greg van avermaet he belongs to that category of riders who are always included among the favorites on the eve of the great classics. But unlike his other colleagues with rich palmarès, the Belgian from Bmc almost never wins. Many placements but a single center in the Paris-Tours. His victory with a peremptory stretch on the insidious final climb of Rodez is therefore newsworthy. On the other hand, the second place of Peter Sagan, season ticket par excellence for the podium, is no longer news, the Slovakian's thirteenth in the Tour since his last success in Albi in the 2013 edition. One step away from the finish, also taking advantage of the fact that in the last few meters the road leveled out, we had the feeling that the Slovakian from Tinkoff-Saxo could finally make it, but Van Avermaet beat him by a few centimeters with a final kick.
A hard defeat to digest for Sagan who is becoming the eternal second, a Tano Belloni of today's cycling. Nor can he be consoled by having maintained his leadership in the points classification undermined by Greipel who, by winning a flying finish line, had become the virtual green jersey. Bitter for Sagan, yesterday's stage did not add anything new, as was indeed imaginable, in the upper quarters of the rankings. Chris Froome is firmly in the lead, the others now seem resigned to fighting only for the podium. A fight from which Nibali seems already excluded, even if the Shark will have to do something in this minor Tour of his, also to silence an intolerant Vinokourov, the Astana team manager, who doesn't digest the poor performance offered so far by the yellow jersey of the Last year.
Transitional stage after the Pyrenees waiting for the Alps, Muret-Rodez was completely calm for Froome, characterized by three men on the run, light years away in the standings. A daring action started from the beginning which dissolved 250 meters from the finish line when De Gendt (the Belgian who won on the Stelvio in the 2012 Giro), the Dutch Kelderman and the French Gauthier were grabbed and overtaken by the fury of the group. At that point, in the middle of the climb, the finisseur power of Van Avermaet emerged, who after looking after, as he does in every stage, his captain, the American Teejay Van Garderen, took a day of glory all to himself. Today the Tour climbs again with the high altitude finish in Mende, where in 2010 Joaquim Rodriguez won his first stage in a Tour.
