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The final general classification fight is on the home stretch as the riders get a rest day after a tough stage 16, finishing in the town of Gap. Let’s now review the past seven days of racing, and look ahead to the final battle in the Alps.
Stage 10
The day after a rest day is often difficult for some riders, as they lose momentum or form. For Team Sky though, they were at their best in the first mountain top finish of the Tour.
The riders made their way from Tabres to the finishing climb of the La Pierre-Saint-Martin, which was to be used for the first time in the Tour de France as a summit finish. Before they got to the finish though, they had to cross 140 kilometres of relatively flat roads.
This stage could be thought of as a mini Mont Ventoux stage from 2013. Funnily enough, the same two men were going to go head to head up the final climb.
Two riders, Pierrick Fedrigo (Bretagne) and Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) broke away early and lead until the early slopes of the final climb.
Movistar initially set the pace, then Sky took over and gutted the field to pieces leaving the best of the best at the front. In the end, Porte lead out a Froome attack, at six kilometres to go, and Quintana couldn’t hold the wheel.
In the end, Froome showed why he was the best, as he did on Mont Ventoux in 2013, finishing over a minute before Quintana.
Stage 11
The second day in the Pyrenees saw the riders tackle the infamous Col du Tourmalet. The eventual finish came 40 kilometres after, up the small climb of the Cote de Cauterets. With six King of the Mountain classified climbs on the stage, the breakaway was always going to race hard that day.
The initial break of the day included some classy riders in Rafal Majka (who won multiple stages at the Tour last year) and Thomas Voeckler, but it was Dan Martin’s move over the first major climb of the day, the Col D’Aspin, that made it an interesting fight for the stage victory.
In the end it was the strength of Majka who attacked within the final 10 kilometres of the summit of the Col du Tourmalet that produced the winning move, outlasting an exhausted Dan Martin and a strong ride from newly crowned German champion, Emanuel Bachmann.
In terms of the general classification contenders, Nibali lost further time, struggling on the climb up to the finish.
Stage 12
After blowing away the peloton in the first summit finish of the Tour on stage 10, Chris Froome would have his performance on this day’s final climb of the Plateau de Beille heavily scrutinised.
With all four climbs being above a category two, the 195 kilometres between the start in the town of Lannemezan and the finishing peak would be extremely tough on the riders. What made it even more treacherous was the terrible conditions for the last half of the stage.
The break of the day included specialist climbers including Joaquim Rodriguez, Romain Bardet and Jakob Fuglsang, but also Louis Meintjes the young talent from MTN Qhbecka, and the current world champion Michal Kwiatkowski.
The world champion, knowing he wasn’t the best climber in the break, attacked on the descent of the second climb of the day, the Col de la Core, and was joined by Sep Vanmarcke and Georg Priedler. The move stuck all the way until the final climb of the Plateau De Beille, where Rodriguez gapped both Fuglsang and Bardet, caught the leader Kwiatkowski, and rode away for the stage win.
Back down the road the general classification favourites did not really attack each other at great length, due to a strong headwind finish. Once again, both Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas did a superb job to support Froome, with Thomas towing the GC favourites until the final kilometre before the sprint finish.
Again no time lost by Froome, who was firming as favourite after the Pyrenees.
Stage 13
This was another day where Peter Sagan was a favourite for the stage, but once again, second place was all the Tinkoff Saxo rider could achieve.
The stage began in the town of Muret, and traveled just under 200 kilometres to the finish in Rodez. The stage itself was fairly flat up until the intermediate sprint point at 92 kilometres. After that, the peloton encountered three classified climbs, nothing too difficult, and so the stage was set for a difficult uphill finish.
The finishing climb was just under 600 metres at a gradient of 9 per cent, therefore the punchy sprinters and hilly classics riders were the prime favourites for the stage honors.
On the finishing ramp up to the line, it was Greg Van Avermaet who launched the major attack, but was closely followed by Sagan, who was not on the BMC riders wheel at first, and then used all of his matches to get onto the wheel. In the sprint, Sagan had nothing left to give, and had to settle for another runner-up finish.
Stage 14
After the close second place on the previous day’s stage, Sagan found himself in a break on a very grippy transitional stage.
The riders left Rodez, the finishing point for the previous day, and would travel just under 180 kilometres to the town of Mende, where the steep climb of the Cote de la Croix Neuve would greet the riders for an uphill finish.
