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Holding On
Tejay van Garderen (BMC) having bonked the day before, losing over 5 minutes, was holding tough on the final climb of the short and steep day. He had glued himself to the wheels of the two Frenchmen just ahead of him on the General Classification, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Romain Bardet (AG2R) who had hung tough with the Yellow Jersey of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). As this foursome entered the small mountain town of Soulon, it was Bardet's teammate, Jean-Chirstophe Peraud who attacked again, this time on the uphill. Hoping to achieve the same gap that Bardet had gotten on the previous descent. While Nibali has the lead all put in the bag, all of the other placings on the GC are within four minutes of each other, second through fifth are only a two minute spread. These gaps, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) sitting second overall and off of the back of this group meant they would be racing all of the way to the summit.