Greig Leach

With the stage almost exactly half way through, the peloton all grabbed some musettes and began the task of having some lunch. It is estimated that a rider will burn 6,000 calories in a single stage, so keeping themselves feed and hydrated is no small task. The race designates a "Feed Zone" in every stage where the soigneurs will hold out the bags of drinks and food for their riders to grab as they ride pass. With very, very few exceptions the Tour never stops (we did have such an occurrence mid week last week) so lunch is a bagged lunch on the go. I never did get the names of the riders on the front here but the teams are Alpecin-Deceuninck, Jayco-Alula, and DSM-firmenich, all with sprinters still in the race. Even now the peloton hasn't let the break away gain more than a minute and a half on them. I feel sure that once lunch is over, those up front will be chased down. However, there is still another 98 kilometers to race, so they may get left out there a bit longer.