procycling

The inversion of the hierarchy within French teams seems completed now. While Decathlon takes both the stage and the jersey, FDJ's half-leader (the other half is supposed to be Donnenwirth if I understood correctly) goes into sprinters stages km-0 breakaways following an Uno-X (and again when his breakaway is caught because they was an intermediate sprint soon after it started), and their sprinter finishes after the 15^th^ place. Okay, Martin used his breakaway to pick a few time bonuses in order to – very partially – compensate for his loss of time yesterday. Meanwhile, Narvaez got half as much bonus without doing any effort.

Meanwhile, other things do not change: the terrible post-training-camp performance of FDJ, for example. Their first rider is Geniets🇱🇺 at the 79^th^ place, and Martin🇫🇷 who was supposed to come and modestly aim for something like a top-10 in the final GC is 127^th^ at already 28 seconds (over a distance only 3.5 km (!), that means a 5 km/h difference...). The team is last in Teams classification, which means they are behind the Continental riders of the Australian🇦🇺 selection (it probably won't stay so, but still...).

The contrast with the other French team, Decathlon, is major. Gautherat🇫🇷 is 5^th^ and 3 other riders are within 10 seconds of the winner.

It was a bit peculiar to see a prologue without Time-Trial bikes.

Luckily, FDJ had their brand new super-fast super-aero bike, I reckon 😆 Now they just have to demand that the Prologues are run inside wind tunnels, where their bike performs best 😆

There was some competition in the breakaway between the Mountain jersey wearer and one new contender who beat him each time.

The breakaway was caught up very rapidly in the beginning of the last climb (which had been climbed already once earlier in the stage). I think it was already UAE pulling the peloton fast.

Then Vine🇦🇺 attacked. A few riders tried to fight back a bit, but they were dropped by Narvaez🇪🇨 who jumped to help Vine🇦🇺. He joined his teammate all right, however he never managed to help Vine🇦🇺, as he struggled to stay in the wheel for miles and miles. Only in the last km of the stage, could he pass ahead for a few hundred metres downhill...

They were about 20 seconds ahead on top of the official climb, but the road was still going up for several miles after this 'top', and they (well, Vine🇦🇺) slowly increased the gap up to about 45 seconds (that's why Narvaez🇪🇨 could never catch his breath). Then it was 1 minute at arrival in favour of the two UAE riders, over a group of 8 that Yates🇬🇧 didn't manage to dominate; Yates🇬🇧 had chased counter-attacks earlier (Sweeny (🇦🇺 EF), Brenner (🇩🇪 Tudor) and a 3^rd^ one were active if I recall correctly), but the final km was really strange, mostly downhill, with long curves: it would have been very dangerous if a large group had come for a sprint. That group of 8 seemed to collaborate well, only Yates was naturally staying at the back; he would not disorganise the group, he was even often pushing other riders back in the line 😀

The whole FDJ team had disappeared as soon as there was an acceleration in the climb. Martin🇫🇷 finished after the 50^th^ place, 2′17″ behind the winners; so much for the 6 seconds won yesterday... Donnenwirth🇫🇷 was a few places ahead, but in the same group (group 5). They had come in Australia one week before the race to acclimate and to reconnoitre the stages. Well, next time they can start riding when they step out of the plane and save hotel fees, the result will be the same.

Decathlon didn't do much better, as only Prodhomme🇫🇷 was present in group 3 (at 1′10″).

The fate of GC seems decided, as there are usually very few differences made on this race.

Other than the French losers, riders like Buitrago (🇨🇴 Bahrain) and Velasco (🇮🇹 Astana) finished in group 4 and 5, respectively.

I'd surely die, but these days they all do heat training and should be able to cope, I guess 😂🔥

This stage started very close to where I grew up in Henley so I knew the early stages of the route very well. The stretch of road they made the peloton cruise down between West Beach and Glenelg is notorious for smelling like shit. Literally, as there is a wastewater treatment facility there.

A 3 men km-0 breakaway again. With the Mountain jersey wearer Urianstad again, and FDJ's Paleni again. G. Martin looked like he was going to go for the breakaway during the neverending neutral start, but he didn't. The Moutain points were undisputed today, and so were the Sprints (Veistroffer from Lotto-Intermarché).

The breakaway gap dropped at some point but grew again. 25 km from the line, the gap was 1 minute when Fontaine (FDJ) performed a weird attack from the peloton in the feed zone. He was caught up only 2 km farther, the peloton hadn't liked it. The gap grew a bit more as the peloton relaxed after this catching up.

Urianstad, who had been slightly dropped, gave a last relay and waved the other 2 goodbye about 20 km (?) from the line.

Then Paleni dropped Veistroffer, perhaps 13 km from the line. However Veistroffer didn't give up, and caught up after 5 km of pursuit! He even gave a few relays after that.

Paleni dropped Veistroffer again in the last little climb. But he immediately lost a lot of time to the peloton.

I think Paleni never handles the final parts of breakaways well. It happened twice today, it happened 2 days ago, and I remember it happening last year too. He doesn't know how to keep other riders with him. He drops them and then he goes slower than the pace they were doing together.

Narvaez had to withdraw, after crashing (I didn't see it).

There are other crashes as the wind is on the verge of causing echelons and makes everyone nervous.

32 km to go: Plapp, then Novak (Movistar), drop from the breakaway; while one Astana attacks from the peloton.

25 km: as those 3 are caught up, one Australian attacks from the peloton.

21 km: Buitrago attacks from the peloton, joined by 2 Movistar, it ends up building a group of 5, reduced to 4 as the last breakaway survivor drops.

6 km: their gap had reached 30 seconds but started to go down as they lost 1 Movistar.

4 km: Yates and Vine pull the peloton (why?).

0 km: another sprint, the 4^th^ in 5 stages... NB: Andresen (Decathlon) was on the podium of each of those sprints, he really deserves his Points jersey!