In real estate, location is everything and today we had it in spades! The rest of the crowd was more interested in the publicity caravan, which suited us just fine.
There have been plenty of Colombian fans along the course since Utrecht but the bulk of them have had eyes only for Quintana. With six Colombians riding, it was nice to see these fans spreading the love and wearing shirts for Rigoberto Uran.
Like clockwork, Cyril Gautier was the first rider to sign on.
Luke Rowe and Nicholas Roche.
Autograph hunters waited for their favorites.
Romain Sicard.
The rest day must have served the peloton well. Riders who don't normally sign many autographs were practically giving them away! Sky in particular, after Chris Froome and his teammates have received so much negative attention from fans in the last week, seemed extra pleased to hear fans call their names and ask for autographs.
Richie Porte.
Ian Stannard.
Pierre Rolland.
Angelo Tulik.
Andrew Talansky.
Former Swiss national champion Michael Schär and current Swiss national champion Danillo Wyss.
Yohan Gène and Bryan Nauleau.
Tejay Ban Garderen and Jan Bakelants.
Lieuwe Westra.
Matteo Trentin with ice stuffed in pantyhose down the back of his jersey.
Van Garderen and the French media.
Former teammates Dan Martin and Rohan Dennis.
Damiano Caruso.
Kristijan Koren was happy to see Rohan Dennis.
Luis Angel Mate.
It was another brutally hot morning, so soigneurs hustled between the snack station and team cars and buses with dozens of water bottles and bags of ice.
Jose Mendes.
Manuel Quinziato.
Julian Arredondo.
Winner Anacona and Jose Herrada.
Lars Bak.
Michael Matthews.
Nairo Quintana.
Simon Yates.
Arnaud Demare.
Jean-Christophe Peraud and Jakob Fuglsang.
Alejandro Valverde.
Jérôme Coppel.
Julien Simon.
Julian Vermote.
Steven Kruijswijk.
Roche came back to check out the snacks one more time.
Joaquim Rodriguez in borrowed polka dots from Froome.
Talanaky can always be found checking his brakes right before the start.
I love to watch the riders smoosh in at the back ahead of roll out. It reminds me of trying to shove your way onto a New York City bus, but probably with less cursing in this case.
I spent the next couple of hours on buses, holding my breath until I was able to get to a TV and catch the end of the stage. When I arrived, there were 20km remaining and Simon Geschke was descending solo with 1'08″ on Thibaut Pinot and 10'00″ on the yellow jersey group.
The French love Pinot but sometimes I wonder if they don't love to talk about his fear of descending more. Right on cue, when Geschke had 16km to go, Pinot's back wheel quivered slightly while flying down a bend and the Frenchman was in the ground. He jumped up and remounted his bike, not hesitating for a moment. A couple of kilometers later, Andrew Talansky caught and passed Pinot, Rigoberto Uran doing the same shortly after. Morale could not have been high for Pinot.
Up the road, Geschke was slowly losing a handful of seconds here and there, but his lead was such that he could afford it. When he hit 9km to go, cameras switched to suddenly show Alberto Contador, Peter Sagan, and Mick Rogers all standing over a bike, trying to get Contador sorted and on the road again. He had crashed, the cause unknown at this point. Contador took Sagan's bike but wouldn't catch Froome, Quintana, Valverde, and Nibali again.
Geschke claimed his first Grand Tour win, letting out a guttural yell as he crossed the finish line, his fists clenched tightly. Talansky descended beautifully, having shrunk the gap to the bearded German from a maximum of over two minutes to 32 seconds when he crossed the finish line. Uran was third on the stage around a minute after Geschke and Pinot came in fourth, a further 30 seconds back.
Meanwhile the GC group was still on the road. Nibali had put in a dig but got nowhere. It would come down to Froome and Quintana. The Colombian put in repeated accelerations, each time opening a gap and each time Froome was the one to close it. With about half a kilometer left, the white jersey attacked, Froome immediately following, and the pair went clear of Valverde and Nibali. Now the yellow jersey accelerated and the Colombian stayed with him. They rode shoulder to shoulder at 300 meters to go, Froome all the while looking over his shoulders to check on the others. First and second on GC, they stole glances at each other, looking for a sign of weakness, but no one was giving anything away. In the closing meters, Quintana dug one more time, opening a small gap on Froome but not enough to pull back any of the minutes he had ceded in the first two weeks.
While I was disappointed for Talansky to finish second, now a trio of second places for Cannondale Garmin, especially when he was descending so well and gaining time, I couldn't be happier for Geschke! He had a lackluster Giro and had struggled to find his legs so this win comes at an important time and is a huge boost for the team as Degenkolb hasn't been able to take a sprint stage.
Stage 18 is going to be brutal. Seven categorized climbs await the peloton between Gap and Saint Jean de Maurienne, the crown jewel being hors categorie Col de Glandon. It is likely to play out similarly to today: a big break will go clear and the GC riders will stay together for most of the day. Today it was Geschke, who will be tomorrow's hero?
Today's 14 autographs came from:
19. Alexis Vuillermoz
31. Chris Froome
35. Richie Porte
46. Mick Rogers
49. Michael Valgren
71. Tony Gallopin
108. Adam Yates
138. Jos Van Emden
183. Sylvain Chavanel
186. Martin Elmiger
189. Marcel Wyss
208. Pierre-Luc Périchon
212. Steven Cummings
217. Louis Meintjes
