Second mountain stage in-a-row, which also is the final stage in the Pyrenees this year. Yesterday the stage finished in Bagneres-de-Luchon after the descent of Port de Bales... and today we’ll finish again in the same city! But this time we have a proper mountain stage, with 2 HC climbs and another 2 Cat.1 climbs. Maybe a little early in the stage to do real damage, but the HC climbs are Aubisque and Tourmalet, while the other duo are the always interesting duo of Aspin-Peyresourde.
Taylor Phinney will start the day with the Yellow Jersey, after he took it yesterday following his stage win - his second in the race - and also, former race leader Taaramae’s crash and possible injury. About this, we’ve talked to Wiesenhof’s DS, and he has told us that, while Taaramae won’t be at his 100% condition, he hopes to limit his losses today and come back stronger than ever in the Vosges (stages 11-12)
This is a very important stage for KoM, as there are 72 points available during the stage. Despite this, neither Lutsenko or Sagan tried to do an early move. They might want an easy stage today!
Instead of them, several riders tried to attack in the first kms. Before starting Aubisque there are like 30 flattish kms, so that means that some non-climber riders joined the breakaway, like Mas, Fritsch or Zubov. A couple of kms later, some better climbers tried their luck, like Schelling, who is 12th in GC, Carapaz or Pedrero. But only Schelling and a very agressive Borges were able to join the first three riders. Obviously, Schelling is a dangerous rider for GC, and Festina has started to pull in the bunch
At the end, only Schelling and Borges were able to stay in front, as the rest of the breakaway were dropped, as they went through an uncategorised climb. Other teams started to contribute to the chase, like Aegon and Jayco, while in the back there are terrible news for Iberia. Despite his yesterday’s performance, which seemed to look like he was almost recovered from his crash in the second stage, Tenorio is the first rider to be dropped. He crashed again yesterday, and it looks like he is again badly injured
Both Schelling and Borges have been caught thanks to Spotify’s work in the front of the bunch, and in the first slopes of Aubisque, a few riders attack. Ruchira and Didier are the first ones, but who was the third one? He can’t stay in the bunch for more than 30 km in this race it seems, as KoM leader Lutsenko joins this attack. Villella wants to join them also, although he does it a bit later than the others
Lots of riders trying to attack now. The three first riders to attack are still ahead of everyone else, while 30 seconds behind them, there’s a group with Gaspar, Foliforov, Pichon, Feng and Villella. Just ahead of the bunch is Bol, who was the last to attack
UBS is using this move as an excuse to put an insane rhythm in this climb, making several riders to be dropped from the bunch. Nothing important from GC, but if Schir is able to keep this rhythm a few more kms, people with a bad day will start to suffer, and Taaramäe’s true condition will be tested
But sadly for the spectacle, once the breakaway is caught, UBS doesn’t want to continue with the high rhythm. RBC has to put the pace now, but Phinney is likely to prefer a slow race, so the rhythm RBC puts is slow. Although this doesn’t prevent a lot of riders from being dropped, with the bunch been around 80 riders 4 km to the top of Aubisque.
Suddenly, a few riders separate themselves from the bunch... and Phinney is one of them! He has two domestiques with him (Cataford and Morizot). Also Carapaz is closely following the wheel of the race leader, while Novak and Van der Velde look like they don’t want to be part of that move
RBC doesn’t seem to want to continue with this move, but then Festina and eBuddy go also with 3-4 riders each - including Spilak and Gesink - and form a bigger group who is away from the bunch. Really weird moment in the final kms of Aubisque
No one was really willing to pull a 150-km show today, so most of the group joined together again. But some riders were caught in the bad side of the split, like KoM leader Lutsenko, U25 wearer Yates or Haig
Col d’Aubisque - HC
Morizot 20
Cataford 14
Novak 12
Van der Velde 10
Phinney 8
Carapaz 6
Gesink 5
Didier 4
Brambilla 3
Vasyliv 2
Majka 1
Disaster in the bunch! There’s a big crash in one of the first corners of the descent of Aubisque, and it’s very likely that some team leaders are caught in the crash
For sure neither is Phinney, as there’s no Yellow Jersey in the ground, or Spilak, as there aren’t Festina riders involved. But both Gesink and Taaramäe are down... Second day in-a-row with the Estonian in the ground, this is terrible for Wiesenhof, as well for eBuddy.
