And with that, I’m gone. I leave you with a report of Boasson Hagen’s stage win:
And for those who missed the denouement, another kind of magic roundabout. Bye!
@Simon_Burnton is there any possibility that the right hand route was not official? it seems so obvious that there is an advantage.
— Harvey Mayne (@HarveyMayne) July 21, 2017
It hasn’t been mentioned, and there were certainly no markings to indicate that. When the peloton arrived they also split left and right.
A disappointed Ben Swift, who was in the 20-man breakaway but found himself among the 11 riders left behind as nine broke clear at the front, talks:
I was feeling really good, but that was a demonstration of how to mess up a race really. I was playing it a little too safe. In the past I’ve done a bit too much work and been a bit nailed. I was just having a quick drink and next thing I knew there was a split group. We worked to try and bring the back, but you just get sucked along straight away and it’s hard to close any sort of gap. I felt really good. One little mistake and that was it, it’s gone. Today was definitely my best chance.
Chris Froome crosses the finish line, 12min 30sec behind Boasson Hagen but with his lead absolutely intact.
The peloton, with Team Sky still at the front, are still 2.5km away from the finish, after as straightforward and gentle as any day that includes 222.5km of cycling can be. It may not be enough for them to feel refreshed at tomorrow’s time trial, but certainly they could have been more knackered.
The roundabout in full:
Boasson Hagen and Arndt go into the roundabout behind and come out ahead pic.twitter.com/76huoo8Tuk
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 21, 2017
The seven who went the wrong way round the roundabout must be absolutely furious with somebody, mind. A rider should know which line to take in the crucial final moments, surely.
So after two second places in this year’s Tour, and two third-places to boot, Edvald Boasson Hagen has his first Tour de France stage win since 2011. And he won it in some style, by a margin of five seconds, with Keukeleire a further 12sec back. And it was absolutely decided in the time it took the leading nine to go round a roundabout with 2km to go: once the Norwegian took the best line and almost everyone else didn’t, it was done.
Overall, though, a day that was distance-heavy and drama-light.
Edvald Boasson Hagen wins stage 19!
That is absolutely emphatic! Nikias Arndt gets second, and Jens Keukeleire wins the sprint of the remaining to take third!
Nikias Arndt is the closest competitor to Boasson Hagen, but there’s nothing he can do about this. He’s 150m behind, and disappearing!
He’s kept going! 1km to go, and nobody’s going to catch him!
Boasson Hagen goes for it, with 2.5km to go! Seven of the nine go to the left side of the roundabout, two go right and find that it gives them a massive advantage! When they emerge, they are 20m in the lead, and he decides to keep going!
3km to go, and the nine are still bunched together.
It’s 82 v 92 at the front, for shirt-number fans, as Edvald Boasson Hagen and Michael Albasini test each other. And then Jens Keukeleire pushes. 4km to go.
This is torture: you know someone’s going to make a move, you know they’ll do it soon, but they keep not doing it. 5.5km to go.
So the front nine are 30sec ahead of the other breakaway 11, and 10min ahead of the peloton.
The front nine in full, with 12.5km to go:
Jan Bakelants (AG2R-La Mondiale)
Daniele Bennati (Movistar)
Michael Albasini and Jens Keukeleire (Orica)
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data)
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal)
Nikias Arndt (Sunweb)
Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie)
Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Oscaro)
15km to go: It’s actually nine and 11, with the front group including Bakelants, Gesbert, De Gendt and Boasson Hagen. Michael Albasini is at the very front as I type.
And the breakaway group has split neatly in two, with two groups of 10.
20km to go, and at the front they’ve pretty much started sprinting.
Eddie Merckx has been asked what he thinks about this year’s Tour (quotes taken from lesoir.be):
I’ve followed all the stages, but I haven’t found them very interesting. It was not a great tour, there hasn’t been much drama. Many stages were quite boring. I often watched the start then went and did something else. I didn’t just spend hours watching television.
Something has to be done about these long and flat stages. Almost nothing happens: there’s an escape that is taken in the final kilometers. There were too many stages where you knew in advance that nothing would happen.
