STAGE 17 REPORT:
 |
| Stage 17 on the map |
124.5K From
Saint-Gaudens to Pla d'Adet
Weather: Sunny, 80
f; light wind
The 17th stage of
the 2014 Tour De France was dubbed the queen stage of the race. It began with
about 50k of relatively flat roads.
The final 75k featured virtually no flat roads. What it did feature were
four big mountains for the peloton to climb. First, three category-1 climbs:
the 1292-meter high Col du Portillon, the 1569m Col de Peyresourde, the 1580m
Col de Val Louron Azet; and then came the finish, 1654m up on top of the Hors Categorie Pla d'Adet.
An 8-man break got
away early, without the top mountain jersey contenders. Joaquim Rodriguez
tried, but failed to get into the break again. As a result, his Katusha team chased hard to try and bridge
the gap to the leaders before they reached the mountains.
 |
| Stage 17 profile, with four big Pyrenean climbs |
The 8 escapees
were: Gautier, Slagter, Elmiger,
Arashiro, Edet, Kadri, Voigt, and
Paulinho. They held a lead of one minute by the intermediate sprint point
at km 31. Kadri took the INT ahead of Elmiger and Paulinho...
**Just noting that Cyril
Gautier has made the break four times so far (on stages 9, 14, 16 and 17). Europcar
have had riders in most of the breaks so far, but they have yet to claim a
stage win. In fact, the French squad hadn't even had a top 3 finish until
Thomas Voeckler's second place finish on yesterday's stage 16.
Simon Spilak did
some work driving the Katusha train at the front of the peloton in the first
half of the race. Before they reached the first climb however, Spilak pulled
off and quit the race. It looked like back pain.
The riders crossed
the border into Spain, keeping the break on a tight leash. With 75k to go, the
peloton trailed the 8 leaders by just 34 seconds as they reached the first
climb of the day. Joaquim Rodriguez was first to attack from the peloton. He
quickly bridged up to the crumbling lead group, and was first over the summit
of the Col du Portillon, temporarily
regaining the lead in the king of the mountains competition.
A flurry of attacks
ensued on the Portillon descent, and a new lead group formed with Juaquim Rodriguez, Alessandro De Marchi, David Lopez (SKY), Nico Roche
(TCS), Kristjan Durasek (LAM), and
Bauke Mollema (BEL). They were soon
joined by a chasing group that contained Rafal Majka, and expanded to 21
riders, as they passed back into France and readied for the second climb.
Team SKY's Vasil Kiryienka went on the attack on the Col de Peyresourde.
With 50k to go,
Nico Roche led the 21-man chase group, at about 1:40 behind Kiryienka. The GC
peloton was at +3:00. Michal
Kwiatkowski was one of the first to falter on the climb. Roche and Herrada broke
free, and crossed the Peyressourde summit trailing Kiryienka by 1:14. JRod and Majka were next, at 1:49; and
the peloton crossed over at 5:25. The escapees started to see some hope of
surviving.
Roche and Herrada
did not work well together, and seemed to be grumbling at each other. With
about 30k to go, Roche was called back to help Majka, and the dueling duo were
reeled in on the flat roads leading to the third climb of the day.
Kiryienka continued
to lead in front, as he hit the Col de
Val Louron with a one-minute advantage over the first chase group--which
had been reduced to 17 riders. The
peloton was still over five minutes back, as FDJ came up front to share the
pace-making with Astana. AG2R and Movistar were staying close to the front of
the peloton as well.
Riders were being
dropped off the back as the peloton, driven mostly by Roche and Jeannesson,
picked up the tempo. Fuglsang and Thomas fell back.
Van Den Broeck and
others fell off the 1st chase group before the summit. Kiryienka tried to hang
on to his lead, but was caught just before the summit of the Val Louron.
Rodriguez attacked and outsprinted Majka to the KOM line.
*km 102.5: 3rd KOM; Val Louron (7.4k at 8.3%):
1. JRod 2. Majka 3. Izagirre 4.
Mollema 5. Velits 6. Moinard
With 20k to go the
riders began the dizzying descent of the Val Louron. The yellow jersey group
splintered apart as FDJ attacked first, right after the KOM line at the top.
Nibali followed, and a chase group of ten formed. Romain Bardet launched a brave attack on the descent, gaining time on
Nibali, and chasing the leaders in no man's land for a while.
At the bottom of
the descent, Pierre Rolland attacked
the lead group, taking just 3 others along, into the lead: Roche, Visconti, and
Moinard. They led the race onto the final climb of the day: the HC Pla
d'Adet (10.2k at 8.3%). Ten riders
chased the four leaders with 10k to go, at about +:25. Bardet was at 1:35, and
the now 11-man yellow jersey group (YJG) chased at 2:11. Pinot led the YJG onto
the final climb, as they swept up a fading Kiryienka.
 |
| the peloton rode through the gorgeous Pyrenees on stage 17 |
Another series of
attacks followed, on the first km of the climb. Nico Roche managed to break free, and then Giovanni Visconti followed suit. Shortly after the leaders rounded the
"Poulidor Corner", with about 8.6k to go, Visconti attacked again, and went away alone up the Pla d'Adet, and
into the lead.
