After nine days of time trials, flat sprints and hill sprints, the Tour arrives in the Pyrenees for the first mountain stage. It’s a pretty straightforward one, a long mostly flat buildup to one long climb up to the ski resort of La Pierre Saint Martin.
Any rider who wants to make a difference today already might be advised to do so earlier in the climb, as it gets successively less steep towards the top, although it still ends with a section at 7-8%. This might ultimately favor the more punchy climbers, read: overall leader Silvio Herklotz. We will see if there’s going to be real fireworks already especially between the big names. But for many of the second tier riders, where differences in skill are minimal, this could already be a major indication of where they stand.
As a reminder, Herklotz leads the GC by 33 seconds over Spilak and 54 and 55 respectively over Madrazo and Sicard. The mountain jersey still rests on the shoulders of Kastrantas and will do so again tomorrow (unless Lastra pulls off a miracle stage win), but both Herklotz and Spilak can come within a point of his lead with a stage win.
A very interesting rider is the first to attack: It’s Gidich, not only a very strong climber and puncheur, but also a white jersey candidate. Kastrantas and Durbridge follow.
With no real climbing talent, Swisslion has to depend on breakaways for any coverage on these types of stages. Mestric is sent to the front to do just that, he follows Gillett and Zakarin in the next wave of attacks.
Chernetskiy and Poljanec join him …
… and a bit later, Smith and Grossschartner break free as well to make it 10 riders in front, a new record.
So we end up with 4 teams with 2 riders each in the break, only Kastrantas and Durbridge are solo. The latter will have big problems in the final climb, so he’s probably looking for a head start.
However, fewer different teams in the breakaway mean more teams in the peloton who contribute to the chase, and so they keep the group on a short leash. The gap never got over 4 minutes and stands at just 3 as they cross the intermediate sprint.
Interestingly, Azteca and Volvo do a lot of work, so we might need to watch out for Eastman and Alarcon later on, if this is any indication for how they’re feeling.
The peloton is already closing the gap a few kilometers before we even head into the climb. Kastrantas must have hoped that the group could actually make it, otherwise his energy may have been better spent on stages where he has more opportunities to collect mountain points. He tries to salvage the situation by attacking.
At the foot of the climb, he’s joined by Durbridge, but the rest of the group isn’t far behind and the peloton comes through just 45 seconds later.
As for the climb itself, as we’ve already talked about, its steepest parts come in the first half, but with 16,5 kilometers at an average of 7,1%, the whole thing is a challenge.
After around 2,5 kilometers of climbing and the previous two attackers back in the fold, Smith decided to make a move. He’s easily the strongest climber of the group and would have been a prime candidate for the stage win, if only they had more of an advantage. Mestric being able to follow is a bit surprising, Gillett less so. In the peloton, Gazelle and Moser - Sygic have taken over.
Durbridge is the first of the breakaway riders to be caught. He’s going to suffer for the rest of the climb with his subpar climbing skills, but maybe he has some energy left. A few other riders have already been dropped by the pack, Haugard and Wolf are currently the furthest behind, with around 3 minutes to the peloton.
Smith holds his former companions at bay, but the peloton is still only one and a half minutes behind him. Poljanec now attacks to bridge across after his teammate was unsuccessful in hanging on. A good showing by the Swisslion crew.
Poljanec actually makes it and the duo holds the gap to the peloton steady. Five of the original breakaway, Chernetskiy, Kastrantas, Gillett, Grossschartner and Gidich, still manage to keep the peloton at bay, but only barely.
Indeed, it’s over for them shortly afterwards, they are swept up by the Gazelle armada of Kangert, Geoghegan Hart and Karnulin. And then we have the first major move: After his team’s earlier efforts, it was to be expected: Alarcon is the first big name to go off!
He gets to the remaining two escapees in the blink of an eye and quickly has 40 seconds on the peloton. Dombrowski accelerated for a moment, but soon realized he couldn’t follow and now positions himself near the front.
Ji leads the peloton and increases the pace. Poljanec is caught quickly. The yellow jersey is a bit boxed in, behind many of his rivals, so he surely hopes that no other attacks come at this moment.
A few more prominent riders start to fall behind, among them Brenes and Carapaz. A bit surprisingly, Costagli was also caught behind way earlier on the climb and already trails by around 5 minutes.
Soon after Smith is caught, and perhaps sensing the vulnerability of Herklotz, Spilak attacks!
He gets a gap on the now Madrazo-led chasing group. Alarcon is also still doing well, around 40 seconds ahead of them.
Under the pressure of Madrazo and now also Dombrowski, a gap has opened behind a group of 16. All major team leaders are still in there, except (of course, as I unfortunately have to say by now) Schleck. But now Quintana is also in trouble.
But he’s not the only one. Perhaps a bit slowed down by the dropping Kangert, but also visibly low on energy themselves, Meintjes, Eastman and shockingly Morton have to leave a gap.
Chiarello is next, the remaining riders ahead, in addition to Alarcon and Spilak, are:
Madrazo
Dombrowski
Sicard
Herklotz
Galta
Roglic
Berhane
Olivier
Barguil
Schelling
As a quick aside, Gidich is currently on pace to take over white. He’s in a group with Geoghegan Hart around 2’30 behind Alarcon, the same group that also contains Carapaz and Brenes.
