Day 7 and We Progress Southwest Toward REAL Mountains

Today is rather flat, bur yesterday's six peaks started to crunch the field and imposed the beginnings of time cracks and gaps. It was wonderful to see Guilio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) drag himself over the top of the final peak to win the Yellow Jersey. Alaphilippe, the previous holder of Yellow, crossed 41 seconds later. It's quite probable that Ciccone will hold onto the Yellow for at least one more day since today is a "flat" stage, but he'll still need to watch the field carefully and not allow threats to get ahead of him. When you have the Yellow, it turns into a race of tactics. 

Let's take a look at today's profile. 

Today is almost a meander - two Cat 4 peaks, and one very steep
Cat 1 ascent as they go from Belfort to Chalon-Sur-Saone. 

As you can see, the hills are packed into the front half of the ride, with the flats taking over the second half. Strategy will be important since the field has already started to fracture. Congratulations have to go to Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) for winning Stage 6, but now it's time for Stage 7, a new day and a new section of route. The top seven riders are separated by less than one minute of total time. Think about how many miles have already been raced and the differences between the riders is that slim. Amazing! 

Here's the official blurb for the day: 

Stage 7 is the longest of the 106th Tour de France with 230km to cover from Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône. As there’s no stage without any categorized climb this year, KOM points will be up for grabs at col de Ferrière (cat. 4, km 37.5), côte de Chassagne-Saint-Denis (cat. 3, km 95.5) and côte de Nans-Sous-Sainte-Anne (cat. 4, km 119.5) but Tim Wellens’ polka dot jersey is not under threat and his Lotto-Soudal team will have another goal with gearing up for a bunch sprint finish. The day after his 25th birthday, Caleb Ewan is looking for his first stage victory at the Tour on his first participation, just like Dylan Teuns yesterday. Sonny Colbrelli is surely inspired by his team-mate from Bahrain-Merida but Dylan Groenewegen and Alexander Kristoff are the other top sprinters who are yet to win this year. It’s the Tour of the new faces. Giulio Ciccone is the third rider in yellow for the first time after Mike Teunissen and Julian Alaphilippe.

That's something to think about that hadn't occurred to me. There is NO stage without a categorized climb somewhere in it throughout this year's race course. That's so fun, and will definitely keep the King of the Mountain competition fresh and hot.  

Taking a look at the map blow-up from yesterday, you can
see that large almost straight section running from the
blue at Belfort to the red at Chalon-sur-Saone. It's easy
to see that we're leaving the border mountains behind and
heading into the center of France. 

We had our first two withdrawals from the race yesterday, Bevin Patrick (CCC Team) did not start, and Edet Nicolas (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) abandoned while on course. That we are having withdrawals this early without a major crash causing group injuries speaks to how hard the course is this year. But the best part is that we still have weeks to go! I love July because it's TdF month. 

On a personal note, I was a good girl and ran around the track like my doctor recommended. The things I do for health *sigh*. I was the only one running on the indoor track (because I really dislike running outdoors), and it's really boring. I will have to make this a part of my regime for at least three days a week, if not more, though. Impact is important for osteoporosis, so impact I will have. *sigh* Here's hoping you have a fabulous Friday and I'll be back tomorrow.