Bike Ping
The Tour set the course for a Bastille Day challenge and they got it. I don't think I'm alone is saying I didn't expect the GC to look like this at the halfway mark. Uran and Aru were anything but household words until last week. Contador and Quintana are falling away. Quintana may be able to pull off a break and get some time back but 4 minutes is a big task for getting on the podium.
1 ARU Fabio 51 ASTANA
2 FROOME Christopher 1 TEAM SKY +00' 06''
3 BARDET Romain 11 AG2R + 00' 25''
4 URAN Rigoberto 188 CANNONDALE + 00' 55''
5 MARTIN Daniel 105 QUICK - STEP + 01' 41''
6 YATES Simon 89 ORICA - SCOTT + 02' 13''
7 LANDA Mikel 6 TEAM SKY + 02' 55''
8 QUINTANA Nairo 21 MOVISTAR + 04' 01''
9 BENNETT George 162 TEAM LOTTO + 04' 24''
10 MEINTJES Louis 61 UAE TEAM EMIRATES 5+ 04' 51''
So here we are Landa and Froome have their work cut out for them.
From LeTour:
"Some observers might have felt 213.2 kilometres of boredom and 300 metres of excitement in stage 12 but it's set to be the opposite on stage 13. It's the shortest of the 104th Tour de France, time trials excluded but it's a brutal one with three category 1 climbs on the menu, one of them being the Mur de Péguère with sections at 18%. It's really steep. Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet have an occasion to distance Chris Froome because they might have unexpectedly dethroned the Brit, nothing is lost for the defending champion although it's something new to him to lose the yellow jersey in the mountains. Time cut is tight, attacks will take place from the beginning, the show must go on!"
