the rest of the guys. And yeah, it worked. Just one two stages of you believe it. Not really. Can I You know, I said before, it’s a dream to be here and yeah, I mean, it was it was such a big dream to to win one stage and now I’ve won two. So, I can’t believe it. Exploring the ancient Roman heritage of the region. The pelon will depart. It’s 200 km for stage 17 of the tour to France. Let’s now take a look at what confination eventually after that into the elves. So this is one of the final chances for a big break away category four climb the mid of the stage but just a gradual drag right from the very start there a category three climb towards the end before they descend down the gap for the 25th time in the history of the tour to France. Eric Beastrom at the end there he referred to one of the great cliches because it is a truism in cycling in any sport endurance sport at least if you wait until you’re hungry or you wait until you’re thirsty it is too late. Absolutely correct. So sometimes it’s a case of the more things change the more they stay the same. And that old adage is certainly one of those, but it’s become so much more scientific in recent years. And things like weighing the riders pre and post stage to gauge their level of dehydration. And but there’s always the rules of thumb that work. And bear with me on this one, but one of the really easy ones for hydration is when the urine is clear, you’re hydrated. And that’s just the really easy way to work towards. You can go and weigh yourself and say, “Oh, you’re you’re 1.2 kilos less than you were at the start. So, you need to drink 1.2 lers.” You’ve just got to keep drinking until you need to need to go to the toilet every 20 minutes to half an hour, you know you’re properly hydrated. And we see so often at the start of the stage once the breakway is established and it might be after only 5 km particularly on a flat stage in the first week automatically you see riders stopping by the side of the road to take a nature break. It’s so important to be super hydrated at the beginning of the day. And it’s not just water. And it’s been really more in the last 25 28 years. So from in the ’90s that the electrolyte sport drinks really became a thing in sport and uh that is also really important. But also get the right mix. You can’t completely fill up an electrolyte. Um and a lot of riders like to take one bid on of each one electrolyte, one plain water. And then also what you’re drinking post stage as well to replenish the electrolytes and get your body completely back in balance and everything that the the muscles need to recover. As we just fly across Leg Sanj and Forong and the actual construction of that church isn’t known, but it got a lot of restoration work in the years of 1668 and 1677 throughout that period where they added the small bell that you can see at the top of the church. As we look at one of the most famous climbs in world cycling, the Mongu and we look at the most difficult piece, the moonscape. You see that line where the vegetation stops and it just turns to the white rocks. The sun reflecting off it on a hot day cooks you. It can be freezing cold up the top on a summer’s day as well and windy. And when the wind gets up, it is incredibly difficult. It’s not steep towards the top, but you’re getting to altitude and quite often the wind is coming in from the west and blowing a headwind in all this last part as it funnels its way around the mountain. One haven’t had a lot of fun experiences going up the tall up the va among some of the most famous images from this climb. One of them dates back to 1987 when it was an individual time trial won by John Francois Bernard the Frenchman whose son is riding this race Julian Bernard for Tre Sega. Can you imagine riding an individual time upon vonu at least at short the von 2 climb is 21 km long. I think back to I think it was the last time I rode the vonu in the tour to France. It was a 221 km stage. The final 21 was the climb. The first 200 we covered in 4 hours. The joke. No, I’m still scarred. Absolutely. One of my favorite stages. It was horrific. One of the favorite stages I ever watched of Bon. It was 1994. The big break away from Polly and he got to the bottom of the climb was somewhere in the vicinity of 20. Yeah. He had over 20 minutes. Yeah. Over 20. And he they didn’t finish at the top. They went over the other side. They descended down to the bottom and he managed to just hold on by a couple minutes in the end and he tipped his hat. There was no helmets worn at that point in the tour of France. He tipped his hat as he went across the finish line with a great win by Eros back in 1994 over the top of the Mong 2. This is Yes from Tiger Freedom that needed to keep the body temperature down just a little. Fun fact about that stage win. It was his only win in the professional pelaton. He held on to win by 3 minutes and 39 seconds. He was out his maximum lead on that stage. And I remember being in the group with him and with Magnus Baxstead. He was the heaviest rider in the Pelaton in the years he rode the tour to France. A couple of others like Stuart Grady, Hank Bogles, and myself going downhill in the Alps with Aeros Poly and Magnus Baxstead. You you had to hang into their slipstream. They just descended so fast with that the weight the momentum created by their weight and we were off and over 100 kilometers an hour. So with OS Polly he probably extended his gap coming down off the vontu. Yeah technically both those guys really good at the centers. It’s not just a matter of the weight to gravity equation. Both really good through the corners. Yeah, technically very good as well. Yeah, carrying speed through the corners and brave. got some good guys up in the break for this type of stage. We saw just coming through to the front earlier with Gorka. He’s a gear, but also with Magnus Port and Omar is is definitely up there. We saw C. He was definitely up there earlier. He was up there early. We better just do a double do a double check on Memphis. I don’t think he’s in I don’t think he’s in that brake anymore. He has been dropped off the back and Magnusport is no longer part of those 33 riders off the front. He was active very early but no indeed he has not made it just two. They have Omar Frley and Gorki is a girale won a stage last year. Is I has been a stageman at Grand Tours in the past is a man who has the strength to go on the attack on his own in a small group, get over that final climb and he’s got a fairly handy turn of speed at the finish as well. That stage when he got to M last year was uh incredibly strong came back on Yasper Stan who in the end we were cheering for to make it. It was such a great move that he made. literally hit a wall. I remember the wall that is the climb up to M. It is indeed. But for either of those riders from start to win the stage, I’m afraid is a get up. They need to reduce the side of this group. So we are in for some action in the final 60 km of this stage. I think it will start to kick off. You can see the red number in the breakaway today. That’s Alexi Guja from AG Toal Model. He was in the breakaway yesterday. Daniel Osby from the half throw team. They also have Lucas Lucas in the break. Number 22 sitting at the rear of the breakway group who’s been doing a lot of pacemaking throughout this race mainly in support of Julian Alip on occasion in support of their sprinter Ali Viviani as he did yesterday. It was Casper Asgrim’s final couple of turns of pace up that last climb yesterday that brought an end to yesterday’s breakaway group of five. Yesterday for the Sunweb team, they made the decision very early on, Robbie, that they were not going to sprint as Michael Matthews being their protected rider. The sprint was going to be to set up the stage for Ke. He ended up being involved in the crash, but also thought so Matthew got to do his He’s a nonstit. So they switch pretty quickly then to Michael Matthews which shows that it’s a really nimble team in terms of stinking but Michael Matthews wasn’t overly delighted about being told at the start of the stage to work the white jersey of Bernal sitting in fifth position in the overall classification looking forward to the high mountains that are still to come over the next three days. All these climbers and GC riders you see lined up by teams moist seed and Richie port quick further back there with Julian Ali. Justin shoes number 65 of Mick Outlander. He is the wild in the pack in seventh position almost 5 minutes behind the yellow jersey but many are saying he can still win. I don’t think he’ll reach the podium. There you go. N Kani yesterday he was caught behind a fall. He didn’t crash. He put his foot down. He lost more than a minute a game yesterday. Yeah, we know. He is an an enigma. Expect the unexpected. He goes on long range attacks, but I I don’t think he’ll make the podium in this tour. He may threaten the top five. I think it’s just too much time to make up. Surely you’ve got to pay for that the next day. He’s a rider that Dave Braillesford, the team manager across at Yinios, has spoken about as a threat. He previously rode for Team Sky. They know what they’re in for with Mlander. He’s one guy that they think he can launch a long range attack and sustain it. Others slowly whittle their advantage down. Look at the pelon being led by Quickstep. advantage at 8 minutes 29 seconds off. Let’s now turn our attention to the medium medal. This is a course. This is a break by group of 33 riders. No real threats here to the yellow jersey of Julian. nearest 28. Really impressed about Caleb’s win yesterday was not just that laying off the wheel, the slingshot effect out of the slipstream and hitting the front, but that he went from a long way out, a good 250 m into a slight headwind and just held that. He didn’t look like he was fading towards the line, but it’s a long way from Paris from here. Yeah. And he’s going to need a lot of help from his teammates. Guys like Yukim for everybody in the team. He asked for the bur sticking with him. Also Roger and Caleb said after the Pyrenees, he put a photo on his Instagram and said with his teammates, I got to thank these guys because it’s them who got me through. There was some really rough moments today and I thought I was almost out. Yeah, the teamwork for a sprinter, the support for a sprinter, it’s not as simple as just the lead out. Often it’s all the other stuff that we don’t see that happens at the back of the pelon rolling through the front group at the back of the breakway. Last position that is Balk Mama. Just in front of him is his teammate Jasper Stur and they also have in this breakway group the national champion Thomas the pinks rolling through the white world champion followed then by the champion of a few years ago that is Sergio Lat next in line as Tom then it’s the European champion followed by his teammates that is the danger speak with a very thick Irish accent. Spent all of his teenage years up until around about 15 or 16 in Ireland. In fact, he spent most of his childhood in Ireland before moving back to Copenhagen in his mid to late teens. They hit the base of the first climb of the stage, category 4 climb. It’s 2.3 km in length with an average grade of 6.2%. Is it too early to see any action from this breakaway group? Yeah, I think it’s still too early. 