Sunday's stage through the Jura mountains to Chambéry was hardly short of storylines, but one of the most significant was the way the AG2R La Mondiale team ignited the race, playing no small part in one of the most thrilling days of racing in recent Tour de France history.
On the descent of the Col de la Biche, the French team put numbers on the front of both the breakaway and the peloton, causing a period of chaos as maillot jaune Chris Froome (Team Sky) and two-time champion Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), among others, were briefly cut adrift. The drama would only intensify on the way up and down the Mont du Chat, with the team's talisman Romain Bardet forcing his way clear from an already select group on the descent and very nearly hanging on for the stage win.
One of the areas for progress identified by Bardet, by now well known for his adventurous streak, in the aftermath of his breakthrough runner-up finish at last year's Tour was his team exerting more authority on proceedings, and Sunday was extremely promising in that regard.
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"We took the race by the scruff of the neck from the start, and that was important," team general manager Vincent Lavenu told Cyclingnews in Eymet on Wednesday.
So, while Froome in yellow gives the Tour a very familiar feel, there is some hope that the mountains of the second half of the race – starting on Thursday with the Pyrenees – could see the race veer from the script to which we've become so accustomed.
"We aren't on the same level as Sky," said Lavenu, marvelling at the way the British team can take Grand Tour contenders and former world champions, and deploy them as domestiques, "but at certain moments, in certain circumstances, we can impose ourselves on the race."
Bardet brushes off stage 11 crash
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