It took a cloudburst to give a little shiver to a Tour so far too chloroformed by Chris Froome's sober but unchallenged dominance, even if at the end of the day when he risked compromising his primacy due to bad luck, the Briton finds with an increased advantage over the second. But at least yesterday's stage was not soporific at all. Lightning and pouring rain transform the asphalt of the descent from the Cote de Domancy – the same faced uphill in Thursday's time trial – into an insidious bar of soap that causes many to fall. With 10 km to go from the finish line in Saint-Gervais, even the yellow jersey flies into the air. A skid in the middle of the road, thanks to the white paint on the middle strip, sends Froome to the ground and Nibali behind him: it is the moment that could reopen the Tour, but Froome – back pain, broken bike, torn yellow jersey – manages to get back on the saddle immediately thanks to the help of Geraint Thomas who hands him the bike. Nibali also gets away with no major damage. But if the Shark from that moment on thinks more about the Olympics than the Tour and lets himself be paraded ending up in the rear of the race, Froome, with the support of his companions, in particular Wouters Poels, launches furiously in pursuit of the first to limit the damages. The Tour is experiencing moments of high tension hitherto unknown. The tussle breaks out and it is certainly not a time for fair play. It's a day where crashes are countless with Tom Dumoulin and Navarro already forced to retire. Up front, pushing hard, there were almost all the men from the standings, the ones most dangerous for the yellow jersey. The day's escape animated by Rafa Majka and Thomas De Gendt, the duelists for the polka dot shirt firmly on the shoulders of the Tinkoff Pole, was now over. The last survivor to be caught was Rui Costa. The Portuguese, former world champion from Florence, was first to take on Romain Bardet who is about to achieve the feat that cycling France has been waiting for since the start of the Grande Boucle: the first transalpine triumph in the Tour.
Not only that: with Bardet, who on the ramps of Mont Blanc towards Saint-Gervais is good at resisting the hunt conducted by a pool of VIPs like Rodriguez - finally regenerated - Valverde, Meintjes, Quintana and Aru, France can see its best rider again of the moment in the podium area, even in second place, taking advantage of the decline of Adam Yates and the bad day of Bauke Mollema. But Froome isn't far off: despite being bruised, he also arrives before Porte, ninth at 36” behind the winner. In the bad luck, the Briton feels lucky when he sums up the most difficult day of his Tour and sees that the crash cost him only a handful of seconds which does not affect his primacy: 13” against Rodriguez, Valverde and Mentjes; 10” by Quintana, which seemed a little less packed than the previous days; just 8” compared to Aru, a really small treasure for the Sardinian if compared to the great work and expenditure of energy lavished by Astana during the stage. Today there is the last alpine stage of Morzine with the deadly Col de Joux de Plane, a hors catégorie a dozen kms from the finish: the last chance to attack Froome who, two days from Paris, despite crooked, due to the défaillance accused by Mollema – who fell to 10th place at 7'42” – he increased to 4'11” (it was 3'59” over Mollema in Megève) the advantage over the second who is Bardet. Third - without a shot being fired - is Nairo Quintana at 4'27” followed by Adam Yates at 4'36”. Richie Porte is fifth at 5'17” while Aru, despite gaining a position in sixth place exactly 6 minutes behind Froome, has seen his gap from the podium increase by a few seconds, a hot spot in the standings that awaits the Megève-Morzine its final arrangement. Behind, of course, Froome.
