From Salon-de-Provence, on clear days, the rocky and bald peak of Mont Ventoux can be seen in the distance: but this edition's Tour returned to Provence but avoided the stone giant, where an unforgettable farce was staged starring Chris Froome in yellow who, blocked by traffic, planted his bike and started running on foot towards the finish line located halfway up the hill due to excessive heat problems. Had there been the Ventoux perhaps the Tour could have still reserved some surprises, certainly in anticipation of today's time trial which sees him as the overwhelming favorite, Froome would not have had the time and desire to joke as instead happened to him in yesterday's placid stage, immortalized in a running flash that went around the web while giving a high five to the "devil" who every day, at the end of the stage, appears along the roadsides of the Tour. Getting busy, after the alpine battles between the big names – so to speak given the trifle of seconds that Galibier and Izoard with whom they moved the standings, are the sprinters or finisseurs who remained in the race and who until Wednesday had to collide with the unbeatable Marcel Kittel.
The German in the green jersey is no more and Edvald Boasson-Hagen thus wins his first stage in this Tour, regaining the smile that had faded from the day in Nuits-Saint-Georges when at the photo finish for 6 millimeters, equal to 8 ten thousandths of a second, he had been declared beaten by Kittel. In Salon de Provence, to avoid such troubles, Boasson-Hagen saw fit to get rid of all his breakaway companions, arriving 5” ahead of the German Nikias Arndt. A day that didn't move the standings but which served Mikael Matthews to secure the green jersey from possible attacks by André Greipel. Today the Tour unravels the latest truths. One, moreover, is already written and only needs the stamp of officiality: it is Froome's fourth success at the Tour who also has the opportunity to avoid finishing in yellow without ever having won a stage. A predictable truth is that the time trial is more useful for Uran to overtake Bardet on the podium again than lightning in the race against the clock. Certainly this Tour will go down in history as one of the shortest podiums, with three riders packed up to the penultimate stage, in less than half a minute. Too bad Aru slipped out just when he was expecting his paw. But the Sardinian's glass can also be seen as half full with a prestigious stage victory at the Planche des Belles Filles and two days in the Pyrenees in yellow, the jersey that the Italian champion was missing after wearing the pink one in the Giro and the red one in the Vuelta ( won in 2015).
