Tomorrow will be a great finish, so many options. Sagan could win if its just a hard tempo to the finish. If the climbers launch some attacks Sagan will suffer. QS has three real options tomorrow for the finish. Its going to be a cluster as every GC contender wants to be on the front for this climb. GVA will loose the jersey tomorrow. TVG could potentially take it if he is up front. Froome launch a late attack with 1k to go to test the legs?

I think a late attack wins, roglic possibly?

Was like a classics day in July. Gilbert goes for a long one and everyone has to run him down. Gaviria pulled the plug early. More smart QS stuff with PG getting the nod.
That was a hard 5th day.

Gaudin in the break! He's a beast.

And Toms in polka dots, even if just for a day. We’re going to talk to him Monday for quick podcast check-in on rest day.

Hard to look past QS today, especially Alaphilippe and Gilbert. Also looks good for Dan Martin, Valverde and even GvA.

I'll go with Alaphillipe but would like to see Dan Martin get one.

good call. I was hoping that Phil Gil would take a flyer yesterday or today. [cough, fan boy, cough]

I suspect today will be one of those suicidal climber pseudo sprints. Dan Martin for me.

that said, Sagan looks like he's bored right now. with 4k to go...how does he get beat? too steep maybe?

Yeah Danny Boy!!!

Panda Power!!! You knew LaTour was done for when he gap-checked with 150m to go.

Awesome! Thought for sure he went too early. Beautiful.

that only matters when you have a 90 degree turn

attack reminiscent of all of his famous attacks (2013 Liege and 2014 Liege). Also quite nice that he beat old man Piti, too

That was awesome, good for Danny Boy and UAE. One time Talansky told me Martin could get off the couch and bust out 600 watts for a minute. Got to think it took and more in last k.

Big bummer for TD and Bardet.

agreed. Bardet would have been in my wild cards for a day like this. he's been tough this year.

AND ... I am looking forward to the Sunday cobbles. this list could beat each other silly. its their last chance for yellow before the hills on Tuesday.

General classification after stage 6:

1 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 22:35:46
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:03
3 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 00:00:05
4 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:06
5 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:12

And Jungle Bob, with huge motor and classics chops, is also within striking distance. QS will have a lot of cards to play Sunday.

Race is quietly going really well for Porte. No issues so far and GvA is perfect rider to defend yellow until Tuesday over these stages, taking all the pressure off Porte.

TDF cobble stage (with quite a few doozies sectors such as Mons en Pevele) should really shred things. You have all your big hitter classics guys, too, though some may be on babysitting duties.

And after the race, World Cup! I better get enough beer and cheese for all this

Tejay has been solid for Porte. They really need him to handle the cobbles and get into the hills with him. The Jungle could pick up some time, yes.
Phil Gil in yellow soon?

Well, when you really only have one card to play, you put it down and see what happens. Good for him.

Sucks for TD, but overall a great stage. Thomas looks good, and he's got himself, and his team car up to 2nd position which is huge for the cobbled stage.

I think Bora and Sky really rip that stage. Bora has a two fold interest in being at the front and they have essentially a full classics squad. QS similarly has a stacked squad for the cobbles and will be stage hunting. Sky will have a plan and you know they want to be at the front to try and create separation. There will be a few contenders who will loose minutes on that stage.

Speaking of only 1 card to play, Toms used his perfectly by gambling to take on last KOM points while tired from being in break yesterday. Cruel irony is he took the jersey off Dion Smith, who’d pulled even on penultimate KOM climb. They were teammates on the Hincapie team 3 years ago.

Sagan didn’t contest the scraps—too blown or not worth the energy for a couple points with sprint stage tomorrow and cobble showdown? No days off for him until Monday.

That kind of surprised me as well. The group he was with 150 from the line wasn't fully stretched out single file so if he did have something left in the tank he could have possibly moved up 2-3 places which would have been 4-6 points. Probably not worth it though if it meant digging too far deep and he looked gassed regardless. He already got 11 more points than Gaviria for being there at the end.

He's got a decent lead on Gaviria right now, but looking ahead there are not too many more stages that have Sagan written all over it from a point scooping perspective. Possibly stage 9 on the cobbles, and maybe Stage 15 if he can get into the break and take max points at the intermediate. But all the other stages are going to be GC driven or have a flat finish that should be a full field sprint. Given the flat stages are 50 points, it wouldn't take much for Gaviria to pull back 60-80 points (or more) on Sagan on the remaining 5 flat stages. If Gaviria stays on form, this could get interesting.

There is no way Sagan is getting beat for green. On flat stages, he is good for a top 5 finish and on the non flat stages, when the rest of the sprinters are in the groupetto, Sagan is battling in the front and getting points.

I agree with you...but...

Take a real close look at the stages that are left, and see how many opportunities are left when Sagan will be there at the end to contest the stage win and the sprinters will be left behind.

Now take a look at how many stages are likely to be a field sprint. Given that Gaviria has beaten Sagan every time (including at the ToC), the point loss potential is significant. Each time Gaviria wins and Sagan gets 2nd, Sagan gives up 20 points. If Gaviria wins and Sagan finishes 5th, he gives up 34 points.

So far the first 5 non TT stages have favored Sagan's style 3 to 2. That's why he has his 43 point lead. The rest of the stages favor Gavira more often then they favor Sagan. I still think Sagan wins Green...it's just that on paper Gaviria still has a decent chance. Sagan will either need to straight up beat Gaviria in a couple of the flat stages or hope that Cav/Kittel/Griepel/Demare show up and block out those 50 point opportunities.

In a couple of those non sprint stages, Sagan will be up there in the breakaway. He will get max int bonuses. Each one of those is 10-20 points over Gaviria.

Plus, I would favor Sagan over Gaviria on the cobbles on Sunday given that he is the Paris-Roubaix winner.

ASO did what they could to dethrone Sagan with points distribution of sprint stage vs finish like today. The great equalizer will be if he can stay consistent where Gaviria wins, then take points opportunisticly as he can. Big edge goes to Sagan and his GT experience.

Think Gaviria taking home green will be harder than pulling on Dan Martin’s jersey but not impossible if he keeps winning and has some luck. But based on past two days he’s only got a handful of opportunities to make count. Got to also wonder when the other sprint hitters are going to show up.

On the other hand, Gaviria has the winners of the Tour of Flanders, E3 Harelbeke, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Dwars door Vlaanderen, and La Fleche Wallone on his team. And Gilbert.

And Sagan has Oss and Burghardt.. More or less.

You know Quick-Step put a circle around this one in sharpie pen as soon as the course was announced, and they're gonna put whoever wants to win the stage through the Quick-Stop sausage grinder. Of course Sagan has gone through that grinder, and come out ahead a few times. But it's not automatic by any means.

Great point. That’s why I was intreagued by the sprint race more than the GC race. It’s turning out that both of them are pretty good so far.