Doha Bank Stars League

Early on the Col du Telegraphe, the Frenchman is dangling off the front group. He keeps making out-of-saddle efforts to get back on, but how many of them can he sustain? My earlier question has been answered, and Pedersen is drifting back to the bunch. "Valentin is cracking" says Charlie Wegelius on the EF team radio.

The most likely, based purely on the size of the time gaps, is for Del Toro and Seixas to swap places. MAttias Skjelmose is also just nine seconds from Lenny Martinez, who jumped up (in more ways than one) two spots with his second place finish yesterday. Richard Carapaz is also a top ten rider now, thanks to multiple days in the break, albeit at 21 minutes, as Tom Pidcock and Jordan Jegat both slipped a place.

You'd think the Olympic gold medalist and Giro winner wouldn't be too fussed about that, however.

We haven't dwelled too much on that group, now 50 strong, and the clock shows them as three minutes down. It's not looking like a breakaway day to me, as Nils Politt and Tim Wellens take turns at the front.

No contest. That "easy" win takes him to 527, a margin of 82 over Jasper Philipsen. It's not mathematical, but Philipsen would have to win the stage and Pedersen not score at all.

The question now is does he stay where he is, in service to Juan Ayuso, or retreat to support his compatriot Mattias Skjelmoe?

Matt Stephens suggests he should be a shoo-in for most combative rider of the entire Tour and that's got to be correct. What a battler.