I was still expecting some [kind of battle] in the mountains. Froome always rode defensively, defended himself very well and could count on a very strong team. So nothing happened in this Tour. Many team leaders have done nothing but wait. Froome himself has never attacked. He will win the Tour, and has defended well, but he didn’t do anything exceptional. There was just no one to beat him. He deserves to win. Of course, we still have to wait for the time trial, but I don’t see who can still beat him.
Updated
The leading group are on a very long, very straight, very flat and very wide road. They are about to reach Puget-sur-Durance, the Durance being of course a river that flows eventually into the Rhône, somewhere near Avignon. If you go swimming in it then you are en Durance, a quality very much embodied by these riders.
The leading 20 now have a lead of 9min 50sec. As has been clear for a while now, one of them will win this stage. 29m to go.
35km to go: The 20-man leading group remains a 20-man leading group as it reaches Lourmarin. The question now is: will Edvald Boasson Hagen win the stage, or will someone find a way to drop him? There is less than an hour remaining before we find out the answer.
Updated
44km to go, and things are hotting up at the front: Bauke Mollema tries to break away, while Gallopin has sunk back again and is now cycling all by himself, between the two groups.
Now three riders break free at the front: Robert Kiserlovski, Romain Sicard and Elie Gesbert. Tony Gallopin, meanwhile, leaves the breakaway group from the other end, dropping off the back, and then overtakes everyone again and tries to catch up with the trio.
This is the last categorised climb of this year’s tour. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Gap between #MaillotJaune Froome & runner-up after stage 18:
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 21, 2017
2013 - 5'11"
2015 - 3'10"
2016 - 3'53"
2017 - 23"#TDF2017 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/vq1rlp4NAN
The front 20 is being stretched, as Romain Sicard accelerates. Everyone else follows, but the peace and tranquillity of the last couple of hours just can’t continue, and looks like it won’t.
51km to go: The climb to the Col du Pointu has begun, with the leading 20 once again a 20. They are just under 6km from the summit.
Here’s something to look forward to:
today's stage report will include one of my favourite words: concomitant. this is a first for me, so correct me if I use it wrongly...
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) July 21, 2017
Jens Keukeleire has dropped back into the breakaway group, after a little solo action.
More news. Tom Dumoulin put a statement up on his Facebook page this afternoon announcing that he would not be involved in the Vuelta as he concentrates on the World Championships:
I’m in love with the race. I pretty much had my breakthrough Grand Tour there in 2015 and I love the tranquility of the race, yet the passionate fans at the same time.
It was also on my mind and the team’s to go there to help Wilco fight for GC and to hunt for stages myself and prepare for the Worlds at the same time.
But then winning the Giro happened … Very cool, but crazy times followed and after my holiday in the beginning of July me and the team started to doubt if I physically and mentally had it in me to do a super busy program and a second Grand Tour (altitude camp, San Sebastian, Eneco, Vuelta) and to be at my best shape at the Worlds after that.
With doing the Vuelta there would be quite the chance that it would all prove to be too much for me and that I would not be good enough in the Vuelta, bad at the Worlds following and then to go into the winter with a bad feeling. What a shame that would be after such a year for me and the team!
So, we chose the ‘safer’ approach to the Worlds and the last part of the season by doing the Canadian one-day races.
Tom Dumoulin decides to skip Vuelta a España to avoid physical and mental fatigue after Giro win | https://t.co/h424ZSN9Sk pic.twitter.com/pG2G4EMlHH
— Cycling Weekly (@cyclingweekly) July 21, 2017
Jens Keukeleire has sped off at the front of the breakaway group, all alone.
The third and final climb of the day is not far away. The next hamlet they pass on their way is the Hameau des Jean-Jean, so good they named it twice.
They have just passed Rustrel, famous for its Ochre. Google it for some impressive images of colourful dirt.
Show-off of the day:
Color us impressed 😲 #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/UCkPlgvVX1
— NBCSN Cycling (@NBCSNCycling) July 21, 2017
“Rumours of cross-winds from 35km to go,” writes Matt Carey. “Is this possible or me getting my hopes up?” Winds were forecast at the start of the day, while the skies above the finish look a little menacing:
Il va faire tout noir... #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/dowsIYurn0
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) July 21, 2017
The gap is up to 8min 35sec, and the stage is proceeding very much as Sky would like it. There are 70km remaining.