97 kilometers to go. I mean, there’s long range moves at 97. I find it hard to imagine that anybody in this group is thinking, yeah, just inside 100k to go, that’s when I’ll go solo, particularly in this seat. Yeah. Has been number 22 at the back of group. But Thomas again might just test everybody’s legs a little. Can we fit the group? There’s rules. And then there’s Thomas. Yeah, that that was the next thing to get to. If there’s anybody in this group that might just do it, there’s that man is staying here by so they’re well aware of the reputation of Thomas. Do not take your eyes on Thomas. Back to being led by Quickstep today. Julian Philip has himself ranked as equal 15th in terms of French riders and their time in the yellow jersey. This is his 12th day in yellow. He had two days at the start of the tour before surrendering him to Julia Chone. But if he takes it today, he’ll move one step further forward in those rankings of Frenchman who formed the yellow jersey. It’s the one in Paris that the French really want. It’s been 34 years since they’ve had it again followed by good to see the keys Tom Scully in the breakaway tonight. Yep. He’s organizing another ride with his good friend Tim Wells who currently wears the King of the Mountains jersey that’s in Spain this year. It’s a 750 km ludith that they’re doing. Lots of gravel roads. It’s Thomas who designs the course. He designs the kit where he makes all the decisions on the bike. Tim does what he’s told. Good partnerships kind of like ours. Who’s who? I just do what I’m told. Have you ever done what you’re told? I’m going to ring your bum. What was Robbie like when he was 12? Did he do what he was told? I know your brother well enough to give me an inside information. I reckon Rosco will tell me a totally different story. Yeah, we’re a bit different. I don’t do what I’m told, but I also I don’t do all the planning. You do all the planning well of certain things. Yeah, you do the executing at the restaurants brilliantly. You are the master of picking the restaurant and the wine list. I just hand it over to Robbie. He’s got it covered. And we go with the local cuisine and the beverages of the region. And I’m I’m also happy with our roles in the driving where if it’s a complicated evacuation from the finish area. It’s all Robbie. Trust me, if it’s complicated, it’s Robbie. If it’s simple, it’s me who does the driving. I don’t know what it is, but the car seems a bit uh narrower when I drive and faster. Goes around corners quicker when you drive it. This is Dylan to get the red colors for Barita. One stage win already. That was on stage six. That was to the top of Leon de Bali. He’s got his moto this year. He can definitely win this stage today. He’ll need to get away from the likes of Yasper Ster and perhaps even number 22 Casper Asg. But he could pick up another victory. I would like to thank Paul Kerry on Twitter for just doing some quick mathematics for us. We were just talking about the the difference in aerodynamics and over an 8 1/2 second period of a sprint or the last which is around the last 200 m 1 km an hour equals 27 cm a second. So over 8 1/2 seconds 1k an hour equals 2.36 m or a bike length which is what Caleb won by yesterday. So thank you for confirm confirming my thoughts with actual mathematics. #we love fantastic nailed it. Check out the big brain on Paul. Just a little bit too much fiction. It’s the Royal Witches almost at the top of the climb for the breakaway group. And I’m suspecting that Thomas Den will take the points at the top. He currently sits in third position in the King of the Mountains classification. He’s 27 points off the lead of his team. There’s only one point at the top of this. As we saw through the intermediate sprint, Thomas again when he sees a prize, it’s like a red. Yeah. And he’ll just set the pace and he’ll he’ll set enough pace. You look what’s happening in the back of the group. Little split chasing across gaps. Just making sure he’s setting enough of a pace that everyone goes, “Oh, okay. Okay.” And the other thing, the other thing that they’re doing is they want to stick with Daniel is aware of this. So too is Alexi. Coming around the outside is Pier Perish. They would probably be thinking we need to stay with Thomas again just in case, but he’s backing off. Yeah, he had a look and he backed off. But what he sometimes does is he has a look as if okay, you’re there. I’ll just ease up and even sits up higher and he starts pushing the pedals harder whilst he’s got the body language of up high in the sneaky sneaky clever clever. But I still think it’s way too far to do a move like that right off. But Pier Perish was cautious. Oh yeah, even Daniel O didn’t want points. He thought I’m just going to have a look and make sure that they’ve gone over the top with four and a gap had opened up. O thought well let’s not get caught out just in case. Rather make an effort that turns out to be unnecessary than not make an effort which at the end of the day you think to yourself I wish I’ just gone. Yeah. You’d rather be cautious than wrong. 10 minutes. And it is absolutely pouring down on the head of the race. It looks to be a very localized storm, but it’s one that was on the forecast. The possibility of local storms throughout the area as the heat builds up in the Alps. The cold air meets the hot air. Suddenly, you’ve got a storm on your hands. And up there from the amount of rainy terms of the weather conditions and this looks picture perfect. Look in this direction completely clear looking out of our commentary. There’s a few heavy clouds on the horizon but here in Gap at the moment is also fine. Would you welcome the rain? Absolutely. It would feel wonderful. One of the few welcome the rain. Wonder how long it will last because it’s still really warm here at the finish line. It’s still up in the mid to high 30s. Here is the breakaway group. There is Nikico Roach in the red colors now rolling through to the front. Followed by the Olympic Games gold medal from Rio. There’s Greg Benavar. Then Ben King behind him with the green helmet on. The yellow helmet that is Nelson Olivier from Moistar. They lead the team specification. Behind him in pink is the Kiwi Tom Scully. Phenomenal. And the pellets on there at 12 minutes and 19 seconds. They haven’t hit the rain yet. It has to start and stop somewhere, doesn’t it? Yep. And it’s quite possible that it will move across and the Pelon will just hit wet roads and think to themselves, what happened here? Absolutely torrential on the front group at the moment, but they I’m sure will be actually enjoying it. Here’s the first drops it looks like for the Pelaton as well. And the big drops of rain, really heavy on that gorge that we went through a little while ago. They had a horrible flood that went through there in 1992 where sadly 37 people passed away. So a flood can hit this region really quickly. You see how gingerely they were through that last corner as well. When it hasn’t rained for a long time, then it suddenly pours down. Things can get a little bit slippery as well. But rain this heavy is likely just to wash the roads completely clean. Any residue that’s built up, that’ll be gone in that section. And what about the contrast to that in terms of racing in the rain and the spray with the water coming off the wheels and the chance of picking up a bug infection as a result of that? Does that increase by much? Only very slightly, I think. more more so in real rural areas where there’s a lot of dirt on the road that’s mud out of the fields that have been fertilized with manure and that sort of thing like the races we see in Belgium in the spring of Mercury I think that smile to the front is the irony of a change in the weather conditions from boiling hot and the rain is hitting the ground and evaporating almost straight away Pinn is all smiles he likes the cool conditions there’s been blocks of ice down their back and now they’re about to get caught on. Here it comes down on the pelon. I think he’s saying, “Oh, well, at least we’re going to cool off.” It’s William Gonet who he’s speaking to from Group Armor FDJ’s enjoying it. Yeah. Quite often in a race when it starts to rain, you see the looks on the faces, they go long. They get very long. And now so many guys just started to smile. Well, this is going to be really nice. kind of like having a swim. We haven’t seen a whole lot of the lavender fields throughout today’s stage, which as we head through the region of Provence, I was expecting to see more of it. I think we’re just a little bit too far north. What north? Down uh around Axon Provence, you see a lot more of those lavender fields as we see another one of those beautiful shots as we have throughout the tour of these magnificent birds soaring high. Not too spooked by our television helicopters. Not spooked by the rain ever either because they haven’t been hit by it yet. We’ve got additional votes to be awarded today. Alex, Mr. Consistent. He’s hunting down George. I’m going to vote one way behind Alex two boats. Long hesitation. The big sounded like he was at the doctor. That incidentally puts him into clear third place in the race for the two medal. He’s on seven points. is currently being led by George Bennett who’s on 12 and Tibbo Pino and Grant Thomas who also got a mention from Alex Dson. They’re on nine laps as the Pelaton is led by Duni Quickset through Leg Thomas and Julian Alfal. I think the first two reasonable enough. Yeah, why not? But if Alfa Phillip cracks, I think it’s going to be much bigger than that. And I think he may drop to the bottom end of the top five or six. Yeah, if he goes, he showed signs of it the other day in the Pyrenees. But this this tour has just given us so many surprises. But if should Alf hang on, I also won’t be shocked. The tennis ball theory, if you drop the tennis ball, it bounces back and that bounce gets less and less. How much more spring does he get in his tennis ball after the rest day? We don’t know. We won’t know until tomorrow. It’s not an exact science. Now, he had to be dropped up there by a helicopter. Surely you wouldn’t climb that rock climb. He’s got the safety road. He must have. You can’t drop somebody off of that through the top. It would be worth watching if they did. I was just looking at all the the loose looking rocks up towards the top. The French are so famous for their rock climbing. Well, he’s a lot braver than I am. deliver a hell of a lot better than mine. I can assure you pelaton still being guided by the kerning quickstep the team of Julian Alfali. It is magnificent. We talk a lot about all the man-made structures, but this is mother nature at her very best. I like that he’s got the polka dot jersey on. See, he’s climbed up. See the safety harness? Oh my goodness. You know that you know that feeling you get in the bottom of your feet when you’re watching someone else stand at a really great height and precarious place. Maybe you don’t know but that’s what I’ve got now. I’ve just taken a look at the king of mount specifications. Tim Wellins leading on 40 points. TBO Pino in second on 50 points and that guy moves into third on 45. Absolutely. That’s categorized on its own that climb. This is Chris Yensen for Mitchelton Scott at the front the black and yellow. his former teammate against Kirkair now rolls through to the front. See the expression in their faces starting to change and looking a lot more serious. The tension on the face of Tom Scully. Simon Clark now comes through on the P. Mickey Sh in the orange colors has been doing more work at the front than his teammate. So 14 minutes under 50 km to go. There’s no real reason to be swapping off in earnest anymore. And I’ve seen little signs. I spotted a couple of riders just tightening a shoe here and there. Riders start to spend a little bit more time at the back. A lot more talk on the radio. This gorge will be now journey down through. It’s classified as a natural zone of ecological fauna and flora interest. So it is protected by government decree single file. They’re really just trying to get through the finish line. It’s protected, but you’re still allowed to climb all over it by the looks of things and race your bike through the middle of it. De Lampard on the front. They have had an enormous tour. Their big focus really was the first week to try and win a stage with Julian Alipe. The sprint finishes with Ali Viviani and then see what they could do overall with Enrich Mus. This is the breakaway group. This is Neils Collet. He’s all smiles. He’s enjoying himself. let everyone know what’s happened right from the start if they’re just tuning in. I was looking at my race book. Small downhill and I was just about to say this is the time when the opportunities are starting to come up places on the route to attack. Small uphills, little sections where it’s possible to start the action. And just as we were going to go to that package, we noticed the first little split occurring in that front group. the breakaway of 33 riders. It startled. It wasn’t so much as an attack. It was some of the tactical moves of people trying to stay at the back and stay out of the wind. Chris Yansen now the fronts. It’s that maneuvering putting himself in a position just to do a little bit less for a little while. Really save the legs and then start to think about what’s coming up. They’ve done that downhill. Now there’s a series of small uphills. And here’s an acceleration corner. It’s Malivera who is the first to go. This is a genuine attack from Bular Molar. Robbie, once again, you have read the tea leaves correctly. It’s Alexi Guja who is responding. Well, Mama with Sturban in the group. This is exactly what he had to do. Go long range, force the others to come with him. If a group forms with him, then he can afford to start sitting back and doing less or nothing at all. Say, I’m going to ride for