Bonjour et Bienvenue! Today is the 14th stage of Le Tour de France and a long roll down to Nîmes for our second rest day. But before the riders get to that they must survive as well as a final sprint. After yesterday's Alpine romp this is prime time for a breakaway win if the pack aren't careful or able to catch them - this route has a lot of roundabouts towards the finish which means a minute's gap with 10-15km to go is harder to close than it looks on paper.
So far in the race it's been the might of Jonas Ahlstrand's Volvo leadout versus the finishing skills (and good positioning) of Eduard Grosu, whilst the others have had to fight for scraps really. Ahlstrand has never dropped below 2nd thanks to great leadout work from Ariesen and Bertilsson, but has been twice beaten by Grosu and once won a pack sprint behind Olsson from the morning (and afternoon in the end) breakaway. Not to mention the fact that both Ariesen and Bertilsson missed the time cut yesterday, and now it'll be hard for Ahlstrand to gain the early advantage - he may even have to follow Grosu's train!
Rider
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
Total
Grosu
2
2
12
Ahlstrand
1
3
17
Breakaway
1
Cavendish*
1
1
7
Tzortzakis
2
6
Houle
1
(1)
1
4**
Stepniak
1
2
Vesely
1
2
Kupfernagel*
1
1
Mansilla
1
1
Reinhardt
1
1
*DNF Stage 13
**4th on Stage 4 (Hilly)
Today's favourites? Well, after a stage like yesterday's - not to mention the stage before into Morzine - it's always tough to tell which sprinter - and which domestiques - have the legs to do it, especially after a 200 and something kilometre long stage.It may even fall to the breakaway, as it did after the Vosges earlier this week, as Michael Olsson took the biggest victory of his career. Then it was Ahlstrand the best of the bunch, but a medium mountain stage - albeit one of the most difficult in recent years of its type - is a very different proposition to two Alpine treks.
Naturally on a day that many predict to favour the breakaway, there's a large number of riders who want to be a part of that select group! Here were the not-so-succesful attempts:
#1: Budenieks, Braico, Froome, Danacik, Hepburn, Nareklishvili, De Gendt
#2: Lienhard, Froome, Svab
#3: Froome, Budenieks, Nareklishvili, Bru, Vangstad, Braico, Danacik, Svab
Finally the very active Briton drives a smaller move clear, consisting of: Vangstad Svab Froome Danacik Nareklishvili. Certainly a high-powered move, with a top puncheur in Froome, a proven breakaway artist in Svab, and three very strong roleurs (including Vangstad and Danacik who will be fresher than many after the mountains) - the peloton will need to be on their toes with this long, foggy, roundabout-y, post-mountain-y stage stacking the odds against them - very much like how it did on Stage 9.
Bored of beauty? Had enough of hills? Fed up with old buildings? Come to Coustellet! Not only is it the ugliest village in the Luberon, it is also the flattest, and all the architecture is new and uninspiring.
That may sound different to my usual scripted ramblings on chateaus, wineries, or towns, and that's because it wasn't one. In the absence of any script I had a quick Google, or Google as they call it here in France, and this was the first result - taken straight from the English-language tourist website of the region. Anyway, Danacik leads the breakaway through the intermediate sprint, whilst the peloton keeps them on a healthy four-minute leash with still 72km to go.
30km to go and the gap is at just 1'50, Volvo, eBuddy and, surprisingly, Grieg, doing the brunt of the work.
12km to go and the banner signalling 10 is just visible now for our escapees, and, on the horizon perhaps, our finishing city of Nîmes. However, with a gap now under a minute, said breakaway is also within eyeshot of the quickening peloton!
5km to go and we have reach Nîmes, but the breakaway have just 22 seconds and so Chris Froome puts down the hammer - he's going for glory with or without his companions!
