3 hours ago
13
Key events
105km to go Coston has no chance of catching the two out in front, the gap is now more than five minutes. The Frenchwoman looks like she’s heading back to the peloton.
110km to go Neither of these two are in the hunt for the polkadots, but Adegeest takes the two mountains points at the top of Col des Robines.
113km to go Coston is about one minute ahead of the peloton but sitll more than three minutes behind the lead pair, who will reach the summit Col des Robines shortly.
123km to go Morgane Coston (Ma Petite Enterprise) has gone off after the breakaway pair, she has 2mins 35secs to make up. The peloton is more than three minutes behind the leaders.
137km to go We have a breakaway, Maeva Squiban (UAE Team L’Imad) and Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek) have managed to get clear. They have 1min 30secs on the peloton.
144km to go Another Visma-Lease a Bike rider tries to go clear, this time it’s Lieke Nooijen.
154km to go Daniek Hengeveld (Visma-Lease a Bike) has been the only rider to make any kind of attack stick so far, but her advantage only reached 12secs before she was reeled back in.
In case you’re just catching up, here’s what happened yesterday in a thrilling stage up Mont Ventoux from Jeremy Whittle on the ground in Provence:
Defending champion Ferrand-Prévot abandons!
The big early news pre-stage was the announcement from Visma-Lease a Bike revealing that defending Pauline Ferrand-Prévot would not be starting stage eight. The Frenchwoman had not been able to live with the GC contenders when the racing got tough this week and her team have now said she had come down with an illness and was withdrawing from the race. Here’s the statement from Visma-Lease a Bike:
Unfortunately, Pauline was not feeling well this morning. In consultation with the medical staff, it has been decided that she will not start today. We wish Pauline a speedy recovery!
168km to go A couple of early attacks but as yet nothing to write home about.
Kilometre zero
Marion Rousse waves off the riders and we are on the road to Nice. I’ll be monitoring race radio until we get live pictures from TNT at 2.30pm BST.
Preamble
After the drama of Mont Ventoux today’s stage is a little bit of an unknown. It’s listed as flat, but the first 75km are essentially an uphill drag and then there are two category four climbs just before the riders get to Nice. It’s hard to see where the opportunity for an attack from the general classification contenders might come from, but at the same time this not straightforward for sprinters.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was so impressive in snatching away the yellow jersey it is difficult to imagine her crumbling now, but Demi Vollering is only some stage-win bonus seconds and change behind the Polish rider. This is not over, but the window is narrowing for Vollering.
Lorena Wiebes is sitting pretty in the green jersey and should the SD Worx-Protime sprinter be able to manage over the lumps then she is the obvious candidate in the sprint. There are probably some smart tactical advantages to Niewiadoma-Phinney’s Canyon–SRAM team in getting someone in the break and letting that go, so how the seek to control the peloton will be worth keeping an eye on.
Given the swings in momentum over the course of this race, all I do know is this won’t be dull.