Stur. I want him to come back to us because he can beat you all in the sprint. But he’s a man who has won a stage a couple of years ago in the tour to France. Stage 15, the Pon with a late attack out of a breakaway group. And he attacks just before the bottom of the final five and they never saw him again because he is so strong and he’s technically good. You saw where he attacked going into a corner, catch it by surprise, open a little gap up. The reaction came really quickly though from Gujard and it looks like he’s closing the gap but a little fracture at the front of this group. The importance of attacking going into the corner versus going out of the corner. Well, you’ve already exited. There’s someone in your wheel. It’s a pretty obvious move going in catch them off guard and attack now by Scully. And Alexi, the rider that I spoke about earlier is perhaps pays the price for this fatigue of being the breakaway yesterday. The man in the yellow shoes is showing no such signs. And in fact, it’s Gujar who is the next to go. It’s Gujar just not wanting to miss out. So maybe thinking to himself, it’s tactically so difficult to pick. I’m going to follow the first couple and immediately just I’m going to go as hard as I can and see if I can get away. Then you don’t have to react to attacks. You are the attack. You are the attack. Lots of the riders in the red colors from somewhere down at the back of the palaton. Their big hope today. They only have one hope. It’s Nicholas Roach who is in the break. Cheers to the two lead out men for Ali Viviani doing the job today for the yellow jersey. The white that is Maxzi in the red. The Danish champion. A very straightforward defense for Doneyi. Quick step. Everyone’s pretty relaxed in the pelon. This is Emanuel Bookman. Some people have been saying, “Oh, under the radar.” Nobody’s talking about him. We’re talking about him every single day. We have been since the start and said that he came out of the door for eight with a third place in the back pocket and he was always going to be a contender for a top five. He said, “I’d like to finish top 10.” He’s underestimated himself. In addition to that, whether we’re talking about him or not, the riders of the Pelton. Mhm. So to the man in the red and sorry not the red and the black the yellow and the black and that is Steven Cruz the best young rider in the race Benal. Importantly though he sits in fifth place overall Neil Pollins we went through that list and said who needs to do what and when. Who needs to go long range and this was one of the men we said go long range. A very good time triers fairly handy uphill without being a climber and not slow at the finish. get into a group, get into a five or six man break and he can definitely win from that. This is the strategy that you said he needed to adopt when we went through it a little earlier on. It’s against Yens Giral who’s come out after him from Sud lotto. So that’s a man with a fast finish not ideal for Pollock. No move yet from Thomas D. Perhaps he waits for a few attacks to soften the legs and then he goes well a very technical section. Neils Pop pushing everybody to the limit if they want to close this gap. Looked a little dusty through that corner also. Everybody on the chase and Kirk he is getting across the gap. It’s Jensen in the background with Gujard Tom Scully. So the men who are on the attack just previously that narrow winding road has just kept them at the front. Everybody strung out and two of the four riders from Ketus are at the very back of the group. Not a good sign. That is Pier Perishon who is at the rear and this group is really strung out. This is some serious pressure at the front. Kirk has made it across and he’s created a little bit of a gap to Tom Scully in the pink colors. And that next group still has a gap over the rest. All looking over the shoulder Edward Wilson Hagen is in that group. The man in the bright green helmet looking back is look like Yasper Sturan on the front of the rest of the group. We see this vehicle with the Australian flags and the boxing kangaroo every stage of the tour to France. Tim Wellins at the back number 168. He will have enjoyed the rain showers. He despises the heats. He has to get into the breakaway tomorrow if he’s any chance to win that poly or not much is going to change back here either. But up the front the change is happening. The attacks have started to rain down from the front group. Neil’s pollen’s circulated keen to see what their gap is over the rest or if they’ve already shut them down. This is from the takeaway group number 123 that is spicy and when he won the under 23 world race title Caleb Buer was second and he’s spoken about watching Caleb take that next step up and he’s really enjoyed seeing Caleb have that success. Simon come back together by three of the four riders from in the back six riders of this group. This is at the rear. Just in front of him is Omar from Aana. Some of the riders in this group, they’ll just gamble on having the tactic right. Think I won’t get involved. I won’t attack or trap yet. I’ll sit further back. Rely on everybody being really keen not to miss it. Just wait a little bit longer. It’s playing your cards close to your chest, holding your nerve, and just hoping you’ve picked the right tactic. In terms of the general classification from that breakaway group, Zedro Mariss starting the state in 19th position with this advantage is now moving himself up to 13th place in the general classification. It’s pretty good day. Yep. But a day out here in the break may well cost him a whole heap of time tomorrow in the mountains and see him fall even further back than he was already. Well, the Alps are looming for the entire pelaton of this tour to France. But at the front, the thoughts are not on the Alps. It’s on the stage win. This is Gujard. Behind him, Ben King Jensen. He sits up. So, the gap opens. And wears the red number as the most combative from yesterday’s stage. He was in the Dayong breakaway. Theoretically, he should be the most tired guy in this breakaway group, but he’s showing so much vigor to press on and try and win. Maybe that’s the thinking behind his attacks. I’m tired from Yes, I’m fatigued. I’ll just throw out big attacks and see if I can get away. Maybe he’s feeling I’m probably not sharp enough at the end to make a big attack to try and slide away. But it’s not they’re not sneaky attacks, big horsepower. He’s got Ben King with him who’s got plenty of his own horsepower. Now sprinting across is Tom scoring Japan national champion followed by steak blanket from UAE van starting to pay attention and gritting the teeth too. The Belgian in the gold helmet and the gap opening up. Look ahead there are some 10 or 11 riders and Jensen has not managed to go with going across but I tell you what Trent is one of them. The teammate of Joel Jensen and he makes contact at the back four trying to go across. Scully is amongst them in the pink colors. Daniel OS he’s the man just making contact. So Trenton getting organized straight away right to the front says come on this is it. Let’s split it. They’ve left behind around 20 riders. As green is the man trying to come across. He has the legs to go across the 22y old Casper Asg. Simon Clark just jumping out of the remnants of that breakway. The big group. You just see him coming over the crest in the big jersey. There he is. Niko Roach. He follows his example. Now this group they sit and they wait they try to work out who will do the chasing and it’s Thomas D who is on the front because also in this group is Y per so the two riders from Sudal Lotto from the breakway have missed the split both missed it so that’s not a good sign for this group having Thomas again trying to chase you down but that is now a big gap Simon Clark down in the arrow tuck in the background then it’s Nico Roach and now it’s Nelson Olivera on the front of the rest of the group as green he is on the verge verge of making contact, but they are really going. Good cooperation in this front group. This is the back of the breakaway number 136. That’s Balmer who started it all. Big tail wind down the valley as well. Simon Clark looking like he’s starting to get stranded. Another big turn from Trenton. The key notable Clark is sitting up. He’s about to be caught by the chasers. The king notable from Trenton, he knows that Yasper is not in that front group and he’s probably the only from this break that could beat the trans finish there who is actually just waving other riders through looks like he’s suffering and having the fire disturbing behind you may think to himself I’m really feeling the pinch I’ve got a fast from the team behind I’m going to sit on I’m not working and as contact there he is in blue from the kernic quick step the workhorse gets an opportunity He is the amount of work that he’s done on the front of the tour and had a heavy crash on stage three. He’s bounced back from all of that to get in the break first thing today and get across that gap. Incredible from the young Dane. He’d be a popular winner if he was to collect the stage victory. Chris Yansen off the left. He follows the wheel of Neil’s Pollock. He’s trying to discourage the chase from this group because his teammate Matteo Tren is Amongst the leaders ro now at the back in the red colors of sunb he sits just behind Sergio and for the leaders team they’ve managed to get perish into this group number 156 man who you spoke about in orange doesn’t miss many and he hasn’t missed this one he went and he was with the attack after mama really kicked things off and then the gent missed the next one that’s how you’ve got to ride when you’re in a With any sort of numbers, you got to back each other up. When one’s made the effort and been in one, you’ve got to make sure you make the next one or you’re on the back foot and you’re chasing. And that gap opening up now. 26 seconds between vehicles passing by. Official motorbikes, cameras, not a good sign for the chasing group. 11 riders in this group. Number 22 is Casper Asbury. Just in front of him, Tom Sto. Just in front of him is Gorka is a gear. This is Neils Plet trying to go across here. Perish is in the group for matte tren for pitch Scott the CCC they have Greg vanamaran the American pen king is there for dimension na Daniel O is in the group for balls stake lang is there for UAE Alexi for agard Tom Scully for Kiwi for EF Education first poll on his own trying to go across all but two of the riders in are doing what we said they needed to do to try and win. Go long range from somewhere just within 40 km down to 25 km to go try and get in a suitable sort of group. But the man going off the front is one of the big dangers for this group with his sprint. So is blown finally paying the price for yesterday. Said it earlier when we said he’s so active. Maybe because he’s already feeling the pinch and thinking I won’t be good enough to go in the final part of the stage. I’ll see if I can get away and get in a a group and they let me slide. It’s caught up with him. The one thing the team criticizes Alexi Guja for he’s been too aggressive. It’s a nice thing to be criticized for, but today’s paid the price for being a little too active. He’s out attacked himself. Yes, he has. Good effort nonetheless being in the break yesterday and really yesterday was not the day to go into break when you saw the body language of Suda early on. But look what it’s done to the group here. There was acceleration by Trenton. He was off the front. Nobody followed and now they’re starting to look at each other. That teamwork element of the break has gone out of it. He’s trying to drive the bike, but he’s disrupting the break tren. And a lot of riders in this group, they would fear Matteo Tren rightly so in the spring finish. He has beat Peter Sager in the speed finish to win a stage in the past and he’s really being up front with his riding and pushing the pace and talking a lot where is trying the opposite tactic just nobody sees me I’m just floating along not even really here little bit difficult not to see red don’t don’t mind me I’ll just do what the rest of you are doing and be at the end but he’s shown his experience here he’s recognized that the pace has dropped off it’s losing cohesion. He rolls through and you saw the head turn back. He’s talking to the others. Come on, let’s roll. O comes through back into a single foul line. O Bavar Scully as screen Matteo Trent in Ben King Langan. Then it was Scaper in the group. I expect a clever attack from his year. His brother’s been a stageman in the tour. That was in the rain for Paul Zine. That was in 2016. He’d like to join him as a stage in the tour. Neutral service still providing the water and there will also be a manual service motorbike but not car directly behind him. Going through the motions at the back number 108. He’s been a dual stage winning this year’s race 101 Adam Yates and he’s trying to work out what has gone wrong. His season was meant to be France on the Aspen has been announced that he won’t be rid this year. First from yesterday Ali Viviani sitting just behind the white jersey still at the front. the Danish national champion. The yellow jersey Juliana Fleet should come out of today reasonably happy. It’s been a stressfree day as much as there can be one for the race leader. He’ll be very happy with how it’s gone today completely stressree and even in the beginning just sitting the wheel cruising along even though it was 50 km an hour. You’re tired, you’re fatigued, you just get used to riding at that speed as well. He just turned it over and float along in the slip screen pushing the pace the pace at the front. He’s done a lot of work throughout this year’s tour. A lot of work on the front. But today he’s been saving energy at the back. Remember back in the tour of Fllanders in April, he did so much work throughout the race for others and then he finished on the podium second. Yeah. And it was a solo second place finish. Ben was off the front on his own and then Asgra just slipped away from the next group and they didn’t catch him. He is strong and he did a lot of work in the first 10 days of this tour to France and he was top 10 in the time eighth in the time. We declared him as the unsung hero the following day. 7 seconds and they’re starting to think about the climb that’s going to come. It starts with around 13 km to go. You rode it this morning. What sort of opportunities does it present for this group? 