2015 Tour de France

['Dale]

The 29 leaders approach the summit of the day's second climb, the category 3 Rampe du Motty (2/3km at 8.3%) with a lead of 3:55 over the main peloton.

['Dale]

 

Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) leads the break over the Rampe du Motty to close to within two points of Froome's lead atop the king of the mountains classification.

['Dale]

The main peloton reaches the same point some 4:50 down on the 29 leaders. The next climb on the agenda is the category 3 Côte de la Mure (2.7km at 7.5%) in around 25 kilometres' time.

['Dale]

"The hardest part was when I was getting in the bus. I got there before my teammates and I was sitting there and decompressing and thinking ‘okay that just happened’ but when my teammates came on the bus and I had to look them in the eye, that just killed me,"

 

van Garderen

[Bonus]

hot nurse!

 

 

 

Not sure what he's smiling about, she has a pink toilet roll and a tube of lube ready for him . . .  :-o

['Dale]

Sky appear to have found an unexpected ally of circumstance at the head of the peloton as Giant-Alpecin begin to work. Georg Preidler may be in the break, but so too are 11th-placed Romain Bardet, 12th-placed Andrew Talansky and 14th-placed Pierre Rolland, who are all putting Warren Barguil's place in the top ten overall at risk.

['Dale]

The gap, incidentally, is five minutes flat, which means that - provisionally, of course - Bardet and Talansky have moved ahead of Barguil on GC, hence the injection of urgency from his Giant-Alpecin team.

['Dale]

 

Trek Factory Racing join Giant-Alpecin at the head of the bunch, with Bauke Mollema's 9th place overall in mind.

['Dale]

At the head of the race, meanwhile, Rohan Dennis (BMC) has opted to attack alone in the valley before the Côte de la Mure. The Australian has opened a small gap over the rest of the break, which remains five minutes up on the peloton.

['Dale]

Dennis' attack fizzles out on the slopes of the Cote de La Mure, where the 29 riders at the front maintain that five-minute advantage over a peloton that is being propelled by Trek and Giant-Alpecin, under the supervision of Team Sky.

['Dale]

As expected, Joaquim Rodriguez draws level with Froome in the king of the mountains classification by leading over the top of the Côte de la Mure. The Catalan has brought his tally up to 61 points.

['Dale]

Rodriguez continues his effort over the top of the climb and his acceleration brings Fuglsang, De Gendt, Pauwels and Voeckler with him. After a short descent, they will face immediately into the Col de Malissol (2km at 8.7%). Rodriguez must feel the break has hit suitable terrain for a refining process of sorts.

['Dale]

The Rodriguez splinter group is brought to heel ahead of the Col de Malissol. The lead group is 29-strong once again, and holds an advantage of 5:25 over the main peloton.

['Dale]

Rodriguez accelerates once again as the break approaches the summit of the Col de Malissol. The Katusha man is about to move into the outright lead at the head of the king of the mountains competition.

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Rodriguez leads Serge Pauwels over the Col de Malissol. A short descent follows before the category 2 Col de la Morte, which is a little less frightening than it sounds, though with an average gradient of 8.4% over 3 kilometres, it might well break up this 29-man group.

['Dale]

Trek and Giant-Alpecin continue their work at the head of the main peloton, and their combined efforts have pegged the break's lead back within five minutes. Froome and his Sky delegation are lined up just behind them, while Tinkoff-Saxo and Astana retain a watching a brief for Contador and Nibali.