Riblon did have an accident on the descent so had to catch up, but i think millions of french shouting for you would destroy the best of TJ in the end.

For the yellow jersey, two races but three stages.

There are huge mountain stages tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday.

Sunday's stage is purely ceremonial as far as the the yellow jersey and polka dot king of the mountains competitions are concerned, and this year the green sprint jersey has been decided already (provided Peter Sagan makes it to Paris), so only the day's stage win will be left to be contested. It's a flat course with a lot of repetitive loops round the centre of Paris.

Looks as if Froome may have been penalised 20 seconds for taking that food. That's a fair penalty in my book, more appropriate than a fine.

True, but that was his fault whereas Van Garderen's problem was mechanical, not his fault, and he was unlucky that it happened where it did!

Credit to Riblon though, his last few km were phenomenal!

So Froome has a bad day and increases his lead to 5'11 apparently with the 20 second penalty already applied.

Looks like the most exciting competitions this year will be King of the Mountains and for 2nd place overall, with Quintana bringing up the rear in both. (He says, hoping chickens have not been counted yet...)

20 seconds penalty confirmed by the race officials. So 5'11 it is then going into the last two mountain stages.

Odd that Froome took the food. It would take a whle (15mins) to take effect.
He said his sugars low, so probably more to do with his health and recovery rate.
Not so much performance.

But rules is rules and i think the 20 seconds seems normal according to sme offence in other races.

Considering it is the 100th Tour a harsh penalty would be bad publicity and detract from the excellent race it has been, and a Frenchman winning the stage.

But Im sure it will fuel the fire of all those anti Froome / Sky doping accusers.

I get the impression that Chris is quite humble and will undoubtably have seen the irony of having Porte stay with him ( wiggo Last year)

OR....
maybe Chris did all that deliberately to make a point about what he did last year was wrong ...and highliight the error of his ways. Staged Karma .

He is a very very clever bloke.

I would've thought today worked against the accusers - Froome was a mess on the last part of the final climb and would have lost serious time if Porte hadn't been there!

But no doubt the accusers will come up with some more 'creative' ways to spout baseless vitriol against Froome and Sky

Hopefully Froome can recover because tomorrow starts off with a nightmare climb, or should i say climbs...

Froome looked human today. He really has to calm down now and stop wasting energy trying to decimate the pack. Let them do it.... Just follow them.

Next 2 stages will be very interesting... Quintana now looks the strongest. Interesting to see if Movistar put on the hurt tomorrow just to see if Froome will pop big time!

Looking foward to see what happens....

It's funny, today it suited Movistar to work with Sky, and Saxo to work against them, but it's role reversal tomorrow. Saxo will actually need to work with Sky to try to cover Quintana if they want any hope of preserving Contador's 2nd place! Contador isn't strong enough to do so himself on the climbs...

He said himself the food was too late to do any actual good, but it would of given him a bit of a psychological boost I guess.

What's this about Bertie being on an illegal bike?

I wondered where he went after the descent. Had to change bikes apparently.

Naughty Bertie.

There was an announcement during the stage that some (all?) riders' bikes were going to be weighed after the finish to check if they were under the minimum permitted weight. Hence the suspicion regarding the reason for our favourite steak eater changing bikes.

Think I read that all the bike s on the cars will be weighed as well.
Did that Cont ador change coz of that or to get better gears.?

Everyone took a pounding today. Kreizinger / Contador.
Quintana and Valverde looked least hammered.

It hardly makes sense to ride with an underweight bike and then attack on a descent, does it?

true,.

Coverage on ITV4 starts at 10am tomorrow (Friday) presumably because there's an HC climb near the beginning of the stage.

You mean two HC climbs - they're both in the first 80 or so km tomorrow.

Yep long day in the Poang chair tomorrow, especially after a hard day in the chair today, I had a hunger dip near the top of the Alp second time, so had to rush to the fridge for an ice lolly, it cost me 20 seconds but it was worth it to get me through to the finish. ( My domestique is on her day off )

Im sure that if I rest and eat well i should be fit enough for the two hills early on despite the constant attacks from other teams telling me to go out into the sunshine and get a life.

This tour is taking its effect on me ,but if i can get through tomorrow and saturday , i will eventually see daylight,

9:30 on Eurosport.... I won't get to a TV until 12. God i hope Chris has recovered, because i think Movistar will lay it down from the get go. Chris is getting no rest at all, Just hoping he can get to the final climb with Quintana and Rodríguez.

This is the stage i always thought would be the worst for Sky and Chris. It's just brutal, and coming just after Alpe d'huez ... Just hope the little Colombian is out of puff. :/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...wnj0kccg#at=24

PS. Chris.... Remember to stock up on energy gels.

What everyone seems to have overlooked is that Froome and Contador hammered themselves in the time trial the day before and Porte (also no doubt Contador's helper) had a deliberate rest day - doing the absolute minimum.

On a hard stage like this one, things like that matter!

1st French win wasn't it and not a bad stage to win!

Hopefully Froome has re-covered enough.

He might be more worried about Quintana than Contandor now.

So, David Millar and the boys at Garmin reckon today will be brutal; tougher than yesterday.