This is the final mountain stage of 2017 Tour de France, and which climb is better than Alpe d’Huez to end a TDF? The GC battle is still very much open, as Taylor Phinney hasn’t surrender yet, having his mind focused on tomorrow’s decisive 40 kms TT. His current gap to the race leader, Simon Spilak is 1’34, and while it might too much for the American to recover it in 40 kms, i’m sure he would have signed to arrive to the final TT in this situation, having to battle with the weakest against the clock of the best climbers of the race. But before the TT they’ll have to climb Alpe d’Huez today, and any time gain for either of the side could decant the GC battle for the “winner” side.
Today the risk for finishing outside the time limit is even higher than yesterday, with only 110 km in the stage and two climbs like Croix de Fer and Alpe d’Huez in the route, so we could have no sprinters in Paris to fight for the win there, as we have already lost Swift, Boeckmans, Keukeleire and Coutinho
With the first 30 kms of the stage being in a downhill until arriving to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, where Croix de Fer begins, it was going to be hard to succesfully breakaway before the climb. Despite that, Pinot - 15th in GC - was the first to attack, being followed by Slagter - 11th GC - Reichenbach and Haig - 18th GC. This forced Aegon to work in the front, with Dekker in 12th place in GC
The breakaway managed to stay ahead of the bunch until they started Croix de Fer, when Moser took control of the bunch, with 4 riders in the first 4 places. This rhythm is going to harm a lot of riders, and riders like Keinath or Grmay who have shown weakness in the previous mountain stages, will suffer more this
Intermediate Sprint - Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Pinot 6
Slagter 4
Haig 2
Lutsenko has joined the Moser riders to help in the chase, but it might not be needed, seeing that Slagter has cracked, same as Haig, while surprisingly Reichenbach, the worst climber, looks a little better
Interesting move by Pendleton’s. Nibali had put himself in Lutsenko’s wheel, and with the Kazakh’s rhythm, both have broke away from the bunch. Hosek did the same a few metres before and the Czech has already caught Slagter. In the group it’s Koep pulling for Dekker, while Wöhrer has attacked together with Rosch
Nibali has left behind every rider of the breakaway and now is in the leading group only with Pinot. Haig is 40 seconds behind, while the gap to the bunch, where only 45 riders are left!, is now 2 minutes. In the bunch is now turn for Bonnin and RBC to pull, trying to isolate Spilak like yesterday
Bonnin’s efforts have caught everyone except Nibali, Pinot and Haig, but that didn’t stopped the high pace, as in that moment, Hirt attacked. And in the moment that Spilak realised of that, Novak was put in the front to work, quickly reducing the group to 30 riders
Still 12 kms left to reach the top of Croix de Fer, and the leading group is now formed by four riders, with Hirt and Haig having been able to join Nibali and Pinot. They have over 1’30 to the favourites’ group, where Novak keeps pulling, and at one point there were only 14 riders left, but they entered a little downhill section and some riders were able to make contact with the group again
Nothing has happened in the last 10 kms, with Slagter having cracked but trying to reduce the gap to Nibali’s group, being obviously not succesfull on it, as the leading group has now 3 minutes of advantage with a couple of kms left in the climb. In the bunch there are 38 riders, let’s find out who they are
Nibali is the first to pass through the top of Croix de Fer, ahead of Pinot and Hirt, while Haig has been dropped in the final km of climb, another sign of weakness by the Aussie
Col du Croix du Fer - HC
Nibali 20
Pinot 14
Hirt 12
Haig 10
Novak 8
Wohrer 6
Spilak 5
Taaramae 4
Herrada 3
Slagter 2
Bonnin 1
This result in this climb confirms Tsgabu Grmay as the 2017 Tour de France King of Mountains!
Interesting tactic of RBC in the descent, as they used Bonnin to lead the downhill, with the Canadian being a formidable descender, putting pressure on Spilak. Meanwhile Haig has rejoined the leading group, and the four riders have 3 minutes on the bunch.
But watch out with the wind! As since the riders were halfway through Croix de Fer, they have had to face wind over 40 km/h, something that can be key in Alpe d’Huez
There’s a crash in one the very dropped group which has involved stage winner Michael van Stayen. The Belgian should be one of the few sprinters left in the race to fight for the win in Paris, but now he’ll have to deal with this crash and its possible injury
After the descent of Croix de Fer, there are over 10 kms of flat until Bourg d’Osains, where Alpe d’Huez starts, and in the road that bring the riders to that city, they’ll have to suffer lateral winds of 50 km/h. If any team wants to use his riders now instead of on the climb, it can be a carnage
The breakaway riders are starting Alpe d’Huez with a gap of 2’40´, and in the first slopes Nibali attacks, while Haig is inmediately dropped
As yesterday, Taaramae is the first of the favourites to attack in the climb, with 13 km to go. The Estonian wants a fourth stage win, to jump to fourth in GC and to have a shot to the final podium place
Phinney doesn’t wait too much to launch his attack, maybe 300 metres. This time Spilak goes after the American, while Herrada is already working in the bunch for Gesink, in a situation that we already saw yesterday
Dekker and Amador have also attacked from the group, as the Dutch wants to enter the top10 with this move and the Costa Rican to defend his fourth place. Phinney has finished his attack doing no harm to Spilak apparently and now is setting his rhythm. If we were showing you yesterday’s stage instead you wouldn’t have noticed
Nibali and Hirt have dropped Pinot with 11 km to go. Their gap to Taaramae is still over two minutes, but they 0 guarantees of the stage win being for them.
