To end the coverage today, here’s a snap report, with Jeremy Whittle’s piece to follow later.
To Roubaix, then, which Le Tour has been building up for the last week. The pavé - the cobbles - there are 21.7km of them tomorrow, and it will be even more nervy than the actual one-day race, with GC and various other honours up for grabs.
Peter Sagan has to be favourite after winning this year’s edition, and here is an interview with Donald McRae from April.
And here’s how he did it.
Here’s what Gaviria got up to; the commissars likely to take a dim view. And look at how powerful Groenewegen was in getting away from them all.
🔎 What a tough sprint today! Enjoy how @GroenewegenD made his way to the stage win!
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018
🔎 Quel sprint serré ! Appréciez comment @GroenewegenD s'est faufilé vers la victoire !#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/BUwK1avZxM
Updated
The suggestion is that Gaviria might have headbutted Griepel in that sprint finish, which could be one for VAR, in which case the Colombian could be in severe lumber.
Here’s the GC standings. They will be very different after tomorrow’s stage is completed, it has to be expected.
📊 One more second for @GregVanAvermaet in the GC ! 💛
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018
📊 Une seconde plus au général pour @GregVanAvermaet ! 💛#TDF2018 @MaillotjauneLCL pic.twitter.com/5Xf2cR8sjb
Griepel meanwhile summed up the finish, and the ride through Amiens, as “hectic”.
Updated
Dylan Groenewegen speaks.
The legs are better every day. There were a lot of corners but the team did an amazing job. I saw Gaviria and Sagan fighting for position and I was thinking ‘this is the moment’. Today was a very good day and we win. Two wins, I like that. (On the Champs-Élysées) that’s so far away and we have two days and I am really proud of that.
Some preliminary results and standings.
1. Dylan Groenewegen 4h 23” 36’
2. Andre Griepel +0’
3. Fernando Gaviria - +0’
4. Peter Sagan - 0’
5. John Degenkolb - 0’
Some suggestion that Gaviria and Griepel had a pop at each other which may change the picture.
Bad news for Dan Martin, who presumably, after fighting back so bravely, got stuck in the traffic of riders sitting up.
Dan Martin finishes the stage at 1'15". ⌛
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018
Dan Martin termine à 1'15". ⌛#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/lpH61IRc7n
Dan Martin, meanwhile tried to make his way back through the field. He looks to have lost about 40 seconds or so. Cavendish, who doesn’t seem to have the legs, finished tenth while Demare was lost once he got to the front and hit the wind.
Dylan Groenewegen takes the stage - his second in a row.
Demare makes his move, so does Griepel. Cavendish nowhere. Sagan was involved but Groenwegen is on rich form. Gaviria was in the mix.
Updated
Gilbert isn’t away for long as the sprint trains are really motoring. Dimension Data leading the chase with Mark Cavendish poised. He and Mark Renshaw not linked up, though.
A sweeping bend at 3km now and Philippe Gilbert has gone clear in an attempt to steal it.
Into the town of Amiens now, and some sharp turns as the peloton makes its way to the finish line. Dan Martin is out of team-mates and will have to forge on for himself.
The gap back to UAE and Dan Martin is back to 30 seconds which is a great feat, though it remains to be seen what type of shape he is at the race’s end.
Team Sky are very active in the group as 6km is passed, mostly in an attempt to keep Froome and Thomas out of trouble before the 3km exclusion zone.
Cofidis’ Christophe Laporte, an outsider for the sprint, is also in that trailing ground. Looks like Arnaud Demare is the man for France, and his FDJ team are at the front of the group. So are Mark Cavendish’s Dimension Data.
Under 10km to go now, and Grellier is the sole leader, 19 seconds clear, and making his claim for most combative rider of the day. He is time-trialling home, pretty much. Dan Martin’s UAE team have got him to within a minute of the peloton.
Updated
The gap to the leaders is now down to 25 seconds, and they will be part of the group soon, while the crash victims are 1’ 33” back of the main field, which amounts to about a kilometre. With Katusha snarled up, bad news for Marcel Kittel, who has not looked too hot in the sprints in any case.
That crash was always likely to be a danger when the peloton was picking up pace. Nothing clear on how that happened but it looks like a simple coming together, perhaps someone veering off the side of the road.
A crash at the back of the peloton!