14 km to go. The start of the climb. It’s 5 12 km long, 5.2. Tops out at around 8 1/2 km to go out of this group. There’ll be a couple not counting on their climbing skills, maybe looking for another attacking opportunity before they get to the climb. Get a head start. Although that’s a danger in itself. Get a head start for the climb. It’s riskreward. You might not get a lot of a lead and put yourself right in the red zone as soon as they come back to you. You go through the group and out the back. Simon Clark tried that a few days ago and then paid the price. 4 kilometers to the bottom of the climb. I haven’t seen Gorki come through for a turn. Maybe we’ve just been off on a scenic shot like this wonderful shot of Leonte. Hello. Pardon me. This one also stands at a little bit over 2,000 m. Another one of the popular spots for rock climbing. You can see that limestone face of it. It’s no wonder that it’s one of the more popular destinations in this region for rock climbing. the terrain that they have down here as we head towards the Alps. It’s no surprise that it’s very popular. Still being led by Eve Lamp, the former road and towards the 20 descent, but nobody wants to get caught out. It’s not the traditional descent that we see down in the gap, which was a hair raising one. No, that was off the colder miles, the category 2 climb, and we’ve seen a few come undone down there and splits in the pelon. It’s nothing like that. It’s a lot more straightforward. So, nothing for the pelon to worry about. This group, they’re getting ever closer to the foot of the climb and the gap is growing almost out to 40 seconds. Here he is, is from the start. rolling through. He is adapting or approaching this with a really strategy just enough to keep everybody happy. He’s sure to attack on the final I think so out of that group. He’s the man who really needs to attack this group. The likes of Trenton and Vanar in it and this is what remains off the front of the breakway group. Originally 33 riders now 11 off the front. It’s down to 10 now in fact. It’s now been dropped. It would be incredible if he was able to return to this group. But now the chases, they’re out to 39 seconds. 39 seconds is a lot of ground to make up when you’ve been in this break all day long. It’s a lot of ground to make up. There is a 5 km climb. Maybe Thomas Dant will think I’ll have a go at it on the climb. But there’s got to be others in this group that think they need to get away before it. Maybe a Daniel los. That’s what he’s thinking about. Sc offloaded, but at least try something. We’ve had Kiwis win stages in the tour of a team tri, but never an individual stage. This could be a historic moment for New Zealand cycling. This is King. Tom Scully has himself in second position behind King. The reaction is coming from Trent and he’s just going to try and cover everything just together. The grimace on the face of Greg Others as he follows the wheel of casin showing some cards early. He won’t be intent on getting into a group and start swapping off to form another split. He just prefer everything just to stay together. That will be just fine for Matteo Trenton. 37 seconds now. The gap reduces ever so slightly to the chases. Like to see exactly what’s happening back with the chasing group. Swing across the road and Ben King. Well, he has a look and then gets up on the pedals and goes. It’s Vanavamar who tracks him. Ask him. He also sees the danger. Tra say he responds. Number 107. Counterattack over the top. The youngest rider in the leading group. And he puts them all under pressure. Well, they are very close now to the foot of the climb. This is just a little way down the road. That was a swear for Dylan Turning out the road, but sorry, he’s not there yet. He’s missed the split and he’s creating a sprint. Tom Scully is never a good sign. Tom Scully, you can cross him off. Ben King as well. He’s been the one who is eliminating the chances. Langan also gone out of this group. He will not get across. This is great. Let’s keep it rolling. the men not to miss out and Tom Daniel Os with the flowing blocks. We’re asked about the aerodynamics of Daniel OS. He loves his hair. He sits at the back of the group. It’s part of his branding. Daniel Osar trends in. He’s eager for this to keep moving along. We got rid of a lot of guys. Always talking, always pushing. Come on, guys. Let’s keep it going. Roll it over. rolled it over almost at the bottom of the climb and is a gear. He has got to be the man who will attack. He can’t wait till just near the top after the showers that we had. The dripping that you see in that museum bag from Michael Heer. That’s the stockings full of ice to take them through to the team leaders as one of his teammates Trent in. He’s not waiting for the sprints. He’s showing his strength. The cards are off the table. Well, followed all the moves and he’s obviously thought himself. He’s just not moving quick enough. Maybe they’re too tired. Off I go. Reaction now coming from Pier Perish as Trenton is on to the climb. The golden 5.2 km 5.4% average. He’s a strong acceleration second on the road. transit is all by himself. An adjustment of the jury or just a silent prayer. He’s off the front solo and that is a big gap to cross. Chasing group being led by Tom scoring and then Greg Benamar in orange. This is Pier Luke Perish of Coretus looking to end an 11year drought for this team. Is he making any progress? Not yet. This is Trenton. And he’s the rider that I would have backed in the sprint finish from that group. Trenton fastest man in the group. The one the others don’t want to go to the finish with. Want to offload him, attack him, use him up. He’ll have none of it. He’ll leave him behind first. Impressive. Fourth at the World Championships in 2017. Matteo Trenchy. He’s won multiple stages here in Gura. Four at the botto. He’s already opened up a 13sec advantage. Make it 15 seconds on Pier Lu Perish. Well, he won stages here at the tour successive years 2013 and 2014. In 13 he beat Albini in a photo finish and then the next year he won into ni from an elite front group after a difficult hilly stage coming in ahead of Peter Sagan and at that point he was riding with the quickstep team mega farmer Quickstep now who was then known now now known as the kerning quickstep. He’s got the jersey fully open 37° still at the finish line in gap 4.2 km to the top of the climb. This is the pursuer. This is Perish. And this is good news for Trenton that Perish is still in between. A man who was dropped when the race went a bit faster and he’s at 17 seconds. 26 seconds to the next chasing group. And Perish keeps looking over the shoulder. This could be it. Trenton has laid the winning move. Maybe a lot won’t consider this going out on a limb. I’m calling it. Trenton will not be caught. He has looked so fresh. He’s been all over every move. He’s been a tent. He’s been strong. He’s covered attacks. Now he’s made his own. He’s been so eager in the moves as well to do the work to get everybody moving. It’s like he’s on a big adrenaline rush. Surely they can’t catch him. The gap has opened up even more. He’s not showing any signs of slowing down. Matteo Trent, he was interviewed before the start of the stage. No pressure on the team. You’ve already got three stage victories. Yeah, but I haven’t yet. Prophetic words by the Italian, the man who is the European road race champion and from his team Mitchell Scott. Just as you said, one of the men with two stage wins in this race, Simon Yates. He sits at the back of the Pelaton having a relaxing day and I’m sure following the progress updates of his teammate off the front. This is a Pikaboo and it’s the third highest peak in this region at 2,79 m above sea level. Cooling off for Matteo Trenen. He’s feeling the heat, but it’s not from the chase because they are going further behind. Perish on at 23. The rest of the pursuers at 33 seconds. That’s the group with his Aira and Vanavar. And how discouraging for that chasing group now 33 seconds when they’ve seen the strength of Matteo Trent in it’s on the front scores at the back. They don’t look like a group who will close down a potato treny. These are not tactical decisions. That is the best they make. 23 seconds. dangling 13 seconds in front of the group that he caught right before the foot of the climb. He went up and over as they took a pause and he’s still holding them off. He’s 15 seconds ahead of that group in Vanavar. He looked cooked at that point, but he’s really bounced back well at the moment. He’s he’s hanging on to this time gap. He’s not losing anymore at the moment. That time gap actually having him come in by 1 second on Matteo Trenton, but he still can’t see him. 22 seconds is a big gap. This is his fourth appearance at the tour to France for Pu Perish. He’s never won a stage in the tour nor a world tour level race, but he has won a good race. If you like your cheese, he has been a winner of Perry Canar where you win your weight in he won that back in 2012. This is followed by they’re trying to work. You’re right in your assessment. It’s not so much that it’s tactical, just this is all that’s left in the tank. It is stage 17. They’ve been racing throughout the tour now for more than 2 and a half thousand km and the gap is growing and Matteo Trenton his virtual finish line is the top of this climb at 8 1/2 km to go. It’s pretty much all downhill into gap just a couple of little pinches a few hundred meters long but he knows if he can have 20 seconds at the top of this climb they will not see him. This is the next group on the road. These are the remnants. This includes Bosen Hagen. Also in this group is Ben King. Simon Clark is there in the pink colors. Dylan Torren is at the rear of the group. Just in front of him is Bular Mama. Third last on that group is Nikico Roach. This is Langan at the front of this group trying to drive them back on. Simon Clark. He’s in fourth last of the group. Justin behind him. Is that now? Yep. Former Columbia National Champion Sergio Wal. And the gap for the pelon out to 18 and 12 minutes. Just over 2 km from the top. This group looks like it’ll be caught by the group that is chasing them down and then they’ll get the news. Oh, but hang on. It’s a trend. He’s still another 40 seconds up the road. Another big dive down in the gap is here. Now the attack comes from Casper Agrid and nobody with the legs to go with him. The young Dane has proven to be a powerhouse in 2019. One of the revelations of last year’s Bader like that ride away from this group and distance them. He’s waited too long. He should have done that before if he really did have it in the legs. He’s on that little flatter section now as well. 41 seconds the gap at the moment. Casper Asgrim