Cobblestones set stage for a test of nerves

THIS has certainly been an eventful first week in the Tour de France.

Not a day has gone by that a general classification contender hasn’t lost some time.

Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Adam Yates all lost time on their main rivals on day one and now most of those GC contenders have given all or most of that back, either by a mechanical issue or a bad team time trial.

Geraint Thomas, the Welsh teammate of Froome, is only three seconds from the lead and is the only overall contender who has not lost any time either by crash, mechanical or a bad team time trial.

Although you can’t take anything away from the brilliant and dominating ride by Irishman Dan Martin to win Stage 6, Porte and Yates looked super strong in the final kilometre and managed to gain a few seconds on most of their rivals.

Alejandro Valverde also looked very dangerous and his strong third place showed that he has great form.

Romain Bardet and Tom Dumoulin tangled themselves in a weird crash around 5km from the finish with Bardet losing 31 seconds and big Tom 53 seconds, plus he was penalised another 20 seconds for excessive pacing by his team car.

But tomorrow is the day most of the overall contenders have been dreading.

Fifteen sections of pave is a daunting prospect for any rider — but the GC specialists are not used to riding on the cobbles and this Stage 9 to Roubaix will have been keep- ing most of them awake at night.

There is no doubt that a number of contenders will lose substantial time and even wreck their hopes of final victory.

Thomas, Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali are probably the best of the contenders when it comes to the cobbles.

When Nibali won the Tour in 2014 it was the cobbled stage where he excelled and set up his emphatic victory.