Katusha riders down, with Tony Martin down and Dan Martin down. Alaphilippe is down. Dan Martin’s UAE team go back to help him and he looks badly beat up, with his elbows wearing some severe road last. Alaphilippe tests out what looks a sore shoulder but looks in better nick than Dan Martin, whose shirt is badly ripped. Nothing too serious, or anyone instantly out, but that’s a blow for Ireland’s Martin, who was sixth last year and has GC ambitions. Toms Skuijns, leader of the mountain classification, was another casualty.
The main GC contenders are in the peloton and it’s a gap of 1’ 30” to the chasing group.
From the main group, Greg van Avermaet is allowed to ride on uncontested, just like yesterday, to add an extra second to his yellow jersey lead. That now stands at 7 seconds to carry into tomorrow.
The leaders are approaching that bonus-carrying sprint, with the peloton’s efforts taking 40 seconds off them in the last five km. They’ve done a fine job in leading out for so long, but their days are numbered before a final sprint is preceded by a bunch of wildcat attacks off the front.
The main field is piling it on now with 25km to go. Thirsty work for all, and into a headwind, too, which may not be good news in the light of tomorrow’s cobbles.
With 30km to go, the gap to Grellier and Minnaard is 2’ 08”. The peloton now picking up pace as it nears that intermediate sprint.
What of Chris Froome? Aside from his crash on the first stage, which lost him 51 seconds, he has coasted along, and has been well covered up with “Gee” taking the temporary leadership of Team Sky. There’s been more than a few boos from the crowd, and Bernard Hinault has badgered back in.
“The other day I was with a youth cycling coach and before races parents have been giving Ventolin to children who aren’t sick,” the five-time winner said yesterday. “People copy what the stars do. I wish Froome all the best as he’s up against a lot of people who don’t want him there. Mentally it must be tough to have all those people booing.”
Updated
There is a time bonus sprint coming at 20km, which will be a chance for the GC types to steal seconds off each other, but a change in the yellow jersey looks unlikely with six seconds the gap between Greg van Avermaet and G “Geraint” Thomas.
The gap is 2’ 10” now, and there are dark skies above, possibly a thunderstorm in the offing. That could make for a greasy finish. Meanwhile, the race has gone all Theresa May and is running through fields of wheat. Well, past them.
With 50km to go, there is an actual climb. Chris’ prayers are answered and while this is not exactly Alpe D’Huez, it adds some variation though is doing little to split the main field.
Tweet from Steve Lennox. It’s possible they get on, despite being rivals. Quintana isn’t Brad Wiggins, for a start. From memory, Froome gets on well with Richie Porte, as well.
@JohnBrewin_ Man hug for Froome from Quintana? pic.twitter.com/lYIItiQqPF
— steve lennox (@wabashave) July 14, 2018
Chris Hedge emails in and he’s angry. “Will there ever be a hill? My ten year old’s ride to school is more challenging than this TdF. There are two speed bumps.Have 5k stages, go straight to the sprint and spare us all. After the Giro, this is turgid stuff.”
It has to be said that the Giro and Vuelta often have more exciting set-piece stages, and this year’s Giro was truly special. However, the Tour had a couple of one-day-style stages this week, with Lorient to Quimper and Dan Martin’s win at Mûr-de-Bretagne lifting the hackles. And there is always tomorrow and Roubaix and then the Alps and Pyrenees to come.
Don’t give up just yet. Le Tour is Le Tour.
The peloton has done its sightseeing and with under 60km to go now, perhaps we might see some action. Perhaps not, since having a bridgeable breakaway is a good thing for the peloton. Mad and bad things happen when they are all together. The finish is supposed to be quick today, which means energy is being preserved. The main field has not exactly busted a gut just yet.
Gerberoy, as mentioned by smug Steve down below, is being passed through by the leaders. It does look delightful and the locals and tourists are out in force. The break is dwindling down to 3’ 07”, as an aside.
Here’s a look back to a classic Bastille Day stage, from 1989, perhaps the best race of all.
Worth watching for Channel 4’s classic intro music, as created by Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks fame and for a young Richard Keys smashing it and Phil Liggett’s shorts.
This is a big day for the sprinters, who have to take on the “Hell of the North” in Roubaix tomorrow, which is no place for the muscle men, save for Sagan who won Paris-Roubaix this year, and then do not have a flat stage until Friday as the Alps take the strain.
The gap is closing to 3’ 16” to the leaders, with there being 70km to go.
In the absence of much action, the rather good TDF feed is putting out some educational videos, and I for one am delighted with this content.
💡 How does a lead out train work in a sprint ? Learn it watching this video ! #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/beza6OJ8nS
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018
The relative lack of pace in the field means that there are no dramas when the peloton makes its way through the feed zone. The domestiques strap on their bags, to supply the team leaders when they see fit.