made the move. He might be able to take five or so seconds away really quickly with the acceleration, but then once it gets into the stabilization, Trenton’s not backing off. He’s not slowing down. He’s showing no signs of weakness and he’s 500 m from the top of this climb. the gradient a lot easier. He will power across the top of the cold descent above gap and it’ll be a lightning fast descent. It’s a pedling descent, so it’s not as steep as say a Pyreneian or an alpine descent. It’s certainly quick, open and flowing as pretty quickly across the perishaw. He will make contact with the French by the time they reach the top. A good acceleration by to regret that he didn’t try this earlier. But it is not quite. They will not catch Trent. Surely not. Too much experience, too much fight. You can see this morning in his interview how much he wanted to pop himself into the break and the way he’s ridden it all day long. The only thing surely that could stop him is a mistake. Yeah, I’m 99% with you. But Casper Asg is a guy who was surprised more than once this season. As up and over the top of Pier Perish tries to tack himself onto the wheel and he does it at the moment. No, the gap opening up. The Dane pushes on. The Frenchman is being dropped. The moment was momentary because number 22 is on the charge. It’s the young Dane Casper Agrid still holding out. a glimmer of hope of being able to get across to Matteo Tren. Well, the kilometers are going to tick away very quickly. Now, if it was this gap and a flat or undulating run into the finish, you’d say still a chance he’s not home yet. He’s got a lot of descending to do right the way to the final kilometer. There’s only two sections of about 400 m. We’ll be up onto the pedals. Big chain ring as well. And a little kick up from 2 km to go. You really dive into a dip, carry a lot of speed onto it. So Trenton just has to hold it together. Keep his concentration is the most important thing now on this descent. Get your markers from the motorbike and the car in front of you. Estimate the corners. Take just enough risk, but he’s got a gap that he can be careful enough. I’m glad you declared this is a non technical descent. It opens up even more further down. It’s not hair pins. You can take most of these corners with just a brush of the brakes. Just a brush of the brakes. So he says at the top of the climb, Trent into the lead on Azarin was 26 seconds. At the point where Casper Aren attacked the gap was 41 seconds and it might be 10 at the finish, but Trenton will have time to sit up and celebrate. This is the chase. Casper Asg Trenton is a very good descender. He’s a very good descender. As as much as I’d like to keep the excitement in it for commentary purposes, but I’m not going to because Trenton is just too good to give this away. Fighting for a finish on the stage. He’s trying to hold off the group with Greg Vanovers. And now it’s gone out to 29 seconds. So Trenton actually is riding away from Cash Asin on the descent. He’s a good descender. Just has to hold it together. Shades of last year. Adam Yates off the front on the way to Beta Deong with Julian Ala Phillip on the chase. He fell in a call. We don’t wish it on him, but these are the things you need to keep in mind. And that’s why you need to stay 100% focused even with a comfortable lead. And Yates Mitchelton Scott Trenton Mitchton Scott Asgrid quick step shades indeed. That’s why it all came together. Flatter part of the defense. The further you go down, the less gradient there is. Back on the power of transit. Line up that car in front. See what sort of curve there is in front of you. Back on it again. Another one. group sprint quite a large group. The other one in 2013, a smaller break group like this one with about 15 or 16 guys left and just got over the top of Albini. He’s making sure of this one. Just the strongest man in the group on the day. In the end, when you look at it, he’s ripped away and simply outpowered him. He was all over. Didn’t miss a beat. Not a single mistake. And he’s the strongest. That 1% hope that I was holding out for Casper as just evaporated underneath the sun to gap as it goes to 31 seconds. The time gaps going out. This is that little uphill section through 5 km to go. It goes for a few hundred m and it definitely stings the end of a 200 km extremely hot day. Stage 17 of the tour to France. It is hurting like the proverbial cat, but trends in. He can smell the stage wind. It hurts a little less when you’re in front and the time gap is going in your favor. But this is another brave performance by Casper Azrid. He holds 8 seconds under Pier Perish. It’s a further 8 seconds back to the group which has swelled in number with riders joining them from the chasing group behind the break. It absolutely fell to pieces. responsible for all the damage this year of last year. We’re second this year at the tour of Flanders, a stage winner at the tour of California. Well, whoever is responsible for that talent ID, well done. Is a giraffe perish to van contemplating what might have been. They’ve missed their opportunity. The rest they are way out of contention for this one. This is that downhill stretch down towards 2 kilome to go for Matteo Trenin. So all downhill hill till 2k to go. Another kicker up for about 400 meters, but he has a 36 second advantage now. So, he’s riding away all the time. It’ll just be steady state and start to think of what the victory salute’s going to be. Well, he hasn’t had much chance in previous stage victories to really focus on it as it’s been the adrenaline one with a photo finish. We actually had to wait maybe up to two minutes for confirmation when he got the better of Michael Albus. Yeah, that was super close on that occasion. This time there’ll be no one else on the photo unless he starts to celebrate from a kilometer out and Ascreen comes into sight. As Green still only has 10 seconds on the group. They’re called the group Fava Mart, but that was the one we saw Bula Moly and his giri attacking out of Matteo Trent in on target to make it stage win number four for Mitchelton Scots. this last little uphill section. Then it’s downhill to oh, he’s got it the downhill until the 2 kilometer, then a proper kick up still to get to that section. This is Casper Ezra now drifting out to 38 seconds behind, eighth in the individual time trial. He’s the Danish time trial champion and he has spent countless kilometers on the fronts of the pelaton for his team leaders Alfilip and Viviani but they’re closing in on him from behind. Yeah, they’re coming at him and this man he is going away from them. This is the Pelaton coming onto the foot of the climb. Tony Martin is who disagreement and Luke Row and Tony Martin that will be looked at by the race commissers that sort of behavior and this is the sort of thing that could get Tony Martin thrown off the tour to France. He it’s too late to say he needs to be careful. It might be too late for him. I don’t know. I’d like to know exactly what happened there and hear from Luke Row and Tony Martin. Well, they’re going to have to explain themselves. Most certainly Tony Martin to the race jury if they’ve seen that footage. Do you think it you think that was deliberate as opposed to a look across the shoulder and then he was absolutely deliberate? But we just need to know what was the catalyst to that. But the real action is right here. He’s on the way to another stage victory for Mitchell. Scott about to see the kite with 1 kilome to go. Matteo transit has simply been the strongest. Pat on the back from the yellow jersey. Gratitude for Dre Evidence. 20 minutes and 10 seconds. The gap still leads. It is followed by Thomas Cruz, Pino, Bernal, Bookman, Lander, Valverde, Uran, and then Port rounds out the top 10. More than 80% of this year’s tour to France has been completed. There’s just 592 kilometers remaining before the race reaches its finish line in Paris. Yet, the big decisions there still to be made. and providing the backdrop will build the Alpine climbs. Could it be a French victory? They’ve got the yellow jersey resting on the shoulders of Julian Ella Phippe who will get to the top of the mountain first today. The drama of the day yesterday though involved Luke Row and Tony Martin on the road approaching the final climb. The battle was on for positions and it got a little heated. Pretty harsh decision. I think maybe a yellow card would have been merited but um I think a red card for both riders in fact um is um feels a bit severe to me. Luke, you must be devastated. Yeah, I think um you know it’s the biggest sporting event in the world and uh to come here with this team and alongside a bunch of good mates and just feel like I’ve let them down. Um of course let myself down and uh yeah it was a you know both trying to do a job. Maybe we both overstepped the mark slightly but feels harsh to to be thrown off the race. I think both of us, neither of us deserve that. Um, and you know, there’s just a lot of people supporting you, watching you, and uh, it’s pretty, it’s pretty hard. Luke Ro from Team Inos and Tony Martin of Yambo Vizma, both disqualified from the race. They’re on their way home. Descender. He’s a very good descender. And as much as I’d like to keep the excitement in it for commentary purposes, but I’m not going to because Trenton is just too good to give this away. This is Pier Luke Perish fighting for a top three finish on the stage. He’s trying to hold off the group with Greg Vanovers. And now it’s gone out to 29 seconds. So Trenton actually is riding away from Casper Asgrin on the descent. He’s a good descender. Just has to hold it together. shades of last year. Adam Yates off the front on the way to Beta Deong with Julian Ala Phillip on the chase. He fell in a core. We don’t wish it on him, but these are the things you need to keep in mind. And that’s why you need to stay 100% focused even with a comfortable lead. Mitchell Scott, Trenton, Mitchell, Scott, Asgrim, quick step. Alfip quick step shades indeed. That’s why it all came together. Flatter part of the descent. So the further you go down, the less gradient there is. Back onto the power for Trenton. Line up that car in front. See what sort of curve there is in front of you. Ease off slightly. Back on it again. You look so powerful. Matteo Trenton, the European road champion. He’s won sprint finishes in this tour before. One from a breakaway group. Another one getting the better of Peter. Now Casper Adgrid. It’s heading in the wrong direction. And both Matteo Trenton’s Tour to France wins have been in group sprints. The one in Nuli in 2014, quite a large group sprint. The other one in 2013, a smaller breakaway group like this one with about 15 or 16 guys left and just got over the top of Albini. Well, he’s making sure of this one. Just the strongest man in the group on the day. In the end, when you look at it, he’s ridden away and simply outpowered them. He was all over everything. Didn’t miss a beat. Not a single mistake and he’s the strongest. That 1% hope that I was holding out for Casper Azri has just evaporated underneath the sun the gap as it goes to 31 seconds. The time gap’s going out. This is that little uphill section through 5 km to go. It goes for a few hundred m and it definitely stings the end of the 200 km extremely hot day. Stage 17 of the tour to France. It is hurting like the proverbial But Tren, he can smell the st wind. It hurts a little less when you’re in front and the time gap is going in your favor. But this is another brave performance by Cas. He holds 8 seconds over Pier Perish. It’s a further 8 seconds back to the group of which has swelled in number. The riders joining them from the chasing group behind the breakaway. He absolutely fell to pieces and I tell you has been responsible for a lot of the damage. This is Ba Mama with Gawk is a gear trying to go across. In March of last year, As was still riding with team virtue cycling, a continental team getting in the third division of the sport. He got picked up by the journey quickstep and now the 24y old D finds himself in with a chance to finish second on a stage at the tour of second this year at the Fllanders, a stage winner at the tour of California. Well, whoever is responsible for that talent ID, well done. Is a gira Perish toys and then other marks contemplating what might have been. They’ve missed their opportunity. The rest they are way out of contention for this one. This is that downhill stretch down towards 2 km to go for Matteo Trenin. So all downhill till 2k to go. Another kicker up for about 400 meters, but he has a 36 second advantage