Foliforov, Brown, Cort Nielsen, Didier and Scarponi are the other fallens
Everyone was able to get up quickly, and neither of the two big leaders seems to be badly injured. Together with Yates, Haig and Lutsenko’s group, they made it back to the bunch after a few kms.
But again there was another crash. This time without any GC contenders involved, but riders like Cort Nielsen - second crash in a few kms - Izagirre, Nerz, Cuasquer, Slagter, Aru or Hoelgaard in the ground
A few riders attacked at the end of the descent, just before the only intermediate sprint of the day. They would get the top3 places in the sprint, leaving Demare - who is still in the group - without points
Intermediate Sprint - Pierrefitte-Nestalas
Carapaz 6
Topchanyuk 4
Pichon 2
But eBuddy had other plans in Tourmalet, and despite the earlier crash of Gesink, Brambilla and Van der Velde start to set a very high pace since the first slopes of the climb, catching very quickly the three escapees. And it seems like Gesink isn’t affected by the crash, as he sits in the third place of the bunch, only behind his team-mates
eBuddy has done a lot of damage in the bunch, making that only 36 riders can continue on it, but suddenly they have disappeared of the front. Maybe a sign that Gesink doesn’t feel very well with crash? Festina takes care now of the pace, but Novak isn’t going fast. Still 7 km of this climb, and 85 in the stage left
Nothing happens until the summit of Tourmalet, where no one fight for the KoM points, thus Novak is the first to reach the top and gets 20 points
Col du Tourmalet - HC
Novak 20
Brambilla 14
Vasyliv 12
Phinney 10
Aru 8
Schir 6
Spilak 5
Amador 4
Lövkvist 3
Gesink 2
Taaramäe 1
Despite the low rhythm now, only 31 riders are left in the first group, with no one important for the GC dropped, except maybe Lutsenko, but the Kazakh rider was never a threat for the GC fight
Finally a descent without any crashes in the Pyrenees! Once the leading group reach the first slopes of Col de Aspin, two riders try their luck to go for the stage win. They are Koch and Grmay. Neither Festina or eBuddy seem to be worried about these riders. They look more comfortable knowing that Phinney has no team-mates since early in Tourmalet, and that he’ll be around 100 kms without any team-mate. A perfect race situation for Spilak and Gesink to attack the race leader
Koch is able to out-sprint Grmay to take the most points possible in the top of Aspin, while their gap rises to almost 3 minutes to a bunch where nobody wants to pull, and only Schir has been dropped in the whole climb
Finally some moves in the bunch! It’s Dekker, who crashed yesterday and lost almost 6 minutes the first to attack before the GC riders. Yates is following him, as he couldn’t go with the Dutch due to being blocked. And it seems like Taaramae wants to be part of that move also! But the only thing that he is able to do with that move is to be inmediately caught, and not because the rhythm was heavily increased
Col d’Aspin - Cat.1
Koch 16
Grmay 12
Dekker 10
Yates 8
Amador 6
Taaramae 4
Formolo 2
The leading duo surely hates now both Dekker and Yates, as with their move they have killed any stage win hopes that Koch or Grmay had. The gap to them is less than a minute in the final part of Aspin’s descent, and 30 seconds further to the bunch, where eBuddy is using all their riders to chase down the breakaway with an insane rhythm in the descent
Dekker and Yates are now back in the bunch, while Koch and Grmay have only 20-30 seconds of advantage. There are still 7 km of slight uphill roads before starting the final climb of the day, Col du Peyresourde, where we hope that the GC favourite finally attack
Brambilla and Majka are able to catch the leading duo very quickly and keep setting a hard pace to not allow anyone to recover. Once the group reaches the first slopes of Peyresourde, Nesset goes for it!
