Cycling: The professionals of the Tour de France are allowed to rest for the second time tomorrow. The last and all-important tour week begins on Tuesday. This year is very exciting in almost all ratings. What awaits us on the remaining six stages?
Tension at the Tour de France – only Marcel Kittel dominates
The Tour de France 2017 can definitely be described as exciting. After 15 stages, the top four in the overall standings are separated by just 29 seconds. There are favorites in the youth and points rankings, but these jerseys have not yet been assigned. Only in the mountain classification does Warren Barguil (Sunweb) seem to be hard to beat. So there can be no question of boredom - at most we get to see a flat stage. There is a clear dominator there: Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) has won all but one of the flat parts. He was only stopped on the 4st stage due to a mass fall just before the finish. Marcel Kittel has already clinched five stage wins. How many more could be added in the last week of the tour?
What can we expect in the last week of the tour?
The Tour de France will start its final week on Tuesday. There are still six stages to complete. Stages 16, 19 and 21 will likely result in a mass sprint. So Marcel Kittel still has three chances. The overall ranking of the Tour de France will be decided on sections 17, 18 and 20. There the spectators get to see two mountain stages and a time trial. It is clear that the challengers Chris Froome still have time to lose before the fight against the clock. It seems rather unlikely that this will succeed on the two remaining mountain stages. But it will be exciting anyway when it comes to the podium places. Fabio Aru (Astana), Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) are on a similar level. It's definitely worth tuning in - not just because of Marcel Kittel!
Overall ranking of the 2017 Tour de France after 15 of 21 stages
Tour Locations | Driver | Country | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Chris Froome | Great Britain | Sky | 64:40:21 |
2. | Fabio Arau | Italy | Astana | + 0: 18 |
3. | Romain Bardet | France | Ag2r | + 0: 23 |
4. | Rigoberto Urán | Colombia | Cannondale Drapac | + 0: 29 |
5. | Daniel Martin | Ireland | Quick Step Floors | + 1: 12 |
6. | Mikel Landa | Spain | Sky | + 1: 17 |
7. | Simon yates | Great Britain | Orica Scott | + 2: 02 |
8. | louis meintjes | South Africa | UAE | + 5: 09 |
9. | Alberto counter | Spain | Trek-Segafredo | + 5: 37 |
10. | Damian Caruso | Italy | BMC | + 6: 05 |
Winni says
I think the fight for the podium will become Froome's trump card.
Bardet, Aru, Uran and Martin would have to coordinate and work together. Otherwise he is hard to beat with his team as only Ag2R can put some pressure on. But even with a defect at Froome it didn't work out yesterday. And then the four chase each other for 3rd place etc.
I suspect that Aru is slowly running out of strength, after all, he was injured for a long time. Uran seems happy with the podium and Martin is lacking quality in the time trial (so should now get 2-3 minutes on Froome in the mountains).
Only Bardet has a competitive team on some days and seems aggressive enough.
Btw.: Great reporting here, you can tell that the forecasts for the stages have a certain amount of expertise.