Sagan has definitely been looking sharper, he might have even won yesterday if there was a bit more of a gap between van Aert and the barriers. I think it's possible that he came into the Tour a bit undercooked and trying build his form going into the 2nd and 3rd week while then being able to maintain it for the Giro.

Nice one Hirschi, glad this one sticked

Yeah I think most cycling fans felt happy to see him get his win - I know I did. Just a great race both from him and his Sunweb team.

Unreal ride by Martinez, wow. Rough for Schachmann.

The Slovenians once again come out on top of the GC riders, and Bernal lose 35-40 seconds and he's now 1 minute after Roglic.

The Alps are going to be a brutal. I can't wait.

Porte's great form continues. Definitely peak TdF fitness which I think is due to his usual early year peak form being realised later in the year with the delay to the world tour events.

Really happy for Martinez. I feared he would get pipped after dragging the other Bora dude up the mountains.

yeah pretty incredible effort from martinez

that was a great stage. i like martinez, but i actually wanted one of the bora guys to win it since the strategy worked so well for them. from 3-5k out i felt like this would happen though; martinez looked far stronger. schachmann has to be gutted.

if pogacar hadn't lost time on a flat stage he could well be in yellow right now. it would be cool if he pulled it off, but without much of a team to support at all, it feels almost impossible. though tbf, only JV seems to have strength in numbers. i don't even know wtf Ineos have been doing, occasionally taking control of the peleton to burn up their own domestiques and leave bernal on his own far from the finish.

Obviously we can't know for sure but I think when Pogacar made up those 40 seconds Roglic could and would have followed if Pogacar hadn't lost time before.

Oh for sure he would have, so I think it would have been an outside chance at best. But we’ll never know how bulletproof he is if people don’t test him. Pogacar is the only one to do that so far.

SØREN KRAGH YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARD

I, too, feel emotions, Søren.

wow, even if it's not a very long stretch, a 22% grade on this first climb. That will be painful.

LOL Ineos **** off on ya bike

Bernal dropped and on the ropes.

Good god, van Aert is a machine.

Not the most interesting stage. Other than Nairoman and Bernal dropping out of GC contention it was very uneventful. Jumbo are frighteningly strong. Pogacar and Roglic once again a level above the rest, but Porte must also feel good, he's looked better and better, and he has a good TT in him, so if things go his way he could find his way to a podium finish.

Yeah I've been going on about Porte quite a bit but he definitely looked quite early on in the tour like he had that super domestique form when he rode for Froome (and was mistaken by Phil Liggett to be Froome himself once - not sure if that has happened in this tour as Aus does not get his commentary) but it also seems that he is riding for someone else whether that be his new born child or the fact that this year will be his last year as a team leader and wanted to show what he was capable of after all these years of his tours being marred by crashes.

It was just a shame he lost that time in the cross-winds early on as he'd only be a minute behind and within real striking distance but I don't think he should be written off for a podium as I think he will continue to improve and Roglic and Pogacar surely will have to have one bad day each.

I couldn't decide if Sepp Kuss's attempt to lead out Roglic at the end was helpful or not, almost seemed like Pogacar had more room to manuever. But I dunno anything about racing tactics.

I think he made a bolt for the stage win actually.

Seems unlikely to me when his team leader needs every time bonus he can get but what do I know.

Edit: Watched it again and it def does not look to me like a play for the stage win.

Has there ever been a worse climber leading the mountain jersey after 16 stages?

Just give it to Van Aert seriously

Perhaps Kuss wanted to end up between Roglic and Pogacar to deny the latter of some bonus seconds, but I think that was shut down immediately when it was clear Pogacar was strong.

Kämna with a great ride today redeeming his second place from the other day. Great to see another young rider perform, it seems to be the new norm that riders become top tier already by their early-mid twenties. Bernal, Evenepoel, Pogacar to name a few, and Hirschi has also been a revelation during the Tour. I don't know if it's just a golden generation or if it's a shift due to how riders develop in modern racing, but either way it bodes well for the future of competitive cycling to see all these young star riders.

Tomorrow's stage is key for the GC riders. A tough day up two HC climbs, especially Col de la Loze is terrifying.
21.4 km at 7.8% up to 2304 altitude. The final 4.5km are a gruelling >10% avg and up to 24%. This is a monstrous climb, and any sign of weakness could mean a big time loss. It will be difficult for anyone to seriously threaten Pogacar or Roglic, but the secondary GC positions are still up for the taking. Porte, Landa and Lopez are the three strongest of the rest imo. But who knows, we might see a Slovenian in crisis, anything can happen on a stage such as this so late in the race.

It should get sorted out by week's end who is the strongest.

He'll surely lose it tomorrow as there's 40 points to the stage winner.