Bora Hansgrohe lit the touch paper on Saturday’s stage and the GC fireworks started. There was fighting for the front group all the way, with Ineos Grenadiers holding the matches. Then when Carapaz got the chance he rocketed ahead which burned up Lopez in pink – what a great 10 days he has made honouring the leader’s jersey. Then it looked like a shark attack (it looks like the Sanatogen is really kicking in for Nibali) but the final decisive move was by Simon Yates. What a treat to see him raise his arms in victory again, yet he said that it was “small compensation” for missing out on GC.

And the result of a fantastic day of bike racing was a shake-up in the General CLassification, with Carapaz taking over at the top and Almeida the leading youngster. And with the main contenders coming out to play, this was the highest-scoring stage in the Green Wight Red minileague. Everyone got at least one rider in the top 10, and 11 out of 13 teams had at least one on the podium.

Team of the Day

Congratulations to Linda whose team It’s all Guesswork included the stage winner as well as 3rd, 4th and 6th. Chapeau! I think the way it works is that it is all guesswork when things aren’t going well, but on days like today it’s pure skill and judgement! Almost everyone had a big score today though, so even this monster 765 points only advances the Guesswork team to 11th.

The explosive stage meant winners and losers too. On the race some favourites lost a big chunk of time and there were several riders who called it a day, including Tom Dumoulin (for Yo Adrian, Hormonal Teenager and Lube Your Gears with Porridge) who did not finish while Cees Bol (for Thin Fat Boys) did not start. 4 minileague teams are down to 6 now (for Matt, David, Iseabel and Paul W) with only 5 teams with 9 riders unscathed (for Paul M, Linda, Stephen, Callan and Dale). Apparently I haven’t mentioned Paul M’s team Lo Ve until now … so there you go,

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