In Gesink’s group, his team-mates have acelerated and have forced a gap with the rest of the group, with only Wellens, Guldhammer and Keinath being able to follow them
Less than 20 seconds between Taaramae and the duo of Phinney and Spilak with 10,5 km to go. Their gap to Gesink remains under the minute. And the wind is still over 40 km/h and always being lateral
Hirt makes his move for the stage win with 9 km to go, quickly opening a 20-second gap to Nibali and Pinot. Taaramae has already caught Haig and his gap to Hirt has decreased for the first time under 2 minutes. Also, Amador is 50 seconds behind Spilak, and Gesink 1’30. The Dutch is almost 2 minutes behind Taaramae, and the risk of losing his podium place is very high now, as the current gap in GC is 3’18 between Gesink and Taaramae
Taaramae’s rhythm is insane right now, as in just 1 km he has increased his gap to Spilak and Phinney to almost one minute. Behind them, Amador and Dekker have been caught by Gesink’s group, who is now 1’10 behind them
Still 6 km left for Taaramae, but the Estonian is now in the head of the race. With the strenght he has shown in the mountains, i believe he would have won the race if it wasn’t for in crash in stage 8
Only 5 kms left for Phinney and Spilak, and neither of them seem to be stronger than the other, so we might go the TT with the current difference between them in GC. Taaramae has already opened a 1’25 gap to them, and 55 further seconds to Gesink. In this moment, Taaramae would be only 1 minute behind Gesink in the fight for the podium
Amador attacks from Gesink’s group! His fourth place is already gone to Taaramae, but Phinney and Spilak aren’t too far away and might have the chance to fight for a second place in the stage
Amador has joined Spilak’s group with 4 km to go, in the exact moment that the Slovenian is launching his attack to sentence the race. With the attack coming at exiting a corner, Phinney was blocked by Nibali and couldn’t follow from the beginning the attack, which can be deadly
Well, Phinney looks to have saved it, although it will depend on whether Spilak keeps pushing going for the stage win now that they have Taaramae within 30 seconds, or leave the responsability of the chase to the American
Phinney has cracked! Spilak is now free to go after the stage win!
1,5 kms left for the leading duo, who have now 25 seconds on Amador and Phinney. Amazingly it looks like Amador will save his fourth place ahead of the TT
Final km for Spilak and Taaramae! The situation is the same as in Ax-3-Domains, where also both riders sprinted for the win, and there Spilak took his only win so far in the race, against Taaramae’s three. But if one thing is sure is that the Slovenian will win the Tour de France by the second time in his career, as it will impossible for Phinney to recover more than 2 minutes in 40 km of TT
500 metres and they are in the straight finish! Taaramae looks to be quicker, as he has already placed alongside Spilak despite starting the sprint in second place
But Taaramae cracks with 250 metres to go and the win is going to be for Spilak!
Simon Spilak wins Alpe d’Huez! It’s his second stage win in this race, and with this, he has secured his second Tour de France win!
Taaramae is second, 10 seconds after Spilak. He won’t be in the final podium unless he does an amazing TT tomorrow, but he is much closer than before
Amador takes third place today, doing a great job saving his fourth place in GC against Taaramae. Although he won’t have more than 10 seconds of advantage before the TT, so he’s likely to eventually lose that place
Phinney did his best to try to win the race, but Spilak was too strong for him, and the American will have to settle for second place in GC, as the gap will be a little less than 3 minutes, something that will be impossible to recover in tomorrow’s TT
Guldhammer is fifth, which secures him the sixth place in GC, after arriving 2 minutes after Spilak. Gesink is around 10 second behind the Danish rider, so he’ll have around 1’10 on Amador and Taaramae ahead of the TT
Dekker, Pinot, Nibali and Hirt complete the top10 of the stage, and although we have to wait until Keinath and Grmay arrive, it looks that Dekker will return to the top10 in GC
Yates and Wellens will finish seventh and eighth in GC, with Yates winning the U25 jersey
Keinath arrives almost 3 minutes after Dekker, but that is enough to secure him a place in the top10, even securing him the ninth place
Grmay finishes in the back of the grop which has arrived almost 11 minutes after Spilak and more than 8 after Dekker, which makes the Ethiopian to drop outside the top10
This are all the riders that didn’t make it into the time limit today, leaving the peloton that will arrive to Paris in only 132 riders. Neither of these riders would stand a chance in Champys-Elysses sprint, but that makes a team like Aegon to end with only 3 riders, same as Evonik
Simon Spilak is on the podium to receive his 8th Maillot Jaune of the race! Tomorrow he’ll have to defend his 2’50 lead to Phinney in a 40-km TT, but it’s pretty much safe his win.
The most interesting battle with be for the podium. Taaramae has been much stronger than Gesink and Amador in the last week, and being better than both against the clock, the Estonian might jump from 5th to 3rd in the TT, although Gesink has 1’08 over him
