Vetplant

I'd be content if Louis just plays it clever today and tomorrow, stick to the main GC pack. Some of the other riders are going to pop, so by playing conservatively, he will gain another spot or two. Then we keep fingers crossed for the ITT. Go Louis!

16%-18% gradients at the top of the next climb... major GC time gaps going to be seen once they crest. Question is whether some will regroup and catch whoever got the upper-hand on those inclines. Do JV pull WvA back? He is not looking like a favourite for the stage, so better to protect yellow than finish 1min behind the stage winner?

Tadej really tried to catch Vingegaard off-gaard.. But he was savvy to each move. Lets see how this plays out, it won't be the last move he will need to cover.

Very weird from Eekhoff. Only sensible explanation for what he did was: to take the actual monetary prize at the sprint...(as posted in the Twitter replies)

This year the teams are really taking shots with riders being compromised all over the place. Marc Soler in trouble 14:34 Tadej Pogacar's team-mate Marc Soler is off the back. He's obviously sick. He asked for medical assistance after throwing up.

From the lead group, a couple of names stand out as prospective stage winners. D. Martinez and B. McNulty seem like the best bets, but they are probably placed there as potential sattelite riders for GC leaders. Can M. Woods bring back some form to take the stage? Or will WvA destroy them all and clinch another stage win for JV? Exciting stuff!

Interesting...

Well done Louis!

I'm sitting in Berg&Dal, no video feed. How is Louis going?

JONAS! The TDF is alive!

Mano-a-mano now for Pog, Jonas, Thomas, Bardet. Jonas has WvA up the road though

Mano-a-mano now for Pog, Jonas, Thomas, Bardet. Jonas has WvA up the road though

Pogacar: "Best form of defence, is ATTACK!"

Fooooook DSTV! Your direction is appaling! You go to advert as soon as Roglic attacks!

I love this JV assault!

Ideally, They would need to try and Isolate Pogacar before the start of the final HC climb. One option: I'll allow WvA to go grab some sprint points and then himself and/or Laporte should try to get up the road with the break, to be able to pace Rog and/or Jonas on the downhill after Galibier. Going to be epic, whatever happens. I just hope Louis can follow the right GC moves

His GC lead is 39s over Jonas, after 9 stages. He has not been able to drop Jonas yet. So I don't see the correlation you are referring to. I actually foresee a large opportunity for Jonas to take time back on Tadej today, it really suits Jonas, IMHO.

If you don't mind sharing, how does the DSTV Online billing work? Are you committed to a calendar month at a time or is it calculated pro-rata for the amount of days you used per month?

Photo finish!

Protesters removed, back underway. Time gaps to be restored.

Protestors on the coarse, stage neutralised

UAE loses George Bennet to a Positive Covid result O'Connor, Vuillermoz, Durbridge and Bennett out of the Tour 13:22 Several riders will not take the start today: Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroën), Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies), due to injuries, Luke Durbridge (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) who tested positive for Covid-19 with very mild symptoms, George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) who also tested positive for Covid-19.

Better start filling those piggy banks with some cash every month....