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In a rain and crash affected Stage 19 of the 2016 Tour de France, it was Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) who took out the win after a commanding attack.
After a massive brekaaway went up the road, the action on the day would start early with Astana coming to the front and almost seeming to go away from the peloton, before the rest wised up and shut them down.
Still, Astana would spend most of the day on the front of the peloton, chasing a 20 man group that featured
Pierre Rolland (Cannondale), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora), Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Rafal Majka, Robert Kiserlovski (both Tinkoff), Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), Thomas de Gendt, Tony Gallopin (both Lotto-Soudal), Amael Moinard, Marcus Burghardt (both BMC), Eduardo Sepulveda, Vegard Breen (both Fortuneo), George Bennett (Lotto-Jumbo), Laurens ten Dam (Giant-Alpecin), Rui Costa (Lampre), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Tony Martin (Etixx), Michael Matthews (Orica) and Natnael Berhane (Dimension Data)
The breakaway would race out to 4 minutes, but then not add anymore time for the rest of the day as Astana controlled the race up and over the climbs.
The time gap fluctuated between 2 and 4 minutes before a few failed attacks went from the breakaway. Eventually, after the Mont de Bissane and on the descent to the final climb, it would be Pierre Rolland and Rui Costa who were able to break free.
Rolland though would start a worrying trend fro the afternoon by slipping on the wet roads, sliding a long way across the asphalt and into the dirt on the side of the road. He continued, but never caught Costa who continued to ride away from the peloton.
As the rest of the breakaway were caught, and Astana continued to tighten their hold on the race and the time gap of Bardet crashes began left right and centre out of the main group.
Navarro and Sepulveda were among the first, before Bauke Mollema turned into the day’s real loser with a crash that cost him over four minutes, and dropped him to tenth on the General Classification.
Even though it wasn’t picked up on camera Richie Porte also had a crash, while yellow jersey Chris Froome hit the deck downhill. While he had blood showing through the jersey, he would be involved in one of the smoothest team operations ever witnessed to get back into the main group.
Romain Bardet, who was eventually the day’s winner would attack before Froome fell though and quickly caught up with leader Rui Costa, before ditching him with three kilometres to go and riding onto take the stage victories.
Numerous other attacks followed in the peloton, but none could get away with Daniel Martin and Richie Porte both putting their hat in the ring, only to get the royal Team Sky treatment to bring themm back in.
In the end it was Quintana and Valverde who took over control of the group, cracking Froome just enough to take some seconds at the back end of the stage, but it was nowhere near enough.
Porte would crack even further, losing time to Froome.
Bardet has now moved into second place overall just 4:11 back from Froome, while Quintana is another 16 seconds back. Adam Yates meanwhile has been knocked off the provisional podium by just nine seconds
All in all it sets up an enthralling day tomorrow, with no one knowing what anyone else will do with podium places up for grabs. With more rain likely to be on the way, it could be a case of best bike handler wins the Tour – even if it is almost impossible to see Froome being stopped from here.
Top 10
1. Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) @ 4:14:08
2. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) + 0:23
3. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) + 0:23
4. Louis Meintjes (Lampre) + 0:23
5. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) + 0:26
6. Fabio Aru (Astana) + 0:28
7. Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) + 0:28
8. Wouter Poels (Sky) + 0:36
9. Chris Froome (Sky) + 0:36
10. Richie Porte (BMC) + 0:53
General Classification
1. Chris Froome (Sky) @ 82:10:37
2. Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) + 4:11
3. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) + 4:27
4. Adam Yates (Orica) + 4:36
5. Richie Porte (BMC) + 5:17
6. Fabio Aru (Astana) + 6:00
7. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) + 6:20
8. Louis Meintjes (Lampre) + 7:02
9. Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) + 7:10
10. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) + 7:42
Stage 19 of what looks like an already decided Tour de France will see the final summit finish on the 146-kilometre journey from Albertville Mont Blanc. Join The Roar for live coverage from 8:55pm (AEST).
The stage goes uphill from the gun. It isn’t an overly long stage either, coming in at 146 kilometres, which means there should be plenty of attacking throughout.
With the Tour only having two stages to go, it is desperation stakes now for everyone apart from Chris Froome. Either attack with fear of losing, or lose anyway seems to be the equation.
Of course, Froome and indeed Team Sky’s form is fantastic so attacking them will be easier said than done, and waiting till the final run up to Mont Blanc simply isn’t an option today. After Froome took more time on the Stage 18 time trial, the gap now stands at almost four minutes to Bauke Mollema and Adam Yates.
As mentioned, the stage goes straight uphill on an uncategorised 8.5 kilometre climb, before a descent into the valley and the intermediate sprint after 25 kilometres in Doussard.
The first category climb of the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin will follow before another descent and valley roads through to the 64 kilometre mark. From there though, there is barely a metre of flat with three more climbs to the finish.
The Category 2 Col de la Forclaz de Queige will be the first of those, before a short descent and the ‘hors categorie’ climb of the day up to the Montee de Bisanne.
The top is reached with 50 kilometres to go and it comes in at 12.4 kilometres with a gradient of 8.2 per cent. Given the gradient is lower for a kilometre in the middle, it is incredibly steep and the opportunities to attack will be huge.
The final climb to the finish comes after a descent that features a section going back uphill, meaning recovery will be difficult to come by. The road to Saint Gervais is Category 1, but 9.8 kilometres at 8 per cent and has some incredibly steep sections.
The middle few kilometres of the climb barely go above 6 per cent, while the first three kilometres average out at over ten and the last four at closer to nine.
There will be plenty of spots to attack, but again if riders haven’t already tried something on the Bisanne then it will be too little, too late.
Interestingly, rain is expected for the stage which, with a lot of descending should throw another spanner in the works.
Prediction
It’s hard to see Froome losing yellow, even if he does lose time. He doesn’t need to defend anyone now, rather just ride his own tempo and ensure he doesn’t lose more than a minute.
Richie Porte is in strong form so expect him to attack again. Movistar and Astana will both be active, but Nairo Quintana and Fabio Aru could struggle to gain time, while Bauke Mollema brings an unknown quanitity after he cracked on Stage 17.
Expect a breakaway to take the stage, with Porte and Froome once again to lead the GC riders over.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of Stage 19 from 8:55pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde