Thomas hasn't had to work much yet, if he has a bad day then I expect it will be Thursday after 3 days of mountains take their toll. I think he'll be strong tomorrow, could even be in the mix for a stage win.

Froome doesn't need to be overly aggressive. The TT is short at 31km, and Froome only lost 13 seconds to Tom D at a similar length TT late in the Giro. With the number of strong climbers in GC contention I think Tom D is going to be leaking a few seconds here and there and could find himself with a mountain to climb (pun intended!) by the time stage 20 comes around.

Next 3 days we're going to see Sky try and thin out the GC crowd by riding a high tempo (surprise surprise!). We won't see Froome attack until or unless he's attacking a select few having already dropped the rest, and is confident that he can make an attack stick. The riders who need to be aggressive are Quintana and Bardet who are already behind and will lose more time on the TT. Nibali is likely to attack at some point this week (Wednesday or Thursday more likely), as that's more his style and he's been very quiet.

Is the descent from Colombiere technical enough for an attack? I thought it was fairly fast and straightforward.

Also heard an interview with Barguil the other day where he said he'd moved to Southern France where there's better weather and mountains for training, but got bored, was missing rollerblading with his girlfriend and was just playing video games instead of training so moved back up north. If he and Bardet are typical then I'm starting to understand why France hasn't won the Tour since Hinault...

I've heard that in terms of training Bardet can take it quite hardcore. Teammate Frank once told that during a preparation race (somewhere in the middle east) Bardet asked him if he joined him to train a bit before the stage. Frank agreed thinking that it would be a little shakeout spin. And then it was fullack racepace.
I think he works very hard but just neglects the TT.

By the way G posted a pic today of the sky guys. And it looks as if they've ridden their TT bikes today. Smart. You ride it on the rest day so that you still keep somehow used to it.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

Not doubting for a minute that Bardet trains hard and race hard, his attitude with all the mechanicals on the cobbles yesterday was also impressive. Just doesn't seem that he is willing to leave no stone unturned in order to be the best all round rider he can be. We're all good at doing more of the things we enjoy, but being the best means working on the things you don't enjoy so much. Whether it's doing more TTing, cutting out the doughnuts, going to bed earlier, etc. Maybe Bardet is happy with stage wins, podiums and maybe a polka dot jersey. But if he wants to wear yellow then he needs to get himself in a wind tunnel and put in some hard yards on the TT bike. Or hope that the ASO plan a route with no TT and lots of mountains.

I had a really great hot take, but I'm pretty sure you block my posts, so.. meh.

I am not sure the descent of the Colombiere is technical, but if there is rain, then advantage Bardet (and also Nibali, minus his Rio downhill crash). I hope we see some fireworks.

Dev

Even If I wanted to I not sure how I would block anyone but that is totally not the case. I think you prognosis of the upcoming stages will be insightful.

Well, GVA managed to surprise himself on Stage 10 and proved most of us wrong. Let's see if he can keep it up on Stage 11.