Welcome to the first mountain stage in the Alps in this TDF. Today we start in Gap and we’ll finish in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne after 184 kms of constant ups and downs, with probably the only flat kms in the stage being the last 5 kms. Despite this, the only major climb today is Col du Glandon, but after this climb there’s another one, Lacets de Montvernier.
Spilak has now a 37-second lead on Phinney after the American won yesterday in Mende by the third time in the race. Gesink is 1’48 behind Spilak, but it’s unlikely that the Dutchman can really fight for the GC win
In a stage like this, where a breakaway win is very likely, it was expected that a lot of riders would try to get in the breakaway. And that happened, as only after a few kms, there were already 12 riders in the leading group, including Lutsenko, Grmay - the best placed in GC - and Koch, 1st, 2nd and 4th in KoM classification
Grmay beat easily the other in the sprint for the first climb of the day, and with Lutsenko and Koch not scoring points there, the Ethiopian has reduced his gap to Lutsenko to 36 points now
Col Bayard - Cat.2
Grmay 10
Kung 8
Hosek 6
Cuasquer 4
Figueiredo 2
Huge crash in the bunch at the end of a downhill section... Several riders have hit the tarmac, and according to the first images, at least Peter Sagan, Thomas Dekker and Jack Haig are involved!
We have now the full list of riders who crashed: Cort Nielsen, Paulus, Cink, Van der Velde, Carapaz, Vasyliv, Aru, Majka, Pichon, Hoem, Sagan, Formolo, Haig, Dekker, Kuroeda, Samolenkov, Keukeleire and Kolar
And it seems that Vasyliv has a broken collarbone and won’t continue in the race. A big loss for Spilak, as the German was his last domestique in the mountains. He also has to give up in his GC’s top20
Rompe du Matty - Cat.3
Grmay 6
Koch 4
Lutsenko 2
Somehow, Haute Route’s DS has thought that it was a good idea to have four riders, including Pinot - who is 18th in GC - to wait for Keukeleire. After a few kms, and being already 4 minutes behind the bunch, Pinot finally decided to leave his team-mates behind and try to comeback to the bunch, because it would a idiotic way of losing a top20.
Cote de la Mure - Cat. 3
Grmay 6
Koch 4
Lutsenko 2
Meanwhile, another Haute Route rider, Grmay, is winning every KoM sprint in the stage, closing little by little the gap to Lutsenko in the KoM classification, and after four Cat.3 climbs, he’s now 16 points away from the lead, which is less than the points rewarded for being first in the top of the next climb, Col du Glandon, so after 10 days we could see a change in the KoM lead
Col de Malissol - Cat. 3
Grmay 6
Koch 4
Hosek 2
Col de la Morte - Cat. 3
Grmay 6
Koch 4
Lövkvist 2
A breakaway win is expected at this point, as we are 100 kms away from the finish, and the gap to the bunch, where Festina doesn’t seems to want to do any hard work, especially after Vasyliv’s withdrawn, is almost 15 minutes, and could end up with Grmay entering again the top10
Once the breakaways starts to climb Glandon, three riders inmediately are dropped of the group, leaving 9 riders in the front with a 12-minute gap to the bunch. Lutsenko, Feng and Chernetskiy are the dropped riders, with the Kazakh clearly suffering from the big efforts he has done so far to retain his KoM jersey
Didier and Figueiredo are the next riders to be dropped, just before the first “rest zone” of this climb. Still 15 km of climbing for these riders, while in the bunch, once they started the climb everyone stopped riding, so the gap has rised again to 14 minutes
Grmay must have been told of the current situation in the bunch, with the gap now being 17 minutes, and once the slopes were steep again, he attacked and only Kung and Lövkvist could follow him.
Only 7 km left of climb for Grmay and Kung, who are the only remaining riders in the front, with everyone else at least one minute behind them. And the bunch is still life-less, with the gap already in 18 minutes, and Grmay “knocking at the doors” of a GC top5
Grmay goes for the glory in the final 2 kms of Glandon! Still 40 kms left to end the stage, but by being first in this climb he’ll become the new KoM leader, and whatever finally happens with the time gain today, this is still a big success
Col du Glandon - HC
Grmay 20
Kung 14
Lövkvist 12
Hosek 10
Chevrier 8
Koch 6
Cuasquer 5
Figueiredo 4
Didier 3
Lutsenko 2
Chernetskiy 1
Amador and Yates are on the move! They still have 9 km to the top of Glandon, and in less than 1 km they have opened a 1-minute gap to the bunch, where the biggest news is that Peter Sagan looks the be injured, as the Slovak is struggling in the back of the group, when there are still 100 riders on it
Halfway through Glandon’s descent, Kung is still 20 seconds behind Grmay, although the Swiss is an awesome descender, so it’s expected that he will rejoin the Ethiopian in the front of the race before the descent ends.