It'll be without as he leaves his companions behind, just 4km to go and not an impossibility that Chris Froome could do this - just a very large improbability! Meanwhile RBC look to spring a surprise here, with their 3-man train going from distance and catching the other 3 teams, still organising their leadouts, by surprise a little bit here!
I'm not sure if this is a lapse of concentration, miscommunication or a technical mistake but Grosu is back in the cheap seats inside the final 3km as Volvo, RBC and Grieg assume control! Meanwhile the rest of the break is caught as Froome forges on with his 20-second lead!
RBC and Volvo also a tad messy here as Grieg take this leadout by the horns as Jansen launches at the front! Haller, Tzortzakis, Reinhardt, Guardini, Aberasturi, Mansilla and Afewerki look the best of the freelancers here as Calmejane launches with Grosu and Reinhardt in tow around the outside.
Reinhadrt goes himself now from distance - not a bad move for a guy like him, as Grieg take full control here with some opposition from Youyng and Houle from RBC! Haller quietly assumes pole position behind Boeckmans, whilst Ahlstrand and Grosu even out the playing field by starting from outside the top 10. Reinhardt and Houle going for it here then whilst the others stay behind their trains. 2km to go and Froome looks tired out at the front!
Haller decides to get the drop on Ahlstrand and Grosu and goes for it, at the front here with Young, Houle, Tzortzakis and Reinhardt at Grieg's makeshift train gets exposed at the pointy end! Froome about to be caught.
Reinhardt and Young fade, Tzortzakis looks underpowered or undergeared and Haller leads Houle under the flamme rouge! Gerts is saving Grosu's stage here by bringing him up to the front, so hope is not gone yet for a third stage win! The green jersey of Ahlstrand, though, looks like he won't be adding to his stage win tally here though.
Oh my word, a simply magnificent leadout from Floris Gerts as Grosu is dropped off at the front with 700m to go, exactly where he wants it despite being wildly out of position a minute ago! Haller won't be giving wildcards Kraftwerk a third stage win, as it is Boeckmans now launching who looks like Grosu's biggest - and only rival, unless Guardini (finally performing) can come around?
And the Romanian champion Grosu still leads and it looks like nobody will stop him taking a third stage victory in this race! Boeckmans still ahead of Guardini for second, whilst it looks like, wildly, Westley Gough is Kraftwerk's new hope after Haller faded! The ever-crafty Eislers is also in surprise contention for a top 5, whilst Ahlstrand isn't out of form at all and is powering in from behind, still looking for a podium finish!
None of the top 3 giving an inch here with 300m to go and so the order is unchanged, whilst Ahlstrand looks to come through for fourth!
And it's a very close victory, but enough of a gap that Grosu can celebrate his closest - but no less impressive - victory yet, and his third of this year's Tour de France! Boeckmans and Guardini with long-overdue performances finish 2nd and 3rd respectively, whilst it's bizarro world as Ahlstrand's supreme leadout couldn't do what Grosu's did and save his race, but he also still looks the fastest in this field.
Eislers is a very surprising fifth whilst Aberasturi also finally gets a result of mention in sixth. Mansilla is a crafty seventh for an unexpected double top 10 for Evonik (can't wait for the Puma manager's reaction), whilst Gough also surprises in eighth, Afewerki performs standardly in ninth, and Venturini surprises by rounding out the top 10.
Spilak collects his third yellow jersey of the race and holds a minute's lead over Taaramäe going into tomorrow's second rest day and, after that, Mont Ventoux. I hate rest days, I'm already so excited for the Beast of Provence to stamp its mark on the race. Following today's weather shocker, cold weather is projected despite it being July! At that altitude, it could really affect some of the riders on a bad day!
export failed No change in anything, top 10 is in the report there. So so sorry! I’ll do points calculations for rankings purposes at a later date, quite swamped with school stuff right now GC:
No change in anything, top 10 is in the report there. So so sorry! I’ll do points calculations for rankings purposes at a later date, quite swamped with school stuff right now