Jeannesson did
tremendous work for his leader Pinot on the Pla d'Adet, paring down the YJG,
and narrowing the gap to the leader, Visconti.
Inside 8k to go,
Majka led an attack pulling eight riders along, then just four, and then he
summarily dropped them all, including JRod, Izagirre and Schleck.
With 7k to go Majka
bridged up to the first chase group, containing his teammate Roche, who was
still with Rolland and Moinard. The foursome chased after Visconti for about a
kilometer, until Roche pulled off. Then Majka dropped Moinard and Rolland and
went after Visconti alone.
 |
| profile of the final climb: Pla d'Adet |
Back down the road
were Bardet, still chasing alone, some other remnants of the earlier breaks,
and then the Nibali group (including Kangert, Pinot, Valverde, Van Garderen,
Mollema, Velits, and Nieve), slowly closing the gap.
Inside 6k to go,
Jeannesson finally dropped off, and Peraud attacked the yellow jersey group,
and bridged up to Bardet. The move
dislodged Valverde and Nieve in quick order. Nibali, TJVG and Pinot climbed
onto Peraud's wheel, distancing the other GC contenders.
With 5k to go, a quick
succession of attacks from Nibali showed a chink in Van Garderen's armor, and
then Nibali was off. Peraud was the only rider able to get on the Shark's
wheel. They passed earlier escapees including Van Den Broeck and JRod, who didn't look likely to challenge
Majka for the copious mountain points available on the double-value HC summit
finish.
With 4.2k to go to
the summit, Majka caught the leader, Visconti. Visconti had held them all off
for 4 or 5 kms of the steep climb. Now Majka took the lead.
Nibali and Peraud
continued to chase together, passing more fading riders from the earlier break.
Behind, Valverde had Izagirre with him to help limit his losses, and catch him
up to the TJVG group.
Nibali and Peraud
hooked up with De Marchi with about 2k to go, and the trio chased after Majka
and Visconti ahead..
Majka gave a sly
wink to the moto camera inside the final kilometer, knowing a huge win lay just
ahead of him. Van Garderen tried a late attack further back, dropping Valverde
again.
Majka pushed up to
the summit of the Pla d'Adet . He gestured for some noise from the crowd, and
he got it. Majka crossed the line with an emphatic series of fist pumps, and
took a big win on the first Pyrenean summit finish on Pla d'Adet.
 |
| Nicolas Roche getting some encouragement from the fans |
The young Pole took
his second stage win of the race. He also took a nice lead over Purito in the
KOM competition, earning 50 KOM points on the final climb, and reclaiming the
polka dot jersey. Nibali actually passed JRod to take 2nd place in the KOM
competition.
Visconti managed to
hold on for 2nd place;
Nibali led Peraud
over the line next;
ADM crossed the
line in 5th.
 |
| Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo got his 2nd stage win |
Among the GC
favorites, only Peraud was able to stay with Nibali's accelerations in the
mountains today.
Several riders
shuffled their GC positions today in the Pyrenees. Among them:
AV holds onto 2nd
place on GC, ahead of Pinot by :34 after finishing 5 seconds ahead of his young
rival.
Peraud narrows the
gap to Pinot from 1:02 to just eight seconds. The fight for the podium
positions will continue through the stage 20 ITT.
Bardet and TVG hold
onto 5th and 6th positions.
Mollema does well
to jump from 10th to 7th place on GC;
Ten Dam leapfrogs
over Konig, but still sits in 8th place, since Mollema jumped them both;
Konig drops from
7th to 9th, after losing more than three minutes to the yellow jersey today.
Rolland jumps over
Zubeldia, and pulls himself into the top 10.
Tourmalet and
Hautacam tomorrow!
 |
| Profile of stage 18; the final summit finish in the Pyrenees |
Tomorrow is the
last summit finish, and the last chance for the climbing specialists to gain
time on those who excel in the time trial. We should see more of what we saw
today, with the GC contenders battling on stage 18 for better positions in the overall
standings. The Tourmalet and
Hautacam are beasts of climbs. Both are HC, and could blow up any legs that
reach their limits there. They are also separated by the wicked Tourmalet
descent. We may see some riders take big risks on the descent to try and get
gaps before the final climb. I would not expect the break to succeed tomorrow,
as the GC contenders will want to race for time. We may see another fight for
the KOM jersey tomorrow, as Rodriguez still has a shot at it. although Majka
has a lead, a high finish from Nibali could ruin the day for Majka and JRod.
My pick for stage
18: Vincenzo Nibali.
No comments:
Post a Comment