Second Rest Day, Tour de France 2015

GC Competition

Today is the second rest day for the Tour de France before the four Alpine stages. Three out of the four Alpine stages feature an Hors Categorie (HC) climb. Stage 20 has two HC climbs, Col de la Croix de Fer (Pass of the Iron Cross) and Alpe d’Huez. It looks like Chris Froome and Team Sky are dominating the Tour at this point. The other GC contenders for the Yellow Jersey need Team Sky to make some mistake in the Alps. Team Sky has been attentive, has consistently led the peloton and supported Chris Froome. Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team, and Tejay Van Garderen, BMC Racing Team, are within four minutes of Chris Froome. However, it would take a significant effort on their part to overtake Froome and Team Sky in the coming four days. Tejay will also have to watch out for Alejandro Valverde, Movistar Team, and Alberto Contador, Tinkoff-Saxo, to preserve his podium position in Paris. Contador looks like the Giro d’Italia, and Tour double victory plan was too much for him. He has not had his spirited efforts on the climbs in the Pyrenees that we are used to.

Yellow Jersey Competition

1.	Chris Froome	Team Sky	64h 47' 16''
2.	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	64h 50' 26''	+ 03' 10''
3.	Tejay Van Garderen	BMC Racing Team	64h 50' 48''	+ 03' 32''
4.	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	64h 51' 18''	+ 04' 02''
5.	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff-Saxo	64h 51' 39''	+ 04' 23''
6.	Geraint Thomas	Team Sky	64h 52' 48''	+ 05' 32''
7.	Robert Gesink	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	64h 53' 39''	+ 06' 23''
8.	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	64h 55' 05''	+ 07' 49''
9.	Bauke Mollema	Trek Factory Racing	64h 56' 09''	+ 08' 53''
10.	Warren Barguil	Team Giant-Alpecin	64h 58' 19''	+ 11' 03''

Points Competition

It looks like Peter Sagan, Tinkoff-Saxo, has locked up the Points competition for the fourth year in a row. Although Sagan has not won a stage at the Tour in two years, he has consistently finished among the leaders in each stage. It will be a question whether winning the Amgen Tour of California and winning the Tour Points competition is enough for team owner Oleg Tinkov to keep Sagan on the Tinkoff-Saxo team at nearly $5 million per year. Andre Greipel, John Degenkolb and Mark Cavendish will have difficulty in the mountains, along with Sagan. The stage where all four should compete shoulder to shoulder will be in Paris.

Green Jersey Competition

1.	Peter Sagan	Tinkoff-Saxo	405 pts
2.	André Greipel	Lotto-Soudal	316 pts
3.	John Degenkolb	Team Giant-Alpecin	264 pts
4.	Mark Cavendish	Etixx-Quick Step	192 pts

King of the Mountains Competition

The next four stages will determine the winner of the King of the Mountains competition. There are some categorized climbs in each stage. If there are breakaways groups in each of the four stages, the points available for the polka dot jersey may be limited by the time the peloton arrives at the top of a climb. It will require that other contenders will have to get into the breakaway groups to earn the necessary points in the competition. This competition is too unpredictable. However, it does look like Team Sky has the discipline to stay in this competition for the next four stages.

Polka Dot Jersey Competition

1.	Chris Froome	Team Sky	61 pts
2.	Joachim Rodriguez	Team Katusha	52 pts
3.	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	41 pts
4.	Richie Porte	Team Sky	40 pts
5.	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	38 pts