Greig Leach

Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ) was chasing hard to get back up to the two up the road. As he and Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) road up the Lacets du Grand Colombier, the fans of Reichenbach's French team yelled their encouragement and way team flags. The fans ahead had set off smoke flares casting a purple haze over the road ahead. I can't imagine what it must be like to ride through the cloud of smoke when one is already gasping for air from the effort of the climb. Reichenbach was the best placed of all of the men who had gotten into the break. He had started the day around nine minutes down on the Maillot Jaune. At one point he had pulled back eight of those minutes, but now with the attacks from the group containing the Yellow Jersey, the gap was down to four minutes. I doubt he believed he would take over the overall lead, but he will be pleased to be moving up the general classification.