Waiting for tomorrow's Pyrenees, the Tour, after the rest day, has scheduled two stages for sprinters, or rather for Marcel Kittel given the ease with which the German of Quick-Step Floors dominates his opponents in the bunch sprints. An absolute domination, regardless of the thinning of the rivals with the abandonments of Sagan (expelled for improprieties), Cavendish (ended up in hospital) and Démare (out of time in Chambéry). At Bergerac Kittel won almost by detachment, creating a void between him and the others as if he belonged to another planet, all of this exhibiting an arrogance and ease to demolish day after day the already tested morale of the other sprinters who take turns in the challenge. Démare and Greipel tried it out in Liège and Troyes, but had to settle for places of honour. In Nuits-Saint Georges it was Boasson-Hagen who came close to the feat which was denied only by the response of the photo finish.
In Bergerac, where Kittel made a fantastic four-of-a-kind in just 10 stages and his 13th Tour victory, another German took on the job of annoying him, not Greipel stuck in the mad traffic of the sprint, but John Degenkolb chasing always the first success in the Tour: "mission impossible", he too ended up behind the unleashed Marcel at an embarrassing distance, at least... about fifteen noses from Cyrano who is at home in Bergerac. Today the Tour arrives for the fiftieth time in the post-war period in Pau, which has always been a privileged base for the attack on the Pyrenees: awaiting the uphill finish in Peyragudes, yet another stage on the cards for sprinters. Who will challenge Kittel to prevent him from making the fifth center? In the history of the Tour, the record for stages won in the same edition is set at 8: the first to achieve many victories was Charles Pelissier in the 1930 Grande Boucle won by André Leducq; then it was the turn of Eddy Merckx who, like the cannibal he was, did this exploit twice, in 1970 and in 1974, the year of his fifth and last Tour victory; in 1976, with the final yellow jersey on the shoulders of Van Impe, another Belgian, Freddy Martens equaled the primacy of Pelissier and Merckx.
Stage characterized by the usual escape – this time by two Frenchmen, Yoann Offredo and Elie Gesbert, 22 years old, the youngest of the Tour participants – which is canceled by the peloton in view of the finish line: obviously no change in the standings but for Froome still the leader yesterday it was a special day because he set foot in the exclusive club of those who have worn the yellow jersey at least 50 times. Before him, only four of Merckx (who has the record of 115 times in yellow), Anquetil, Hinault, Indurain have crossed this threshold. In this magic circle there was also Lance Armstrong, later banned for doping, the use of which a great man like Anquetil in fact legitimized and promoted "coram populo" with the endorsement of none other than Charles De Gaulle.
