We're coming onto the final stretch of this year's Tour de France, which includes some very tough mountain stages as well as 2 mountaintop finishes in the last 4 stages on this year's tour. That will be Alpe d'Huez on Thursday and Annecy-Semnoz on Saturday, both leading into the finale on the Champs-Elysses in Paris on Sunday.
Since the last post I wrote last Tuesday recapping the 1st 10 stages on this year's tour, we saw 2 sprint finishes which gave Marcel Kittel & Mark Cavendish another win each, Tony Martin winning the 1st individual time trial heading into Mont Saint-Michel, Matteo Trentin winning in Lyon and lastly most importantly so far, Chris Froome winning on top of Mont Ventoux, opening up his lead on the other contenders in this year's tour.
Froome, the Maillot Joure since Stage 8, won his second stage on Sunday with the help of his Team Sky teammates and now leads Bauke Mollema by 4:14 and Alberto Contador by 4:25. Another cyclist who really impressed me in the Pyrenees and on Mont Ventoux is Nairo Quintana, who currently leads in the White Jersey category, is currently 6th and can definitely make a run for the title. Cadel Evans is 16th and Andy Schleck is 18th. Peter Sagan is definitely a force in the Points Classification, leading Mark Cavendish by 99 points and mostly likely win the Green Jersey competition. As far as the King of the Mountains category, it is up in the air right now. Chris Froome leads with 83 points, Quintana has 66, so the next man in line is Mikel Nieve, who is in 3rd. That all will change with over a dozen mountain climbs taking place in the next 5 stages, who knows what to expect.
On paper, the Tour is starting to wind down, but all the action will heat up. Stage 16 will see the riders start heading towards the Alps, finishing in Gap. Stage 17 features the last individual time trial, while Stage 18 ascends upon L'Alpe d'Huez twice including a finish, while Stage 19 features 5 mountain climbs, ending in Le-Grand Bornand. The penultimate stage features a mountaintop finish upon Annecy-Semnoz and the final stage will see all the action taking place at dusk on the streets of Paris. Question at this point, who will win the 100th edition of this year's tour?
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