The penultimate stage in this Tour de France was a very short one. From Modane to Alpe d’Huez, the riders had to cover 110.5 kilometres. They had to surmount two giant HC climbs, the Croix de Fer and Alpe d’Huez.

The young Frenchman Pinot won the stage with a few seconds ahead on Quintana, who took more than a minute on Froome. Froome maintains his yellow jersey and will most likely win his second Tour de France tomorrow.

Lars Bak was in the early breakaway. He was caught by the yellow jersey group on Alpe d’Huez. Also Thomas De Gendt had a good day. He was dropped in the last kilometre of the Croix de Fer but returned into the yellow jersey group between the two climbs. On Alpe d’Huez, he had to let the better climbers go. He finished 30th and was the first Belgian that crossed the finish line.

“I hadn’t planned to be in the breakaway, but sometimes the breakaway comes to you (laughs). I tried to be in the breakaway two times, but only the third time I managed to get away. The cooperation was really good and we obtained eight minutes. AG2R tried to close the gap to help Bardet in his battle for the polka dot jersey on the Croix de Fer, but that wasn’t going to work anyway. The stage to Alpe d’Huez has a special meaning to me. I was here as a spectator in 1999 and 1997, when Guerini crashed against a photographer. Then we slept in the same hotel as we do now with the team. When I was caught by the yellow jersey group, I tried to follow them for another kilometre. I wanted to know how hard it is to follow them. And it was very tough! The stage was a nice experience, with a lot of Danish spectators along the road. It gave me a good feeling,” Bak said.

“In the beginning of the stage, I rode at the front of the peloton to make sure that no one would bridge the gap with the break, where Lars Bak was in," De Gendt said. "I felt good today, I wasn’t exhausted. It went better and better after my broken rib. I was  only dropped out the yellow jersey group on Alpe d’Huez. That’s a climb that I like actually; I became sixth on this climb in 2011.

"Tomorrow, we will give it our all one last time for André [Greipel] although I hope that it doesn’t rain on the little cobbles of the Champs-Elysées."