@Simon_Burnton Simiane-la-Rotonte is a proper name for a town on a cycling course. It seems--like the town 22 km ahead--Apt.
— JSchnauzer (@Jschnauzer) July 21, 2017
I'll stop now.
It appears that Team Sky’s Mikel Nieve won’t be Chris Froome’s team-mate for long: he has signed a two-year deal with Orica-Scott.
Correction! Mikel Nieve will ride for Orica Scott the next two seasons, his manager confirmed to Diario de Navarra. Top rider! https://t.co/wtNboXO9Nw
— Laura Meseguer (@Laura_Meseguer) July 21, 2017
They are now cycling past another medieval hill town, Simiane-la-Rotonde. Rotonde is French for roundabout; it really was remarkably prescient for the medievals to name their town after an as-yet uninvented item of street furniture. Chapeau!
Thomas De Gendt wins the sprint, followed by Ellie Gesbert. Michael Matthews is now mathematically and with certitude the winner of this year’s green jersey.
Perhaps the most notable moment of the stage so far, as the sprint is about to be sprinted:
Updated
“I can’t hope but feel a tinge of sadness at the route and organisation that ASO have presided over this year,” writes Sam Charlton. “I know they said that they wanted fewer mountain stages to discourage Froome dominance, and many people have abandoned. But today’s stage feels like its the Champs-Élysées stage, when really, it should be another day going up Ventoux or Huez for a battle like we had last year up the mountain on the day before. They have really missed a trick, as that stuff is exciting, not a borderline neutralised jaunt we are seeing from the peloton today.” Certainly today has been disappointingly drama-light, but still, 87km to go, anything can happen. Right?
@Simon_Burnton tittering at French town names? The land of Brown Willy, Bell End, and Fanny Barks could have its own comedy town name tour
— Carl Dempsey (@carl_dempsey) July 21, 2017
I’m not tittering at the names, but wondering about their meaning, or if one isn’t immediately apparent speculating about their potential meaning. Douglas Adams did a book called The Meaning of Liff, in which he gave British place names definitions. For example:
LUTON (n.) The horseshoe-shaped rug which goes around a lavatory seat.
HUMBER (vb.) To move like the cheeks of a very fat person as their car goes over a cattle grid.
POGES (pl.n.) The lumps of dry powder that remain after cooking a packet soup.
Sadly he’s not around to do a France-based sequel, but it could be a cracker.
The lead of the leading group fell briefly below 7min, but has now increased again to 7min 30sec, which is exactly as Team Sky – still leading the peloton – would like it.
The 20-man breakaway pass a large group of Belgians with an enormous Vive le Vélo flag, spending Belgium Day with a day out in France.
The riders enter the snackzone, the stretch of road where they can collect their lunchtime saddlebags. It’s 3.30pm, which to my mind makes it more like teatime. I trust their energy gel tastes of cucumber sandwiches and scones.
Meanwhile in Marseille, the stage is set for tomorrow’s time trial:
Une mutation spectaculaire pour @LeTour 🚴🏽 #WorkInProgress pic.twitter.com/BK4un3VInV
— Orange Vélodrome (@orangevelodrome) July 21, 2017
Hello again! The leaders have, as I type, precisely 100km to go, so we’re in the closing straight.
The Team Sky group continue to head the peloton in untroubled fashion, which is now around 7.10 behind the leading group, with 105km to go as we head towards Banon. Well, not “we”, “they”. I’m in a building in London, as too once again is Simon Burnton, to whom I will hand you back now.
114km to go: The peloton is now under seven minutes behind the big breakaway group, which includes, among others, Jan Bakelants, Daniele Bennati, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Bauke Mollema, Ben Swift and Rudy Molard.
Paul Smith emails: “By far my favourite ridiculous name for a French town has to be “Bourdons-sur-Rognon” or “Bumblebees-on-Kidney”.... beat that!” Might mail that one off to Heston Blumenthal as an out-there menu suggestion.
120km to go, and the gap between breakaway and peloton nudges down again to 7mins 10secs, without, as yet, any startling movements, as they reach the, well, alluringly-named Montagne de Lure.
