Le Tour is back in the Pyrenees! ItÂ’s really strange to cross the whole country from the Vosges to be back in the Pyrennes after having been here only 4 days ago. But we won't discuss ASOÂ’s tactics for creating the route. Today the riders will face the first mountain finish in a mountain stage of the race. After climbing an HC climb like Port de Pailheres, the stage will finish in Ax-3 Domains.
Simon Spilak will have to defend the Yellow Jersey he won yesterday, with that narrow margin he has to Taylor Phinney; just one second. Rein Taaramae looks to be fully recovered from his crash in the previous stint in the Pyrenees, and will aim to keep winning stages despite the fact that he isn'Â’t a key player for the Yellow Jersey fight. And we can'Â’t discard yet the chance of a breakaway win today, as after 12 stages, no breakaway has been succesfull in the race!
10 riders form the breakaway of today. Neither KoM fighters or strong climbers, with Grmay being both the best climber and the best placed in GC of the breakaway riders
Grmay Saggiorato Bagdonas Chernetskiy Gunman Bol Zordan Landa Cink
As expected, no one cared about the intermediate sprint, but the most important thing at this point is that Festina really wants the stage win today, as the biggest gap that the breakaway had in any moment was 2Â’'40, and the current gap with 120 km to go is less than 2 minutes
Intermediate Sprint - Limoux
Bol 6
Cink 4
Saggiorato 2
The bunch is starting now to climb Port de Pailheres, 16km at 7%, which summit will be reached with 28 km to the finish. Alaphilippe, Kastrantas and Roy have been working for the past 150 kms, never allowing the gap to the breakaway to grow higher than 3 minutes, which is the current gap. Now we'Â’ll see if Festina puts their climbers to work, or if any other team wants to help the leaderÂ’'s team
In the breakaway, Grmay is confirming his favourite status by leaving behind every rider except Cink. Zordan and Saggiorato are the only others that doesnÂ’'t look wasted at this moment, and might have the chance to join them. Meanwhile, in the bunch no one is setting the pace, which means that the leading duo have now 4 minutes of advantage with 10 km left to reach the summit of Pailheres
The gap keeps growing, as Novak'’s pace is very low. Despite this, the bunch has been reduced to around 100 riders, without any surprise in those “gruppetos”. Grmay and Cink have built a 1’30 gap to Saggiorato and Zordan, who have dropped everyone else of the breakaway, with Landa and Bol being the two that lasted more
Once the gap to Grmay and Cink is almost seven minutes, Dekker is the first to make a move. For the favourites there are still 2,5 km to the top, and if they want to have a chance to win the stage, they have to use them wisely.
Koch and Lutsenko were the first to respond, and Spilak seeing this, joined their attack, with Gesink following the race leader. With a slower response, Taaramäe, Amador, Guldhammer, Wellens and Phinney are trying to bridge the gap to Spilak'’s group, before it gets bigger. A little further behind, Hirt and Yates are fighting to follow the best climbers of the race, while there are several riders left behind in the bunch, like Sagan, Nibali, Haig, Formolo, Keinath and Arndt
Grmay beats Cink in the sprint for the points in Pailheres, although they didnÂ’t fight for them too much. Zordan is 2Â’30 back, and Saggiorato one minute further behind, but they might be caught even before the summit by a storming Dekker, who has opened a 1-minute gap to SpilakÂ’'s group, which now only includes Taaramae and Amador, while Phinney and Gesink are in another group, around 30 seconds behind the race leader
Dekker is the fourth rider to reach the summit of Pailheres, exactly 3 minutes after Grmay did it. 35 seconds behind him is Spilak, who has managed to drop both Amador and Taaramae, while Gesink and Phinney are coming from behind and might join the Costa Rican and the Estonian for the downhill
Port de Pailheres - HC
Grmay 20
Cink 14
Zordan 12
Dekker 10
Spilak 8
Taaramae 6
Amador 5
Gesink 4
Phinney 3
Saggiorato 2
Wellens 1
20 km left and still half of the descent to do, but Spilak has already caught Dekker, who also caught Zordan. Grmay and Cink are 2Â’30 ahead of this trio, while 40 seconds behind is the group with the other GC favourites; Taaramae, Phinney, Amador and Gesink.