The feed zone beckons, and the leaders have gone through without taking on supplies. Reason being that they have been fed and watered by the cars at the front of the convoy, which is one of the benefits of the breakaway.
Demare wins the peloton sprint, with Sagan behind him and Gaviria behind the Slovak. Does that mean Demare is in form for the final sprint? Perhaps not, since that wasn’t much of a contested sprint by Sagan in particular.
Here’s that photo finish in all its glory.
Sprint in the breakaway! 💚🚴♂️💨
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018
Sprint dans l'échappée ! 💚🚴♂️💨#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/4iH5PUFDcJ
The leading protagonists go for a sprint, probably for the banter, and Grellier takes it, just, and it requires a photo finish to prove that. Who will win the rest of the available points on offer? Find out here. Soon.
The leaders have now passed the 100km mark but the peloton is not exactly busting a gut to chase them down.
The gnats’ urine pairing are currently just under four minutes clear of the pack. An intermediate sprint awaits, so expect Sagan, Gaviria and Kristoff to the fore. A week in, and they seem the only riders maintaining an interest in the green jersey.
Updated
Mike Summers-Smith is entertaining himself - and us. “Hi, John!” he says. “The collections of names have been very unpromising so far this Tour. Today, however - the Grellier-Minnaard procedure is used to determine the concentration of gnats’ urine in beer.”
There are two classified climbs today, and we’ve just had the second, with Grellier taking the solitary point available.
Here’s Chris Froome breaking the rules again.
🤟 @chrisfroome 🤟#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/WUYh63EXx5
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018
By the way, those escapees are French, in Grellier’s case, and Dutch in Minnaard’s case and there are under 115km to go.
Updated
Ok, on to events on the road, and to be truthful, there haven’t been many. Dan Martin has just had to change bike, after the failure of his mechanic to repair a puncture, and there has been a breakaway, with Fabien Grellier and Marco Minnaard. Lauren Ten Dam was part of the initial escape but dropped back to work for Sunweb teammate Tom Dumoulin. They are 4’ 31” clear.
What happened this time last year? Only the first Frenchman to win on the Fête Nationale in 12 years.
Steve Horne sends in a humblebrag with a little bit of politics from his roadside stool in Northern France:
“Today’s stage passes through Gerberoy which is probably the most beautiful village I have ever visited. Think Cotswolds at its best but 1000 times more beautiful and the bonus of no worst ever ex PM sat in a shepherds hut. Yes, it’s that good.”
Here’s a reminder of yesterday’s events, such as they were, from the excellent Jeremy Whittle.
Preamble
Bastille Day, marking 229 years since the sans-culotte decided they’d had enough of the Ancien Régime and stormed the fortress, a crucial stage of the French Revolution.
That’s enough barely remembered A-Level history for now, but what does it mean for the Tour? Usually, July 14 means French riders going hell for leather to win it on their country’s special day, though with this a very flat 188km course, another sprint is expected. Arnaud Demare, then, has a great deal of expectation on his broad shoulders as L’Hexagone’s prime sprinter.
Yesterday’s was a rather dull stage, where barring a bit of fun with crosswinds and echelons nothing happened until the final sprint, and sadly this might be more of the same, though there might be a few more breakaway attempts than the Yoann Offredo solo mission that lasted over 100km yesterday and the far briefer bust by Laurent Pichon that followed it.
In truth, this stage to Amiens, which crosses the Somme river as it enters the cathedral city, is something of a set-up for tomorrow’s cobbled stage from Arras to Roubaix and a few teams, and a few GC contenders, might fancy sitting up in their saddles ahead of that gruelling, punishing and downright dangerous Sunday showpiece.
But with France’s national pride at stake, the peloton may have to do some sincere chasing.
Here’s a reminder of the General Classification.
1. Greg Van AVERMAET (BMC)
2. Geraint THOMAS (SKY) + 5’’
3. Tejay VAN GARDEREN (BMC) + 6’’
4. Julian ALAPHILIPPE (Quickstep) + 9’’
5. Philippe GILBERT (Quickstep) + 15’’
6. Bob JUNGELS (Quickstep) + 21’’
7. Rigoberto URAN (EF-ED) + 48’’
8. Alejandro VALVERDE (Movistar) + 54’’
9. Rafal MAJKA (Bora) + 55’’
10. Jakob FUGLSANG (Astana) + 56’’