Updated
“Hi again,” writes Tim Evans. “Google will send you to Wikipedia (in French) to discover that ‘Les Bons Enfants’ was the name given to a hospital/hamlet just outside the village of Peipin. Perhaps the patients were children, or even the hosts were named as ‘bons enfants’. Who know? That’s the beauty of France! Have fun spotting odd names : ) and bon appetit !” Perhaps the Tour of Britain could up its game by taking in Six Mile Bottom, in Cambridgeshire, at some point. In other news, the peloton’s closed a tad on the 20-strong leading group – it’s back to under 7mins 40secs.
Thanks Simon. Afternoon everyone. We’re still pretty much as you were on this long, meandering stage. The peleton’s strung out a little more now – with the Sky crew still at its front, their man Froome nestled among them – and is now more than 8mins 20secs behind the leading bunch.
Updated
I’m going to pop out for a bit of lunch. Tom Davies will make sure you don’t miss anything – email him here, if you fancy.
I can pretend that I haven’t just copy-and-pasted this list from the Tour’s own website, but you wouldn’t believe me. Anyway, the breakaway 20 in full:
Jan Bakelants (AG2R-La Mondiale)
Daniele Bennati (Movistar)
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)
Ben Swift (UAE)
Rudy Molard (FDJ)
Michael Albasini and Jens Keukeleire (Orica)
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data)
Gianluca Brambilla (Quick Step)
Robert Kiserlovski (Katusha)
Thomas De Gendt and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal)
Nikias Arndt (Sunweb)
Julien Simon (Cofidis)
Lilian Calmejane, Sylvain Chavanel and Romain Sicard (Direct Energie)
Elie Gesbert, Romain Hardy and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Oscaro)
Updated
Apparently Les Bons Enfants is a medieval hamlet with an impressive old bridge.
The leaders have just passed Les Bons Enfants. What is Les Bons Enfants? Is it a place? Is it a bar? Is it just a group of well-behaved children? Google has no answer.
Updated
We have just had a colourful jet flypast. Indeed, it’s still ongoing – they are currently painting a heart in the sky.
✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️
— CyclingHub (@CyclingHubTV) July 21, 2017
🔴🔴⚪️🔵🔵
🔴🔴⚪️🔵🔵
🔴🔴⚪️🔵🔵#TDF2017🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/jVAwNwIQVy
And here’s why they’re here:
No surprise to see the Alpha Jets today: the Patrouille de France are based in a large airbase near the finish at Salon-de-Provence #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/eXW1ObuhIM
— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) July 21, 2017
In search of some lunchtime reading? I’ve got just the thing:
“Thomas de Gendt has been in just about every break,” notes Simon Gates, “but what’s the highest he’s finished in any of the stages in this Tour?” He’s been in the top 50 finishers four times: he came 22nd on stage 15, 30th on stage 12, 46th on stage 17 and 49th on stage nine.
There are no new stories to tell: the breakaway has stretched its lead, though only gently, to 7min 30sec; Sky are leading the peloton, their remaining riders all together at its head.
The leading group are now about 7min ahead of the rest. Apparently Team Sky could lose their lead in the team classification, if Jan Bakelants, the one AG2R representative in the breakaway group, finishes more than 15min 18sec ahead of the peloton.
Timo Roosen of LottoNL-Jumbo has abandoned. There has been no word yet as to why. He was quoted by Cycling Weekly yesterday in an article on the riders’ worst things about the tour:
In the high mountains, you have to suffer for so long. Some climbs feel like they just don’t end. Everybody is riding full gas and I’m too heavy for this, I’m not a climber! The pace is higher in the mountains. The first climb yesterday [on stage 16], when it exploded, you can feel the pace get quicker. The level is so high and you push watts that would normally be quite good in any other race, but here everyone can do those numbers. You end up in the gruppetto with some powerful numbers.
The leaders are now(ish) passing Nibles. This is not, as it might sound, somebody’s pet hamster, but an actual town. Well, hamlet (population 45 at last count, according to Wikipedia).
The breakaway’s lead is now a little over 5min 30sec, with just the 172km to go.
@Simon_Burnton Fun Fact: in the 1930s Crots Lourmarin won the Walloon unicycle championships six times in a row; still an unsurpassed feat.
