Foldable Bikes Party: Tour de France 2018: Rest Day 2 Recap

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The three brutal stages in the Alps defined the overall classification of the 2018 Tour de France through stage 15, and after Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) earned one more day in the race leader's jersey thanks to a day-long breakaway, Team Sky's Geraint Thomas claimed the next two summit victories including the coveted Alpe d'Huez stage to take firm hold of the maillot jaune.

Defending Tour de France champion Chris Froome remained quietly in second place overall, with Thomas deflecting much of the media attention from his teammate for the time being. But the question of who is the real team leader remains the hot topic of the Tour as the Pyrenees loom.

With Team Sky looking almost unflappable - aside from Gianni Moscon, who was ejected on stage 15 for hitting Elie Gesbert - Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) was left as the rider most likely to challenge the duo following the unfortunate exit of Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) because of a crash on Alpe d'Huez.

Dumoulin has matched Froome blow-for-blow, his 1:50 gap to Thomas largely a product of his mishap en route to the Mûr de Bretagne. He is only 11 seconds behind Froome and as he showed on La Rosière, he is unafraid to attack him.

Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) has also become increasingly aggressive, in particular on stage 14 to Mende, where he picked up eight seconds on Thomas. The 1:11 he lost in the team time trial will continue to haunt him: Roglic is now 2:38 down on Thomas and 59 seconds down on Froome. Given his strength in the time trial and rising form, he is poised for a podium push in the Pyrenees.

Roglic's teammate Steven Kruijswijk has also been quietly climbing the rankings, waging a heroic day-long attack to Alpe d'Huez only to be denied at the last. The Dutch team might yet have something up their sleeves.

Foldable Bikes Party

Monday 23 July 2018

Tour de France 2018: Rest Day 2 Recap

Stage 10: Annecy - Le Grand-Bornand, 158.5 km

Stage 11: Albertville - La Rosière, 108.5 km

Stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arc - Alpe d'Huez, 175.5 km

Stage 13: Bourg d'Oisans - Valence, 169.5 km

Stage 14: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Mende, 188 km

Stage 15: Millau - Carcassonne, 181.5 km

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