now. So, he’s riding away all the time. It’ll just be steady state and start to think of what the victory salute’s going to be. Well, he hasn’t had much chance in his previous stage victories to really focus on it as the adrenaline with a photo finish. We actually had to wait up to two minutes for confirmations when he got the better of Michael. Yeah, that was super close on that occasion. This time there’ll be no one else on the photo unless he starts to celebrate from a kilometer out and AS comes into sight. A green still only has 10 seconds on the group. They call it the group but that was the one we saw from Mama and he’s gear attacking out of transit on target to make it stay win number four. this last little uphill section. Then it’s downhill to he’s got the downhill until the 2 km then a proper kick up still to get to that section. This is C as now drifting out to 38 seconds behind eight individual time. He’s the Danish time gold champion and he has spent countless kilometers on the front of the palaton for his team leaders Alip and they’re closing in on him from behind. Yeah, they’re coming at him and this man he is going away from them. This is the Pelaton coming onto the foot of the climb. Tony Martin is disagreement here. Grow and Tony Martin that will be looked at by the race commissers. That sort of behavior and this is the sort of thing that could get Tony Martin thrown off the tour to France. He it’s too late to say he needs to be careful. It might be too late for him. I don’t know. I’d like to know exactly what happened there and hear from Luke and Tony Martin. Well, they’re going to have to explain themselves. Most certainly Tony Martin to the race jury if they’ve seen that footage. Do you think it you think that was deliberate as opposed to a look across the shoulder and then he was absolutely deliberate? Well, we just need to know what was the catalyst to that. But the real action is right here. He’s on the way to another stage victory for Mickelton Scott. About to see the guy with 1 kilome to go transit has simply been the strongest. Pat on the back for the yellow jersey. Gratitude for Dre De Evidence. 20 minutes and 10 seconds. The gap still leads it is followed by Thomas Cruz Bernal Bookman Lander Valver and then C rounds out the top 10. More than 80% of this year’s tour of France has been completed. There’s just 592 km remaining before the race reaches its finish line in Paris. Yet the big decision there still to be made and provided the backdrop will build the Alpine climbs. Could it be a French victory? They’ve got the yellow jersey resting on the shoulders of Julian who will get to the top of the mountain first today. The drama of the day yesterday though involved Ruth Ro and Tony Martin on the road approach the final clim. I think maybe a yellow card has been narrated but um I think the red card um is uh feel a bit severe to me. Yeah, I think um you know it’s the biggest sport event in the world and uh to come here with this team and alongside a bunch of good mates and just let them down and uh yeah, you know, both trying to do a job. Maybe we both s to be thrown off the race. I think both of us, either of us deserve that. Um, and you know, there’s just a lot of people supporting you, watching you and uh history from teams and Tony Martin Visma both disqualified from the race. They’re on their way home. In terms of altitude gain, this is the biggest throughout this year’s tour. They will scale more than 5,200 meters in altitude going across 280 km from tow and some of the most famous climbs in the sport the dance of the giant the more than 2,600 m before a rapid descent through the finish. Welcome to stage 18 joined once again by Robbie Mchuan. Bobby, the sun is shining at the finish line, but there are a few riders missing. We just saw the package today and it will provide a talking point for the next few hours and then we’ll get to the mountain to the racer. It did take an unexpected turn as soon as I saw the footage and the only small during the race. They’re going to have some questions to answer at the finish. They certainly did. Then more footage emerged. And even though nobody crashed, the actions that were taken by those two riders with the look at the precedent set last year, Giani Moscow being thrown off the tour for trying to punch someone else, a swing and a miss. They threw him off the race. with that precedent already set looking at yesterday’s events for me it seemed pretty close to 100% they were going to be thrown off the race and you said that all the time and I was skeptical I didn’t think it would be that severe I did see some more footing courtesy of the television NOS which shows more quiet what happened when they made that left hand turn in terms of number one the risk that they put other riders at the risk that they put spectators at and then also the image of the sport. It does look hard externally. It’s not the consequences of those actions. It’s the intent of those actions and what could have been. I actually think the make the right decision to follow them even though the people that are in the ticket that they probably feel like it is a little bit hard. But I also believe that the UCI should have gone on the front foot and actually made a strong communication about what their decision was, why they made it, and the purpose of doing that big call with disqualifying the front of the laps. And I think you’re right with that call. The UCI just need to come forward. I don’t need to say much. All that need to be said was we will not tolerate physical aggression within the race and we have excluded the two riders. Full stop. Yeah, there is no need for them to hold a press conference or do a whole Q&A session. They just needed to make a strong statement that shows that they are backing the decision of the jury on the race and a lot of questions have been asked to who’s the jury and the jury made off of an international group of representatives on there on there as well Canadian on that jury. It’s not as if it’s a decision in favor of the French race leader. No, it’s not biased to the the French race leader, but in effect the the race jury, the UCI Thomas says they are the judge, the jury, and the executioner and the appeals panel executed. So there’s so I wasn’t shocked to see them out of the race, but as we see the tour of the room in it and we’ll get to some of the fantastic scenery. Please enjoy watching that if you’re not so into the technicalities behind the race and what’s going on after yesterday. Just to clarify the jury, the UCI president or the jury president I should say is from Canada is represented France, Spain and Belgium. So there’s no bias based on nationality. No, it’s simply following the rules that are in place. They had the option just to issue a fine and a warning and points deduction and other various things that are meaningless to the riders really. But they went the whole hole said out of the race. The race moves on. The teams weren’t planning an appeal. Heard nothing of that, but they will not go back. As I said, judge, jury, executioner, and appeal panel. They’re not going to reverse their own decision. So, the riders are lining up for this stage. Police traffic clear sky. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. from 3:00 this afternoon. So, it’s 5050 whether storms in the Alps this afternoon. So, the riders have just got to be lucky that it doesn’t hit on the fourth yesterday. They really would have enjoyed that heavy downpour at one stage. It was 38° and then it started pouring rain. It would have been like having a swim. They would have felt so that was really nice. Mickey who did the breakway after the stage and he said that’s the first time I rejoiced rain got on a bike. Well, we saw as the raindrop started to come down we saw riders look at each other and smile and laugh and be how good is this? Never seen that before. What a gorgeous town. The way it’s purged up on this rock. It sits at around about 1,000 m or so above sea level, this little town. And I really like the look of that football pitch and the little athletic track that went around the outside of it. What a picture place that would be for a game of football. So they stay up on top for just a couple of kilometers before they really drop down. So gradually down, they’re about to drop on the really descent. Hand signal there from Lenco. I suggest indicating let’s keep rolling and wait and see who comes across to us. They might survive this two out there to be counter attack from that paddle. Last first to attack has rejoined the rear end of the paddle. Survival for last. There’s always that choice you have to make in a in the position of a non climber. Do I attack and hope they just let me go again in the group and get a head start or just sit back, relax, stay as fresh as possible to try and hang on? And there’s it’s a terrible feeling when you’ve made that attack. You’ve hurt your legs and it doesn’t work. At this point, he’s trying not to hurt his legs too much. He keeps looking over the shoulder to see what’s developing from the pelon. And the bad news for Lexi Lucenko in the white color from Aana is that the whole pelon closing down. Now the danger for these two is that they’ll be down the descent. The Pelaton will be bearing down on them. Just weight of numbers rolling up top each other. One rider is trying to sprint his way across. We get back down onto the flatter roads. I think the attacks will just continue out of the pelaton and it’ll probably just heat up those two in front. We’ll see a whole new break form. Still small. It is still small. Yesterday when we drove up the final five, the Load for the Golia, it was a headwind. The forecast today is for that portion of the climb to be a tailwind. How does that impact on the way the race is? It’s going to be faster. Of course, it’s better for the fuel climbers. Nobody can sit and slip behind them. We see And this is also called the St. then took up the name of Jub. It was built in 1692 at the request of the B. It was never attacked because of its strategic position. It’s a little bit difficult to get to. Listed as a French historical monument. That was as of 1994. And that’s constructed you can see being done there by the people who currently own it. is a private. So, a much more modern section of building right there in the middle. What a view to return to if you’re a bike rider. stages. The views are just going to be red as well. later on in the stage contenders. And if the bra can open up this gap, we make two races to one. overall that are inside the top six of the yellow. Some of the others they may prefer just to be aggressive all day long. Really hard racing. And a guy like that seem to have the best legs. He may prefer it just to be harder all day long. racet starts at around kilome 117 into the race to go on the previous stages in the Pyrenees in particular where he has used his team early to make great stop today for to do it. The rest of the break Left alone. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Don’t touch me. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. all that sort of stuff. They say this is not just a sport sponsorship. This is cultural. In Belgium, cycling is a huge part of the psyche of the people of the culture of the nation. What about the fact that there’s a larger proportion of people the underdog Remember on the attack in the last days at this point and still that little gap it hasn’t quite got closed yet of that chasing group who were dropped on the category three. They will close it up, but it’s taking a lot of effort. They’ve already gone over a category 3 climb and it was gradually uphill into the base of it. And the average speed so far for 38 minutes of race is 43 kmh. Chris Matthews in the red once again. Where goes Matthews goes and tren not trying to get himself through the breakway. This is Tren trying to get the rider behind you. This is such good teamwork. You saw the look over the shoulder in the wheel. Follow me around the group. We’re going to keep going. I’m going to launch you up the road. He’s having some real trouble following. Now three teammates in this group. He sees it. He goes again as well. And swings off the way. He was into the red zone to get that across. You’ve heard a sprint lead out. That’s an attack lead to follow. This is the intensity with still 178 km to go. They haven’t even started. Now this where they need these riders to break the elastic. But look, it’s all come back together behind. So even a huge move like that such as the intensity in the group and the intent to get in the breakaway as well. They’re just not able to shake the field. That was just please to the side of the road. That was a from UAE Emirates. They said okay now because I can’t hang out with you all day. This is a little tough especially after yesterday the break for Parish on a really long day out in the heat. Tried really hard was in second position coming to the top of the Cer Sentinel the last climb of the day. Passed by Ash Green just before the top and eventually caught by the chasing group as well. Came across the line in eight. It was a really good ride. This is Perish the rider that Robbie was just speaking about now being soaked up by the fellows led by Jerry Rosinger in third position with the green helmet on. He’s not too badly placed overall. He sits in 15th position 12 minutes and 6 seconds down. He goes into the break that starts to threat that are inside the top. He leads himself. He’s flying under the radar. Nobody’s going to pay attention to me if I get up the road. And once I’m up there, it’ll be too late. So, well, we’ll have to sort that one out later. If he can get himself up there, that could be a stepping stone towards the top 10 before he has finished the top 10 in the past. As we race up, Lal de Lube here high up in heading towards the monster climbs that await on the menu today. Beginning with a category one called followed by the called the Izu and then the fame called the Gibby famed and famous and infamous. Yeah. A brilliant stage vis out the front from start who looks really uncomfortable. Yeah, he always look he has that bouncing style but it’s effective and he’s following up. So again probably we’ve seen Hios on the front foot maybe doing a star. We often see them put a rider in the brake get them up the road and then they function as the perfect teammate later on in the stage. Did you see that reaction? Look over the shoulder. Why don’t you just attack and come across instead of just riding across all in the wheel? Thanks very much. one of his team. That’s why he’s waving at his teammate. What on earth are you doing? But it’s too late. Yates again on the outside coming up here as well. Yates had a little look around and still moving too quickly. I’ll save it. Presses off. He wants the brakes to come in. He wants the whole pump, but unfortunately for electric to be reelled back in he’ll pay a price at some point for all this work that he’s done. Big turn from Daryl Indy on the front the South African national champion and there is the split now. So, we’ve seen Mitchell and Scott, they’re trying to launch their riders into the the move and it comes a point where baby riders don’t have that that freshness, that punch to sprint their way into a breakaway. So, you just get someone on the front who’s incredibly strong, wind it up, get going so fast that eventually someone pops and the gap opens up. And a gap has opened up. Exactly what has done. They’re riding with so much confidence. Y now at the front followed then by Quinnski in third position it would be injustice who did not make the ring break if you need the break but if he doesn’t make the break of the day to get into the break of the day and fighting chance not giving up behind though because we’re chasing the gap a lot of looking over the shoulders to see behind them but it’s not all intact in the chase This is a more ridicul that is Michael Woods. As we look at the African national champion really forcing the tempo now into the wheel. Everybody coming across. So that shuts this group down. Pushing on because he’s had to pause. He’s got Yates with him who they believe again. This is going to be a desperate case for Le before starting a cad. They’re pushing on the front. Surely this group is too large now to survive. There’s going to have to be a counterattack come out of this group has made it. So total direct energy after doing all the chasing yesterday they’re in the group Roman is here for the aging team. First up this is his team and then it is trying to identify the mobar rider there. I thought for a second maybe narrow 30 second good from the breakway for this at the back now the rear end of the double safely back onto the back of the telephone. And we hope the same for Caleb and soon he had to spend a lot more time on the side of the road getting his bike sorted out and looked like he waiting for a new machine. So it’s going to be terribly tough to get back onto a pelon that is riding like this. There was 33 riders in the breakway yesterday. It looks like it’s 33 riders the breakaway again today. 33 is the magic number three. It’s 33. Daryl Olympic in that group been one of the driving forces. AG Tala Mondell. They’re well represented. They have three riders in the breakway. Farday Shall and also Mak. This is Crystal Yens 1 km to the intermediate sprint. He’s not worried about the sprint. He is just driving the tempo to kick his brake away off the front and there might be 33 riders in it. They’re thinking about one man and that’s Adam Yates having him in the break. Also now having Dave but even more so Narrow King. This is turning into being a very dangerous move. Second position in this group is the first yellow jersey wearer of this tour. It’s Mike Fison but they’ve only been given 18 seconds. So this has really caught the attention of the rest of the pelon. I wouldn’t even say they’ve been given taken 18 seconds and now the pelaton is going to have to claw it back. They can’t let narrow kitana ride off in a group like this one. And surely the pressure has now got to come on quick step but also to a certain extent Vizma although just went through the turn for Steven Kerso. Here’s the sprint pressure off the front. The sprint collecting the points with just a little top of the head. This is just for the burst. So he did place someone else followed by Came and then it’s Van Abar in third position. Here comes the Pelon in the background. Narrow Kintana coming through in fourth wheel of the rest of this group behind those who sprinted for the points. And the pelon now led by Yasper Stan at this point nearly stri the leaders of the team specification. He’s on the front and that’s not for points. They are all gone. This is to ride for Richie Ports 10th place overall because Tintana’s in the group in 12th position. They cannot let it go. This is the boost followed by KA and then Abama the second in the breakaway. public is ask other words let it build up and wait for the really high altitude tomorrow the highest point of this tour to France the called his misan and up until that point it is all climbing it’s a relatively short stage it’s only 126 km tomorrow but If you could find me a more difficult 126 km in the history of the tour of France, you’d be doing well. It is pretty much the first 89 kilome is uphill. The section from 75 km through to 89 is an all category climb called Isra. But up until there, there’s a couple of very short downhills on the way up, but it’s always dragging up. In that first 89 kilometers, I estimate there’s maybe six or seven kilometers worth of descending and then it’s either false flat or slightly uphill. Well, in the first 75 km, they go up 1,400 m in elevation without any real real climbs. There’s a cat 3, a cat 2, a cat 3. They’re merely bumps in comparison on the profile to the fall. This is Pier Perishon at the front for her fetus followed then by David Caruso. Damiano Caruso from Bahrain Marina. Next in line is Roman Bday. But you know what? Even looking at tomorrow’s profile and as hilly as it is, it’s only 126 kilometers. It will be can be ridden as a really aggressive stage. I don’t think it’s going to be the most decisive for seeing who’s going to win the GC. I think they’re bringing it down to the last mountain stage of this tour to France on Saturday. devel the advantage for the breakaway which is 34 riders strong it’s out to almost six minutes as grid and Eve Lampard are the three riders for the kerning quick step who are doing the pacemaking at the front it’s on the side of the road with fresh water bottles before they go across the top of the climb collects the group at FDJ still the rider at the This is Simon Geska in the orange colors. Just in front of him is Enilmon. He’s not interested in the water bottle at this point. He’s just interested in the top of the climb the final few hundred meters. You’re right about the time on the front. It’s moving towards the 640 mark quickly. Still 700 meters from the top. They will keep increasing the pace all the way through. Bernard takes a look back over the shoulder and sees that he is splitting the group as well. And that’s not such a bad thing aiming for the stage victory to get rid of any of the passengers. Still a long way to go, but it’s a group of 34. You can afford to cut this group in half. You can, but you don’t have to worry about the guys are being distanced now. They’re not your worry for later on. It’s the men like Lucasenko and Kintana, the ones that are easily following the tempo at the moment. This is great. Keep up the good work, boys. It looks like maybe this tempo has started to be matched back in the pelon. We might see different colors at the front of the pel perhaps. Maybe no longer Eve Lampard or has he got more of the tank to up the tempo. It’s still at the front showing a little bit of interest here at the start. Maybe Vard as well. They know there’s so many points on offer coming up. Vard did sprint when he was in the breakway a couple of days ago. That’s behind his fourth line. Then it’s at the rear of that little split is keeps on applying the pressure. Well, he’s got his nose in the wind. Checks across the shoulder. Vard is the one who he’s wary of tactically. He’s very astute in Well, wants the points. Well is leaving that left hand side of the road open. Teasing to go there. be able to close the gate if he needs to, but Well has got too much horsepower for the Frenchman. 10 more points for Wellens. Second place it is for tactically aute Tim Wellens as you said leaving the door open saying come on this side for Sudto after the top of the climb the other teams it was before the top of the climb. That was something I always said to the please don’t try and give me extra weight before the top of the climb. Much prefer to get it over the top there. Some of the riders been distance that is a surprise but he has already been active in this tour and maybe just threw the best of his powers so far. Neil Pollock the other German just behind him one the man wearing 217 from Sami. They’re giving themselves a little bit of a chase to get back onto this group. They should be able to make contact again. Back to the pelaton and that line at the front just that little bit longer and that time gap sticking at 630. So the pace has increased to match that acceleration of just well trying to stay cool collecting 10 more points in the race for the king of the mountains jersey. I would like a look back at that to see whether or not there’s still Eve Lamper who is setting the tempo and if it is if he’s able to up the ante to match the pace that was increasing from that breakaway group and is really worthy at tip of the hat 633 the advantage for the leading group that’s two climbs down the two easy ones climate one climb. Two hard ones are still to come. The next two climbs, both of them take them well over 2,000 m in altitude. The first of them is the gaz 14.1 km long and average gradient of 7.3% and the steepest gradients in the second half of the climb. A lot of that black zone. What will they do? Are they not too worried about based on what you’ve shown so far? Inos won’t ride to defend second or third overall confirmation of well collecting maximum points at the top of there’s no point in a team that’s won the tour so many times four times with once with and once with Thomas of no interest to them they might take the risk of leaving out I think at the moment they’re happy enough to gamble with the situation even if it trips out a little bit more but then make the race hard on the last two clims so the is a place where they really do some damage to Julian Ali and then smash the race apart on the Billy. I think I’ll just be wary about going too early today. I think we’re going to save it till the last one because it’s the first of the big three. Final few days of the tour. Everybody heavily fatigued. So really measuring the efforts as well. Back with the break. All smiles for number 87. That’s the winner of the first stage of the race and two days of yellow. 