— Serge Nuffler (@SergeNuffler) July 21, 2017
Bauke Mollema is, in GC terms, the best-placed of the 20 riders in the breakaway group, and he’s a shade over 47 minutes away from taking the yellow jersey off Chris Froome. Team Sky are at the front of the peloton, keeping everything calm, being as they are entirely untroubled by the idea of any of the 20 winning the stage.
The Côte de Bréziers has now been climbed, and Romain Hardy was the first man over it. Thomas De Gendt followed him.
There are in fact 20 riders in the breakaway group. They include Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas de Gendt, Jan Bakelants, Tony Gallopin and Michael Albasini.
The front two have been caught by and have now joined a bunch of breakaway types, numbering perhaps 15 in all, and they are now going for it big time. A couple of Direct Energie riders are at the front of it currently.
Lilian Calmejane and Elie Gesbert are out on their own now. Not very far out, but still. They lead by 12 seconds or so.
“Will you be cycling on your trip,” wonders Andrew Benton, “or is it a pile the family in the renta-car sort of holiday?” Very much the latter. No cycling is likely, though when we went to the same place last year I did an enjoyable if fairly sweaty day’s walking to Lourmarin, which is kind of similar.
Got a moment? Need a bit of light reading? Kieran Pender has been embedded inside the Orica-Scott camp, and this is his story of a day on the Tour:
“Crots is a Louisiana dietary staple, often served at breakfast with grits & shrimp,” Si Cook tells me. Crots don’t sound immediately appetising, but then neither do grits.
Romain Sicard is first to crest the climb, followed by Pierre Rolland and Elie Gesbert.
André Greipel has also fallen off the back, though he has a Lotto Soudal team-mate with him to help him out.
Two Norwegians are struggling at, or indeed off, the back of the peloton: Vegard Stake Laengen and Alexander Kristoff. Chin up, just another 197km to go, guys!
They’re heading up the Col Lebraut, the first categorised climb of the day.
On 21 July 1831 Leopold of Saxe-Coburg swore allegiance to the Belgian constitution in Coudenberg, thus becoming the first king of Belgium. For this reason, 21 July is now Belgium’s national day. Today, as part of the celebrations, there will be a firework display at 11pm at the Place des Palais in Brussels, the conclusion of a day of festivities designed, according to the Belgian government, to “contribute to promoting a positive image of Belgium”.
Which is a roundabout way of explaining why Eddy Merckx and, for some reason, the tennis player Justine Hénin, are both in France to watch today’s stage.
The move has solidified into an eight-man break, with Cannondale Drapac the only team represented by two riders, namely Pierre Rolland and Dylan van Baarle.
There was a little mini-break, of about 10 people, that didn’t last long. A slightly modified half-dozen, led at the moment by Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, now has a lead of about 80m.
A very flat start, with Maurits Lammertink, Jack Bauer and Thomas de Gendt among those pushing at the front.
Just next to Embrun is the commune of Crots, which is not a word that means something in English but which sounds very much like it should. I’m not sure what Crots would be, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want them.
They are back in Embrun, the flag waves and the proper racing starts!
So the cyclists are on the road, rolling out around Embrun for a quarter of an hour or so. Fact: there is a town in Ontario, Canada also called Embrun, named after this Embrun.
Updated
Hello world!
One interesting thing about today’s stage is that within 24 hours of its conclusion I will be on its route, on holiday. OK, I admit, it’s not a very interesting thing, unless you actually are me, but it’s certainly a thing. I can tell you, with the specialist local knowledge of someone who has previously visited, that the town of Lourmarin through which the race passes today on its way from Embrun to Salon-de-Provence, is very picturesque. Today’s stage also goes through Apt, one of those French towns which is also an English word.
Anyway, to business. We’ve got three category three climbs, two of them pretty early in the day and one towards the end – though Warren Barguil already has the polka dot jersey wrapped up, so long as he finishes the race – and a sprint in or near Banon, another of those medieval hill towns. It is, in all, a testing 222.5km long. So, let’s settle in for the long haul. Welcome!
Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s William Fotheringham’s stage 19 guide:
The longest stage of the Tour and the last chance for a breakaway to contest the finish, so a desperate first hour will be on the cards, and it can be watched in full now that every stage is on live TV from the off. The chances are several teams will be short of a stage win; why not a fastman who can make a break such as Sonny Colbrelli?
Updated
