Pau again and a sprint stage but with some hills in the finish.

Gros Lot: some attacks at the start and four strong riders got away. But only four and they were not allowed space. Alpecin’s Silvan Dillier seemed to be towing for hours, Movistar helped too but it meant two of Dillier’s team mates missed the time cut.

On the approach to the finish Alexey Lutsenko tangled with a central divider and fell, prompting a big crash that included Mathieu van der Poel who was not able to be on lead out duty. Primož Roglič fared badly, he seemed to slam to the ground. He soon back chasing but somehow without urgency, as if Roglič couldn’t ride hard and he lost over two minutes.

In the sprint Dan McLay dropped off Arnaud Démare for a long sprint and it looked like his good old days were back with a trademark long sprint but he faded right at the end, and got relegated for drifting right. This move wasn’t diabolical but ended Wout van Aert’s chances of revival as once again he was up against the barriers. Mark Cavendish was also relegated but it’s doubtful he lost sleep. Both moves were questionable but there’s no doctrinal understanding here, the verdict is published without reasoning.

Biniam Girmay didn’t get a leadout but he was ferried into position Mike Teunissen as if the pair were late arrivals at a theatre, hurriedly squeezing past seated patrons to reach their reserved seats before the show started. Girmay timed it right again and took a third win.

Girmay leads the points competition by over 100 points and, for illustration, Philipsen would need to win today and once again without Girmay scoring at all in the finish just to close the gap.

The Route: 165km and 2000m of vertical gain. The final picks up the same roads as used in 2012 for the stage to Pau won by Pierrick Fedrigo, that year the climb near Monassut-Audiracq was categorised, 1.5km at 5.5%. It’s these hills that could suit a breakaway if enough riders collaborate and try to spice up the finish.

The Finish: flat boulevards in Pau.

The Contenders: sprint or breakaway? The same question as opportunities for both are fading. We did see stronger riders and more teams trying to go clear yesterday but the sprinters won again.

The hillier approach can tire some riders so Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) seem best suited.

Wheel-of-fortune picks for the breakaway win are Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Oier Lazkano (Movistar) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ)

| | – | | | Philipsen, WvA, Girmay | | | Cavendish |

Weather: 21°C and sunshine. A westerly wind will blow at about 20km/h and crucially it could gust more meaning the potential for crosswinds but not the certainty.

TV: KM0 is at 1.50pm CEST and the finish is forecast for 5.30pm CEST. Tune in for the final hour to see the hills and if the wind has got up.

Postcard from Pau
Pau again. With 76 visits it’s the third most regular haunt of the Tour de France after Paris (145) and Bordeaux (82). Paris is obvious as the finish and it has hosted a stage start 35 times too. Bordeaux makes sense as a big city that is an obvious stopping point for all the years when the race lapped around the outside of France but it’s arguably a 20th century venue as it’s only hosted two stage starts and one finish this century. On current trends Pau will soon become the second most visited stop.

Why Pau? It’s almost at the foot of the Pyrenees. Almost is worth stating in case anyone visits with expectations of the Tourmalet being a short spin away. But it is a large city, sits on the A64 autoroute and has plenty of hotels. This last factor is important as the Tour requires at least 4,500 hotel beds a night, one third of this is booked by ASO for the teams and all the organisation from the UCI commissaires to the publicity caravan staff; the rest are media and others working on the race who make their own bookings.

For years the Tour used makeshift dormitories, the likes of Eddy Merckx sometimes had to spend the night on a camp bed in a school gymnasium. Even parsimonious Raymond Poulidor said sometimes he felt like paying for a hotel after a hard day’s racing but would be disqualified. It’s still a rule today that teams must use the accommodation supplied by the race.

Every year when the route is unveiled the sight of Pau might be met with mentions of “encore” and “again” but it a nice place to send a postcard. A student town with its castle, the view of the Pyrenees, a paved square. Pau it has its charms and beats Tarbes, the other large place to the east. But if you are not tasked with block-booking thousands of rooms and plan to ride in the Pyrenees take your pick from many of the smaller towns and villages closer to the mountains.

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