Meanwhile, it’s Wellens and Haig the ones who are “trying” to bring Amador and Yates back, instead of Festina, but they are clearly failing, as that duo already has 2’45 on the bunch with 5 km left of climb for them
Once the gap almost allows Amador to overtake Phinney in GC, the American attacks! The only logical explanation for Festina being totally missing of the stage must be that Spilak is on a bad day. We’ll find out soon if that’s true or not
Amador and Yates have kept increasing his lead to Spilak’s group to a point where the Costa Rican would be the virtual race leader if not for Phinney being 1’30 ahead of Spilak’s group
Brambilla and Novak are finally pulling from a 9-rider group with Spilak, Gesink, Taaramae, Guldhammer, Slagter, Hirt and Wellens, while riders like Keinath, Dekker, Haig, Nibali or Formolo are in a group which is 40 seconds behind. They have managed to reduce the gap to Amador to “only” 3’50, while Phinney’s is still around 1’30, something that puts the American as virtual race leader
Final 20 kms for Grmay, who has been able to avoid Kung from catching him in the downhill and even has increased his advantage to over 30 seconds. His current gap with Spilak is almost 19 minutes - 17 with Phinney and 15 with Amador and Yates.
It’s the very own Spilak the one who is leading that group in the descent, although the gap with Phinney keeps rising, and it’s almost 2 minutes with 33 km to go
Kung is now only 20 seconds behind Grmay when they start the final climb of the day, Lacets de Montvernier, with only 3 kms but at 8%. From the top, just 10 kms, most of them in descent to the finish in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Just 20 kms left for Phinney! You can spot Amador and Yates at the end of the descent, as the gap to them has decreased to only 1’20, while the gap to Spilak remains in 1’50. Now it’s Brambilla doing the chase in Spilak’s group, something that might be key in the flat terrain before the next climb, as Phinney will be on his own
Grmay is on the final km of Lacets de Montvernier, and his superior climbing skills are proving to be the key in this stage, as he is slowing increasing his gap to Kung, and is currently 36 seconds
Awesome job by Brambilla in the flat section, as the Italian has managed to reduce the gap to Phinney to only 50 seconds, and now is dropping from the group, leaving Spilak in the front to do the chase now
Amador and Yates are already in the final climb, holding a 1’20 gap to Phinney, who only has 40 seconds to Spilak, just in the edge of being the virtual race leader. Only Taaramäe, Gesink, Wellens and Guldhammer are left in Spilak’s group also.
Only 5 km for Grmay, who is going to win the stage, take the lead in KoM classification and who knows where he can rise in GC. With the current gaps he’s likely to be sixth or seventh after the stage
Phinney is caught! Gesink has been pulling in the first two kms of climbs and as result, the American show his move for the GC win finished. And there’s still a couple of kms of climb, where Spilak might launch an attack to leave Phinney behind and increase his lead
And there it is. Spilak hasn’t even needed an attack, just with his rhythm Phinney has cracked and only Taaramae is hardly following him. And the Slovenian might catch Amador and Yates before the end of the climb
Tsgabu Grmay wins in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne! Both wilcard teams will leave the race with a stage win, after Amador’s win for UBS in Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
And another rider from UBS, Kung is the one finishing second today, after the Swiss’ great effort, being the only one able to follow Grmay during most of Glandon, but got dropped before the summit and never could make it back
Amador and Yates hold a 30-second gap to Spilak and Taaramae with 7 kms to go, while Phinney’s group is one minute behind Spilak, something that will almost secure Spilak’s second TDF win
Third place in the stage for Lovkvist, ahead of Hosek and Koch
The rest of the top10 of the stage is formed by Chevrier, Figueiredo, Cuasquer and Lutsenko, but we are back with the GC fight, as Spilak and Taaramae are almost catching Amador and Yates with 4 kms to go. Phinney’s group is already losing 1’20 at that point, and might end up losing even more time in the finish line
Yates beats Amador in the sprint for 12th place, finishing more than 10 minutes after Grmay. That gap was highly reduced in the last part of the stage, so at least Yates won’t lose his place in GC to Grmay
Spilak and Taaramae will lose around 25 seconds to the former duo, but it’s not important for them, as the gap they are waiting for to know it is Phinney’s and Gesink’s
Wellens lead Gesink to the finish, with a 40 seconds gap to Spilak more or less, while Phinney might lose extra time, depending on what the jury says
Big win for Haute Route with Grmay, who also is the new KoM leader and is now 9th in GC after his second huge time gain in 4 days - and also losing a lot of time in a flat stage in between because a crash.
Phinney loses an extra 15 seconds to Gesink and Wellens, making 53 seconds his loss to Spilak. Guldhammer loses 1’09, and from there, huge gaps to the rest of the fields.
Slagter and Hirt 3’25. Keinath, Nibali, Arndt 5’05. Dekker, Formolo, Haig 6’22 and Sagan loses 15’50 to Spilak after his crash and injury and drops to 15th in GC
Spilak has doubled his lead to Phinney, now having 1’30 over the American. Gesink has basically given the GC win to Spilak, as he and his team acted as domestiques of the Slovenian in the latter part of the race. He’s still third, 56 seconds behind Phinney and almost 2 minutes ahead of Amador. Taaramae is still 7 minutes behind Spilak, while Yates climbed to sixth, ahead of Guldhammer, Keinath, Grmay and Wellens. The top10 looks decided, as there’s 8 minutes between Wellens and Slagter, who is 11th, ahead of Dekker, Nibali, Hirt and Sagan
