Greig Leach

On a day that should have been a simple formula, of break goes - sprinters' teams chase, catch is made - sprinter takes the stage, today was anything but. While a non-sprinter won the stage, the rest of the podium was manned by the fast men of the sport. However, behind the winning group, were three distinct groups full of general classification riders losing between a minute thirty seconds and over two minutes. Again, today was not a day to win the Tour, but many lost their chance of winning. Or in other words, today, they lost the Tour. Coming in a minute and a half down this group contained some of those that started the Tour thinking they could win like, Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First), Jakob Fulgsang (Astana) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). These king of time losses shouldn't have happened on a flat stage before the rest day, but they did.