Things were interesting for a while today in the Tour de France. Julian Alaphilippe cracked on the final climb of the day and then performed a daredevil descent to catch back up to most of his rivals. Egan Bernal was the big winner today, he was first to attack on the final climb and ended the day 30" ahead of the Alaphilippe group and jumped into second place overall. The standings are now even tighter than they were a day ago.
The race is setting up for two crazy days now. We are running into back to back mountain top finishes and with Alaphilippe showing some weakness on the climbs, the door is now open for the rest of the contenders. With Bernal gaining 30" today, Alaphilippe's advantage has been cut slightly down to 1'30" over his next competitor and I'm no longer convinced that Alaphilippe can hold onto the yellow jersey until Sunday.
If you remove Alaphilippe from the equation, everything gets much messier. Egan Bernal would be the surprise leader with his teammate Geraint Thomas only 5" behind. Steven Kruijswijk would be 17" back only 3" in front of Thibaut Pinaut. Wildcard Emanuel Buchmann has continued to hang around and is only 33" behind Bernal. Expect one of the most dramatic finishes to the Tour de France ever.
I have no idea what to expect tomorrow and Saturday besides action, excitement and drama. Can Alaphilippe continue to shock the cycling world and hang on? What about Thibaut Pinot, he's been strongest in the mountain stages before Bernal's performance today, does the race line up in his advantage now? And then of course Geraint Thomas has quietly been waiting around in third place, we he and teammate Bernal end up duking it out for victory? I can't wait to find out all the answers to these questions.
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