But other riders had the same idea, as Arndt, Koch, Vinhas, Scarponi or Grmay
Andrey Amador is the first of the GC riders to attack in the Peyresourde! He’s almost 4 minutes down on Phinney, in 8th place in GC, and needs to gain some time to put himself in the fight for the podium at least. Taaramae and Dekker go after him inmediately, but the Costa Rican has been able to open a little gap to them. Meanwhile, Gesink and Spilak rely on their team-mates to bring them back.
There’s a little confusion once the uncountable attacks from the riders leads to catching the first attackers, but Amador has his mind set very clearly. Keep attacking until you’re done. And while everyone look at each other, he’s already opening a 25-second gap
Phinney has realised of Amador’s move and starts to pace himself, without attacking. Only Dekker is able to follow his rhythm, and the Dutch is barely done it. Meanwhile, Spilak is still letting Vasyliv to do the chase, something that can only be an indicator of a bad day of the Slovenian.
Is amazing that Sagan is still in Spilak’s group, although it seems like he won’t be there for too much time. In the front of the group, it looks like Gesink is attacking.
3 km to the top of Peyresourde, and a lot of action has happened lately. Spilak was able to follow Gesink in his attack, but neither of them were able to reach Phinney with it, although they left Dekker behind. Amador still keeps a nice lead, that could be enough to take the stage win
Amador goes first by the top of Peyresourde, holding a 30-second gap to Phinney. If he doesn’t crash in the descent, the stage is his. Gesink and Spilak are 20 seconds further back, while Wellens has joined Dekker in the chase
Col de Peyresourde - Cat.1
Amador 16
Phinney 12
Gesink 10
Spilak 8
Wellens 6
Dekker 4
Guldhammer 2
Phinney is reducing the gap in the descent, and with 8 km left he is 24 seconds behind Amador. It’s unlikely that the American can catch the Costa Rican, but he’ll give a great fight for the stage win
With 4 km to go the gap remains the same between Amador and Phinney, but Spilak and Gesink are bridging the gap to Phinney second by second, being now 17 seconds away from the race leader.
Final km for Amador! It’s going to be the first win for a PCT team in this year’s Tour de France. The gap to Phinney is stable, always between 20 and 25 seconds
Andrei Amador wins in Bagneres-de-Luchon! After a disappointing first week for him, this is the perfect way to put his name again in the Yellow Jersey fight, as he’ll rise to the fourth place in GC after this stage. It’s also the third stage win in Le Tour for Amador
Tic tac, tic tac... Phinney crosses the line in second place, 25 seconds after Amador. He won’t only keep the Yellow Jersey one more day; he’ll increase his lead to Spilak.
Spilak beats Gesink for the third place and 8 bonus seconds that can be key in the GC battle. The time gap looks to be around 15-18 seconds, but we’ll wait until jury decides, because it could not be enough margin to concede a gap
Very solid day for both Wellens and Dekker, who will lose around 1’40 to Amador, but also will gain a lot of time to the rest of riders fighting for a top5 spot
Guldhammer and Taaramae will lose 3 minutes today, but the Estonian can be even happy with this, as it’s a clear improvement from yesterday. And remember that he crashed again today. Half a minute later than them, arrives a group with Yates, Arndt, Nibali, Haig and the surprise of the stage, Nesset
Sagan finishes together with Keinath in a group who arrives more than 5 minutes later than the stage winner. The Slovak will obviously lose his podium place, but it’s likely to be around 6th or 7th after this stage. Still way better than no one could have predicted
Again there’s a crash in the final descent involving a top sprinter in the race. This time is Points classification leader Arnaud Demare in the ground, together with his team-mate Nerz, in what could be the fifth crash of the race for the German climber
We have confirmation from the jury that no gaps were awarded between Phinney and Spilak, so Phinney only increases his lead by 4 seconds. Now the American has 53 seconds on Splilak, 1’55 on Gesink and 3’20 on Amador.
And also we got confirmation that six riders finished outside of the time limit in this stage, which was set in 1’05. Between them, a former TDF winner - Frank Schleck, a two-times stage winner in this race - Ben Swift, who was clearly injured from yesterday’s crash - and MG legend Amadou Bakari. The other three are Barbari, Neilands and Siriwardena
Haute and Vesuvio are down to 6 riders, same as Ayubowan!, while the other teams affected by retirements have 7 riders