Just when the GC favourites were about to start the final climb, Ax-3 Domains, all are reagrouped. With the current gap to the leading duo being just 2 minutes, this six riders will not only fight for the GC, but also for the stage win. And given the current gaps to the rest of the field, they might end up being the top6 in GC at the end of the stage, with Wellens and Guldhammer being 2 minutes behind, Yates and Hirt almost 3, and riders as Nibali or Sagan more than 3 minutes behind the race leader
Grmay attacks Cink in the first slopes of Ax-3 Domains. They know that their only chance is to open a big gap in the start of the climb, hoping for a slowdown of the favourites.
The gap had rised to almost 3 minutes, and Dekker couldnÂ’t allow this, so the Dutch was again on the attack with 8 km to go. Everyone is following him, and now the thing is who will explode before, if Dekker or any other favourite.
Also, we have bad news from the bunch of top10 contenders, who had just caught WellensÂ’ group, as the Belgian and Nibali have crashed in the final part of the descent. No other rider was affected by it
ItÂ’s Amador the first one to crack! The Costa Rican might be losing all his chance of jumping to the podium with this, but it also looks like he didnÂ’'t crack, just that he couldnÂ’'t go as fast as Dekker and when the Dutch rider finished his attack, he is slowing coming back to the group
But before the Costa Rican reached the group, the race leader Spilak launches his attack. And this time is uncontested, as Dekker has nothing left in the tank and was the first in the group. The Slovenian is quickly building a nice gap which would consolidate his lead.
Taaramäe wants another stage win and is the only one who is being able to follow Spilak. With 5 km left, Spilak is about to catch the breakaway riders that were still in front, while he has opened a 40-second gap to Phinney’'s group
Taaramäe has joined now Spilak with 3 km to go, increasing their gap to Phinney’s group to almost 50 seconds. Only Cink is being able to hold on their wheels by now, as Grmay has cracked already
Inside of the final 3 km, Gesink is leading the chasing group, of which Dekker is no longer part of it, as well as Cink couldnÂ’t follow anymore Spilak and Taaramae. The gap keeps being around 45-50 seconds
Final km for the leading duo! Spilak has been doing all the work in the front, so Taaramae should be fresher to overcome his sprinting deficit. In the chasing group, all are relaying, which might be the only reason for the gap to not keep rising, and being stable at 45 seconds. Also, Dekker isnÂ’t too far away from PhinneyÂ’'s group, only 20 seconds
700 metres left and both are still waiting for a closer distance to sprint, but itÂ’'s also allowing Phinney, Amador and Gesink to close the gap, as for the first time itÂ’s less than 40 seconds
Both open their sprint with 400 metres to go. Spilak has the better positioning and is faster than Taaramae, who only has on his favour that he should be fresher after not working in all the climb
Taarame is coming out of SpilakÂ’s slipstream and is going a bit faster than the Slovenian. With 200 metres to go, he doesn'Â’t have too much space to recover, but also not a lot of space to do it. This is going to be very close...
... but at the end itÂ’s Simon Spilak who wins in Ax-3 Domains! Fantastic effort by the race leader, who takes his first stage win in the race and will increase his lead to Phinney. Taaramae was short of space to overtake him, but itÂ’s another great result for the Estonian, having finished in the podium of the last three stages
Amador finishes third today, and will give time to both Phinney and Gesink. The trio will lose only 30 seconds to Spilak and Taaramae - without counting bonus seconds - and they can be happy with it after being dropped with 6 km to go
Dekker can be proud of the stage he did today after yesterday’s “disaster”. He finishes sixth and will lose 1’'20 to Spilak, but it’s likely to gain a lot of time on the rest of the top10 riders, giving him chances of climbing maybe to the 8th place in GC. In the background we see Hirt, who will finish seventh after a great breakaway ride
The same can be said about Grmay, who is eighth today, just ahead of Guldhammer, who ends up losing over 3 minutes to Spilak - and 2 minutes to Dekker.
Hirt beats Yates and Slagter for the last spot of the top10 in the stage, although all of them lose over 5 minutes to Spilak
Riders like Nerz, Carapaz, Wellens, Lutsenko, Sagan, Majka, Schelling or Keinath arrive in this group, who loses around 7 minutes, although some might lose extra time if they are unlucky with splits in this group
Disaster for Nibali, who could never catch other groups after his crash, and will end up losing around 9 minutes today, something that will kick him out of the top10 in GC
Spilak sees his lead increased to 54 seconds over Phinney. The American also loses the Points lead against the Slovenian. Although not everything is absolutely bright in Festina, as eBuddy has taken the Teams classification lead by only 14 seconds
