Stage 9 was reduced from 185.5 to 155.5 km today after Correze was placed under a red heatwave alert. Removing the opening 30km placed the intermediate sprint at around 15km. The temperatures were around 37 C.
The stage was one for sprinters and the first in was Van der Poel, followed by Johannessen and third in was British rider Tom Pidcock.
The GC has one change in that Vacek who suffered today in the heat on the climbs and dropped out of 10th position to 24th and Bernal takes over 10th spot. The other places are unchanged.
Tomorrow is the rest day and racing re-commences on Tuesday, Bastille Day, when we have a mountain day again. I suspect young Paul Seixas will be wanting to make a good show for France on that day. It should be a good Pogacar and Vingegaard duel. The stage is stage 10 and is 166 km, Aurillac to Le Lioran. Le Lioran is a ski resort in the Auvergne region of central France.
I watched the England Norway quarter final today as I had nothing better to do and just to see the tournament through. I've started so I may as well finish. Once again England had a fair degree of luck on their side to come away with a win and a place in the semi finals against Argentina. It was a slow game in the heat of Miami and England did not make a good showing in the second half where they allowed Norway to get on top of them. Norway scored first in the first half and then Bellingham equalised in stoppage time before half time. Norway went ahead in the second half but the goal was disallowed because of a shove by Haaland on Anderson before the corner kick was taken. Personally I saw it as England being wimps and Anderson should have jumped up but in international rules this shove was a foul. Kane had already been wimpish laying on the ground at the time of the first Norway goal calling for foul and his leg hurt like a baby. The referee ignored him. However, with that spell of good luck on their side they managed to get through after extra time with a 2-1 win. It was a bit of a scrappy game but Bellingham was in the right place at the right time to get the ball in the back of the net twice. They play Argentina in the semi final on Wednesday at 8pm. Given this run of luck for England which includes a spidercam wire goal assist last night, I am making no predictions as to the result.
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