Nein

Echelon stages are amazing to watch. A group forms seemingly in an instant and the cameras sometimes don't catch it.

Yeah stages like today are tough viewing kind of. You never really know when **** is gonna go down. I guess maybe that is a good thing, but I typically don't watch intently for half or more of a stage and just focus in the key parts where people are going to be making moves.

Contador going for a stage win today! Way too early to even guess how well he'll do.

Also, he announced that this will be his last Tour. So it's either today or tomorrow if he wants to get a last stage win for his career.

Kittel crashed and has abandoned! Matthews is likely going to win green, barring an incident for him.

Wow! Matthews to walk Green Jersey now. Sagan furious at home. Cav wondering what could have been. Greipel erect.

Kittel ****ty year for sprinters

Contador was looking good for quite a while. But now he's 38 seconds behind a solo break attempt by Roglic.

Froome is 2:32 behind this group, but I believe he's lost all his teammates besides Landa.

Oh, fireworks have started. Bardet, Froome, and Uran just grouped up away from the rest of the leader group. Aru possibly dropped.

EDIT: Aru keeps getting back to the group, then someone else attacks and drops Aru again.

Aru yoyoing like a pro. Tour is finished

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Aru lost 40 seconds to the yellow group.

Time bonus sprint!

Uran now second in GC. Bardet third, Aru fourth.

Can't remember such a close top 4. We are still one crash away from any one of them being in yellow. That said it still somehow isn't that exciting and has an air of inevitability about it.

Here's the Kittel crash. Didn't realize Barguil was in the same crash.

Don't actually see Kittel crash, just that he's slow to get up, then has a shoe problem as soon as he starts going.

Uran has been the big surprise package this tour. Tomorrow should be awesome. Everyone has to at least try.

Think it is a sign of this year being a down year for quality at the top letting second tier guys into the race. Froome or Quintana at their peak form would be out of sight of everyone else.

Also, less extreme blatant doping? In the old days you got much bigger gaps and huge attacks in the mountains.

Disclaimer - I've not looked up stats but it seems like the time gaps are way smaller these days.

To be fair, a lot of those who are challenging for the first time seem to be about 26/27. That's the sort of age when guys seem to really push on.

I did think that Froome may end with 5 Tours, but it may be a real struggle next year with those guys a year older.

Froome does just what he needs to win. No point in exposing himself to claims that he's an obvious doper. They learned something from watching Armstrong's fall.

Bardet, Aru, Meinjes, Martin, Landa, these are the next generation. Froome, Contador, Quintana, are the previous generation. It's the changing of the guard, and there's always a year or two of chaos before the new dominant cyclist appears. Probably with the increased professionalization of the sport there won't be any more Hinaults and Indurains anyway. It's much more competitive now. Somewhere there's an interview with a young Lemond responding to criticism made by Merckx where he said basically now there are ten Merckx's in the peloton, and he's just jealous because my line of bicycles outsells his. That was 25 years ago. Things have gotten much more professionalized since then. Much higher quality athletes now.

Not sure, Martin is like less than a year younger than Froome. Quintana is younger than many you name there or roughly the same age. Yet he's on his way out and they are the next generation?

Thomas De Gendt is a legend, guy never tires

Barguil has really impressed. Is he a future GC contender, or is his TT not good enough?

Landa going for the podium!?

Bardet passes Uran for 2nd overall by getting the 3rd place time bonus for today's stage.