The breakaway was therefore let go, with the general classification favourites opting for another peaceful day to recuperate.
Included in the morning break were climbing specialists including Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, Rigoberto Uran and Simon Yates.
With two difficult climbs before the finishing rise, the last 30 kilometres were extremely difficult. The last climb however was where the stage was won. Both Bardet and Pinot attacked, and were followed by Yates until he fell back.
As the summit of the climb approached, the two Frenchmen didn’t cooperate, leading to MTN Qhbecka’s Steve Cummings being able to reach them on the downhill run into the finish, where Cummings was the bravest through a section of corners, which gave him a gap that he never let go of.
It was an historical win for MTN Qhbecka on Mandela Day.
Back with the general classification riders, it was Froome and Quintana who gapped their main rivals over the climb, with Valverde coming home strong in the last two kilometres to only finish a couple of seconds behind the two main contenders.
Stage 15
The final transitional stage before we reach the Alps tomorrow saw the riders tackle an extremely fast stage, with the majority of the profile being a descent, the only major difficulty on the stage being a category two climb with 60 kilometres remaining.
The stage started with 15 kilometres of steady climbing. The most notable event in this early part of the race was Cavendish being dropped. He would not sprint for the win today.
In terms of the breakaway, Peter Sagan was again up the road, all but sewing up his fourth green jersey in a row, quite a remarkable feat considering his inability to win stages over the past two Tours.
With Sagan was a selection of climbers, including Adam Yates, Thibaut Pinot, Michael Rogers and Ryder Hesjedal, and punchers in Matteo Trentin and Michal Kwiatkowski. The breakaway would need to ride hard up the final climb to give themselves enough time to stay ahead on the run into the finish.
Unfortunately for the break, a determined Katusha outfit working for under-performing sprinter Alexander Kristoff kept the time gap between them and the peloton very short, thus allowing for a sprint, won by German Andre Griepel.
Stage 16
A stage into Gap featuring the climb of the Col de Manse has offered some exhilarating racing over the year and this year was no different.
An early tailwind on the stage led to a large group of riders getting away (over 20 riders) including Peter Sagan, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas Voeckler and Adam Hansen. From then on in, it always looked like the breakaway would win the stage.
With 30 kilometres to go, Hansen set off on an attack, and was followed by Marco Haller of Katusha. The attack gained some traction, getting out to over a minute, but as the climb of the Col de Manse started, the move came back.
It was then Ruben Plaza from Lampre’s turn to have a go very early on the climb, and nobody responded. It was left to a small group including Sagan, Riblon, Geschke and Teklehmaniot to try to bring the Spaniard back.
By the top of the climb, Plaza had a minute on the Sagan lead group. Sagan himself once again was out marked by his competitors. I will never understand why riders go into the breakaway to just not do anything, complete waste of effort.
Even though Sagan descended superlatively, he was not able to bring Plaza back. Jarlinson Pantano finished in third, in another positive performance for the talented Colombian.
In terms of the general classification riders, the climb of the Col de Manse neutralised any attacks, due to a headwind, except for Nibali, who attacked close to the top and descended away from the field to grab 20 seconds on his rivals.
The major talking point was Warren Barguill outbraking himself on one of the tight corners and taking out Geriant Thomas who ended up falling down a ditch. Amazingly, Thomas was able to get up quickly and he only lost a minute.
Top 10 in General Classification
01. Chris Froome (Sky)… 64:47:16″
02. Nairo Quintana (Movistar)… +3:10″
03. Tejay Van Garderen (BMC)… +3:32″
04. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)… +4:02″
05. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo)… +4:23″
06. Geraint Thomas (Sky)… +5:32″
07. Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo)… +6:23″
08. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)… +7:49
09. Bauke Mollema (Trek)… +8:53″
10. Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin)… +11:03″
Top 5 in the Points Jersey
01. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) 405
02. Andre Griepel (Lotto Soudal) 316
03. John Degenkolb (Giant Alpecin) 264
04. Mark Cavendish (Etixx Quickstep) 192
05. Bryan Coquard (Europcar) 122
Top 10 in the King of the Mountains Jersey
01. Chris Froome (Sky) 61
02. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) 52
03. Jakub Fuglsang (Astana) 41
04. Richie Porte (Sky) 40
05. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) 38
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