Godoy, the top favorite for white, is around 40 seconds ahead of them with his leader Schleck (although EA Vesuvio would be well-advised to switch those roles by now), but he’s more than 2 minutes behind Gidich in the GC.
But back to the front, where Madrazo brings back Spilak, only for the Slovenian to attack again right away. Dombrowski and Herklotz counter. 2,5 kilometers to go.
But that attack was very short-lived, Spilak just didn’t have much left. The increase in pace did bring Alarcon back into the fold, though. It also forces Schelling off the back. In the distance, the Morton / Eastman / Meintjes group that also contains Quintana now is barely visible, they trail by one and a half minutes already.
Madrazo uses Alarcon as a buffer to the rest of the group and accelerates himself, but Herklotz and Sicard mark him closely. With 1,5 kilometers to go, this could be the ideal szenario for the German.
Alarcon is not just a buffer, though! He actually hangs on, while the others have to leave a gap behind him!
Oh no, this might not be the ideal szenario for Herklotz after all! Madrazo and Sicard continue to push and he can’t keep up! Even Alarcon moves around him.
The Venezuelan catches up with the leaders, he just seems to have tremendous legs today. They’re still in steep territory, but the last bit to the line is pretty flat. Alarcon has an edge over the other two in terms of acceleration, but as for pure sprint speed, they are very close together.
Madrazo is in trouble, his body moving from side to side above his handlebars. Sicard moves into the lead, his sight set on his second stage win, but Alarcon is still looking good.
Meanwhile, Herklotz is fighting hard to keep the distance as short as possible. He’s 20 seconds behind the three leaders right now and 20 seconds ahead of the group behind him, where Dombrowski leads the way, six other riders still with him.
All three leaders are on their last legs now. Sicard still has a slight edge, can the other two muster another acceleration?
No! Romain Sicard wins the first mountain top finish of the race! A big effort sees Alarcon finishing second, quite a surprise all things considered. Madrazo finishes 3rd, a good result simply because he gains time on Herklotz.
For the yellow jersey, the time is ticking now. Sicard was 54 seconds behind him ahead of today and gets 20 bonus seconds. A quick look behind shows that Roglic has actually created a small gap to Dombrowski, Olivier and Spilak, who in turn have a gap to Galta, Barguil and Berhane.
Herklotz drags himself over the line 30 seconds behind Sicard. He keeps the jersey, but the race just became wide open again.
Roglic is next, he’s awarded 13 seconds over Dombrowski, Spilak and Olivier, who finish 6th through 8th in that order.
Galta finishes 9th, another 14 seconds later. An important sign of life after a poor race so far. Berhane can also be happy with his performance today, Barguil as well, though this is probably pretty much the range he expects to be in.
Schelling did very well for a while, but eventually loses a good chunk of time. However, that pales in comparison to …
… the hit that Morton and his podium ambitions take. He loses a good two and a half minutes on today’s leaders, a pretty remarkable blunder on this first mountain stage. He and his companions - Eastman, Meintjes, Quintana, Chiarello and Kangert - are even caught by Goos and Godoy.
Those two led a group up the mountain that also contained Ji, Mamykin, their captain Schleck, former breakaway rider Smith and Foliforov.
Gidich still has some juice left in him and sprints to lead (or rather, tear it apart in the final few hundred meters) a larger group, containing many of the better domestiques, over the line. As alluded to earlier, Gidich takes the lead in the youth classification, but Godoy showed his potential today and is already within a minute of the King Power rider.
Time trialists Haugard, Dillier and Stannard are the final riders to come in, a mere 25 minutes after the winners, no issues with the time limit whatsoever. The latter times it just right to take over the Lanterne Rouge.
So, after a commanding performance in the first 9 days, a first sign of weakness by Herklotz completely changes the dynamic of the race. While he still holds the GC lead, Madrazo in third place is now only 15 seconds away and has shown that he is capable of distancing the Puma leader in the high mountains.
Sicard is even just 4 seconds behind, but I tend to be a bit more careful to include him in the conversation. He started off strong last year as well, only to lose more than 6 minutes to Madrazo in the last five mountain stages. But if he keeps up his current form, who knows.
Spilak had a rough day as well, he is now a bit more than a minute behind Herklotz. There’s a sizeable gap to Dombrowski in 4th, who trails Madrazo’s podium place by more than two and a half minutes already. Then, however, it gets really close. From the American to Meintjes, who slipped down to 13th place, it’s only 1’05. A whole bunch of riders are in the mix, as we expected from the outset, including today’s biggest surprise, Alarcon.
Quintana, Berhane, Eastman and Galta are the main riders outside of that group, although Berhane and Galta showed promise today. But all of them might feature in a breakaway soon, if they don’t make major headway over the next few days.
Speaking of, we have two more mountain stages up next. The profile for tomorrow may not be perfectly suited for big gaps among GC riders, though that depends on how the mountains throughout the stage are ridden. At the very least, we will see a lot of action for the mountain classification. But then, the day after tomorrow, comes what might arguably be the hardest stage of the entire race, with four tough climbs including the finish on the Plateau de Beille. So, a lot to look forward to. See you tomorrow!
Tour de France 
