Chris Froome (Team Sky) donned the Tour de France race leader's yellow jersey for the 50th time at the end of a straightforward stage to Bergerac. The Briton described the straightforward sprinter's stage as a "bit of a double rest day" after making it to the finish without any difficulty.
34th on the stage behind winner Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors), Froome is now equal fourth, alongside Jacques Anquetil, in the ranking for number of days spent in yellow by any riders. "It'd be sweeter for certain if I can keep this jersey all the way to Paris, but it's a huge, huge honour all the same," Froome said afterwards.
Froome expressed his satisfaction with the UCI's decision to extend the maximum time gap between splits in the peloton in the closing kilometres of flat stages from one to three seconds, arguing it made the battle for the line a much less stressful affair.
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"We've always got to be in front, because days like this you can lose the Tour even if you can't win it. But we can ease back a little, be a little calmer."
Wednesday's stage to Pau is equally flat, and there will almost certainly be crosswinds. Froome argued that "any mention of that makes people nervous, everybody wants to be at the front and we'll have to be ready to go to war again."
Questions quickly moved towards Froome's rivals in the Tour, and the Briton agreed that Astana's double handed approach to the race, with Fabio Aru and Jakob Fuglsang in the GC running, made for a greater challenge.
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