76 Lenco was the most determined rider to head to the breakaway today. He was in everything for the first hour or so been incredibly strong to make it into this break in that twoman break and then pulled back in. Went again in a smaller group with Daryl and Adam Yates. They were pulled back then went again. He just kept at it until he got in it. to be able to keep backing up effort after effort to put himself in the break. So really deserving of a good result today, but wonder how much that has cost him in energy to get himself in here. And then with some pure climbers in the group, they should be able to outs in the group here without the try and sexy tempo is maybe soon, maybe on the next flight. Huge debut for As we saw yesterday, the day before. the big kids. That’s what I told you. riders off the road completely off. Yeah, 68. Yeah, Carlos mistake. on the left hand side of the road. There you go. the stage was one of them and well from was the other one had to recover from the back here. This is at the back of the pelon. We’re riding in the wheel of Hudig. Sprint is always prepared to take some big risks on the way down this same speed on the record. No problem. He’s still just 26 years of age and making the statement that he’s never really raci. Just as a general rule of thumb historically, he’s in a great spot at the moment. Sixth division overall, 2 minutes 14 seconds down and he’s just on 45 50 seconds away from second place. He’s in a really good spot. disaster shows that what he’s shown so far. He hasn’t shown sides of cracking. You do never know in a race like this. been a brutally hard tour to France, but he came in hoping for a top 10. Now he was looking he’s underelling it. For the past 10 years or so, it’s been the talk of the sprinters, Marcel Kitel, John Deenold, etc., Andre Gle. But now we’re looking and always Tony Martin and Tony Martin he’s in his in the time trial category of course Tony Martin but now with Leonard Keer in the breakaway he’s just 22 Manuel Bulman he’s in sixth position overall at 26 years of age they’ve got a lot to cheer about the green jersey Peter Hagen riding right up towards the front and this is good news for the Kerning Quickstep they rode conservatively up that climb and now they have lots of men around in that yellow jersey that is very good and now I think we’ll start to up ascent and through the next valley section and towards the bottom of the the Iawward, they’ll start to use up riders with their final turns of the day, their final turns of pace on the front of the pelaton. Nikkias Art, he continues to push on. He’s just 100 me crash. And this is Michael Valgren. And that looks like Lawrence the PL by the looks of it. George Bennett. In fact, the skinny figure of the Kiwi climber, George Bennett. This is disastrous for Steven Cruz. Nicholas Roach is the rider in the red colors. Bennett has been riding brilliantly throughout this race. He wants to get going again. He is as tough as they come. George Bennett trying desperately to shrug it. He’s saying, “Just get your hands off me. Give me the bike. Let me get going.” He is in. You can see he was in terrible pain as if and he’s being told take this one. Don’t waste any more time. He can hardly get himself onto the bike. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. slippery went down in front of them went down on his own and George Nowhere to go straight into the wrong track at the wrong time. How much you think that rattling effect looks a little bit crooked, but the good sign was he was up and out of the saddle to accelerate out of that corner. So hopefully that loosens back off of when you go down. That’s that first impact. Feel like number 63. They have already had their incident team as it was one of the teamates of Always there. Really slippery little rubber. It’s really hot like it is today. That’s how it is where they are. the winner race against the top of the video. 10. 9 5 still there in the Pyrenees the other day in terms of pace on the category one climb put in a fantastic ride. The other sprinters still also in this group like and Caleb Buer and on the descent it’s not chasing the brakes trying to take them back. It’s just minimizing any further gain without taking big risks. It’s back to George Bennett his way back towards the beough chase for him. Just looking for one of the race vehicles to go past. Enjoy a bit of slipstream. Chase his way back up the next car. Too far in front of him. in front of him. The commiss still be the convoy when they get to the bottom of this. I wonder if he’s over that convoy. That convoy is longer than trying to get to the bottom of a few cars. Then they’ll start to form up and then there’s always one who does the right thing or crash. They slow down as they come past you through behind the car and just drag you onto the back of that convoy and then one by one you leap frog your way back up. So you got a whole length of the paddle as well. They’re over a minute long at the moment as well. at the front as they approach the last 100 km in front of him. They know that it’s benefit out of shape on that corner. You saw he was just coming in a little bit too tight. The the corner was a bit tighter than you thought. You just got to get straight back up a little bit. Do a bit more braking. You got to let your bra in a straight line. may have been caught by surprise as to how good in relation to really they got excluded from the race as a result of that. So, three votes for Alex D. That moves him up into second place. Pino George Bennett is on 12. But I’m changing the rules again. We’ve got a late edition. Four votes for Mikovski who’s played again on the battle between Tony Martin and Luke. He said, and Captain Luke, I know you both well and hard to imagine racing without those dudes. 100th anniversary edition of Yellow. They deserve a yellow card, not a red one. That was the take a lot of people had on it. But we’ve spoken about this incident. At the time yesterday when I saw it, I didn’t think a lot of it. I didn’t think it was so bad. But then when I watched some more footage and you got a little bit more detailed, Lucro had his hand off the handlebars off of the jersey of Tony Martin. Tony Martin virtually ran Lo into where there were spectators. It was dangerous for other people around them, not just for themselves. little snippet we saw part we saw at the live coverage and we thought well okay a little little alteration let’s explain to the when the rest of the footage came through and we saw what led to it what ensued over a few minutes then it seems reasonable that they decided to drive and the appelllet going up as the white water raft making the most of the fun going downream. What I did like about that they did a video together apologized to a whole bunch of people actually said they did do the wrong thing. They felt it was a bit harsh and I can understand them holding that position. This is the case of the desert that we got a brief look at a little bit earlier on. Goes up to 2,220 m in altitude. Luke and Tony both owned what happened. They weren’t too content with the decision that was made to be excluded, but the jury’s never going to change his mind. What I would have liked to have seen from the UCI and the race jury. I’d like to see this and a lot of other decisions from them is actually make their own statement explain this is the decision we made and this is why they don’t have to go into questions about it. In the same way in particular, the referee penalty always exactly you said this is the decision. This is why full stop to explain what is happening within the sport. when he went down right in front of George Bennett. He was also on that whatever that was that made the road so slippery at that point. right now as the unsung hero yesterday on the stage. Yeah, he did a really good ride yesterday. Tried so hard. He was still in second position of the final climb yesterday. Caught by and dropped and then caught by through to not even a top three finish for him, but he rode really well. And on top of that, yesterday 12 minutes for the leaders that are just a little bit further up the road. This is a big advantage for numbering. He was off the front before trying to increase the pace. Now the attack is up the front. Just hand on the hip. Move across out the way. I know you’re trying to slow this down because the back of two Hero of the day yesterday of the day based on his reactions after the stage of four that move by even if he didn’t have the leg straight onto the bus without talking to a single journalist he was really disappointed Chris Yensen along with Adam Yates in the breakway yet again today. Oh, there’s a bit of pace on here and a lot of riders going out the back now. And that’s on the counter with his teammates. He’s up the front in the breakaway and in virtual second overall at the moment and creeping closer and closer almost within a minute of the yellow jersey. And now his team’s gone to the front on the pelon. Completely exploded it on the lower slopes of the Isizawad. And Mikol is looking like he wants to get on the go. Incredible the damage that is being done. Number 47, that’s Dylan Toys Bani the train national champion Roach still struggling after his big fall earlier on, but also cost dearly for George Bennett. We’re going to hear from Mikuel Lander soon. I wish we could get down to them now. There is Kruzvike from Yambo Vizma just in front of the yellow jersey of Julian Alfalik. They are putting the pressure on pretty early. And now Alfalip calling for a vidong from the side of the road from a team helper. How many team helpers does he have to lead this group? see one of those decing quick step helmets towards the back, but not for much longer perhaps because this is a searing tempo been set by one of our favorites from this year’s race, Mark Solair. He has been the best teammate. If there was an award for assists, it’s Mark Solair. We should call that the Scotty Pippen medal. If everyone knows enough about basketball from the ‘ 90s, they must. Scottie Pippen. Oh, the great is Dan Martin and that is disappointing and it also shows how quick they are riding out in front. Well, we saw Dan Martin dropped in the Pyrenees a few days ago. So, the writing was on the wall, tried to fight back, but you’re always going to get found out in the final few days of the tour to France. When you hit the high mountains, you can’t bluff anymore. The pelon being blown to pieces. Dan Martin, a rider who 10 overall. This is very very early for Dan Martin to be dropped. So you just have to think something is wrong. Robbie number 53. This is significant for T-Bo Pino the big French home. His key teammate in the high mountains has been distanced really early. There’s 80 kilometers to race. This is what a lot of contenders have been saying about this tour. Moscone now gone from Inos. Patrick Conrad from Bora Hansrower. So too Jonathan Caster Viejo. So Garant Thomas and Egenber now are being isolated. They’re starting to be isolated. Exactly. This is Yates on the move with Vard then Lucenko and Kintana. This is the signal up front. They’ve all heard what’s going on behind. The race is lighting up. 80 kilometers to go. Riding for the stage win. Time to get going. And Kintana is riding for the stage win. thing. M Lander is leaving the team at the end of the season, but he seems to have the whole team supporting him and working for him. Kintana looks much as if he’s the outlier within the squad. This is Adam Yates now at the front. They are still plowing away on the Isizawa with more than 5 km to climb. The gradient at the moment of 11%. So no wonder it has splintered and no shots recently of Greg Vonavamart and Julian Bernard but they are still leading according to the race computer by 8 minutes. Yep. 1 minute and 1 second. They are off the front. Croiger start of the day 15th overall at 12 minutes down. This is Gio Martan from Wanty Group Gub 16th at the start of the day. his ambitions for a top 15 finish and he might still be able to get it because lots of people have been dropped. Enrich M is still in this group for the yellow jersey. The teammate of the Kernic Quicksteps, Julian Alfley, the man who just swung out back of the picture, grabbed a bid on Tibbo Pino, his words in his interview are proving to be prophetic. They are. The Isizuard something’s going to happen there. That’s going to light the race up. And it’s Moistar that’s doing it. He still has one teammate. That’s the rider in the red colors, the Swiss champion Reichen back. This is Aru at the back in the white colors. Kanger in the pink colors. Well, poles at the back of the group from Inos is under pressure. On the left hand side, just up ahead is Richie Port. He’s next to Rigberto Uran. This group is