Gap to Alpe-d’Huez

Distance: 172.5 kilometers.

Déjà vu all over again…

The stage starts by going over the category 2 Col de Manse which they already did at the end of Stage 16. Then after a short section of hills it’s over the top of category 3 Rampe du Motty. Things aren’t too bad for about 40 km and it’s time to go up category 2 Col d’Ornon, over the top and down to the valley for the sprint. The first 110 km was just the warm up for the pain to come.

Alpe d’Huez is a Hors Catégorie, a dozen kilometers at better than an 8% grade on a road that features nearly two dozen hairpin turns. This would be a good ending for a stage in the Alps, but it was felt that the stage was too short, so they added the run up the category 2 Col de Sarenne. Still feeling it to be too short, their solution was to loop around and climb the Alpe d’Huez again with the finish at the summit.

Christophe Riblon obviously felt the stage was ‘just right’, because he won it, took the Red Numbers doing it, improved his general classification by 8 places, his sprint classification by 14 places, and moved up to third place from 34th in the battle for the Polka Dots, meaning he will be wearing the Jersey.

Christopher Froome increased his lead to five-plus minutes over Alberto Contador, and still leads in the battle for ‘king of the mountains’.

Nairo Quintana moved up to third in the general classification, which is a place on the podium at Paris, has a 9+ minute lead for the White Jersey, and is only 7 points behind Froome to win the Polka Dots at the end. He is only 21 seconds behind Contador in the general, so second place is within reach.

Christopher Froome ( GB – SKY – 001 ) [Yellow] 71h 02′ 19″
Peter Sagan ( Svk – CAN – 011 ) [Green] 380 points
Christophe Riblon ( Fra – ALM – 089 ) [Polka Dot] 104 points [Froome]
Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 ) 3 [White]

Team: Saxo-Tinkoff ( TST – 091-099 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Christophe Riblon ( Fra – ALM – 089 )
Combative: Christophe Riblon ( Fra – ALM – 089 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1 Christopher Froome ( GB – SKY – 001 )
2 Alberto Contador ( Esp – TST – 091 ) + 05′ 11″
3 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 ) + 05′ 32″
4 Roman Kreuziger ( Cze – TST – 094 ) + 05′ 44″
5 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver ( Esp – KAT – 101 ) + 05′ 58″
6 Bauke Mollema ( Ned – BEL – 164 ) + 08′ 58″
7 Jakob Fuglsang ( Den – EUC – 063 ) + 09′ 33″
8 Michael Rogers ( Aus – TST – 098 ) + 14′ 26″
9 Michal Kwiatkowski ( Pol – OPQ – 153 ) + 14′ 38″
10 Laurens Ten Dam ( Ned – BEL – 167 ) + 14′ 39″

The Rest of the Top 30:
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