Greig Leach

With the riders starting at three minute intervals on the top end of the General Classification, they have some time behind the start gate to talk with each other. All have spent time getting warmed up, timing their muscles optimum performance point to their start time, some will wear a game face keeping to themselves others are much more open. Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R) sitting just 2 seconds behind his countryman, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), reached out to the young man in the Maillot Blanche (covered by an ice vest) to wish him well in the coming test. The two were confident that they would both end the day on the podium for the ride into Paris, it was just a question of who would be in second and who would be in third.