Some of the best racing of the year, certainly the most high profile, in the Tour de France. The racing was of a high standard throughout and there were many notable performances from the established stars and new riders on the scene. Congratulations to Chris Froome, a deserved win for him and his team, but Nairo Quintana will be a formidable foe for Tours to come.
Believe it or not, but there were some other races as well, and not just warm-up races for 'Le Tour'.
Believe it or not, but there were some other races as well, and not just warm-up races for 'Le Tour'.
Smaller Races
The Tour of Luxembourg was won by 32 year old Linus Gerdemann of Cult Energy, primarily due to his stage win on the hilly classics-type stage, where he pulled off a successful attack. Andre Greipel took both the sprint stages, and young Sean De Bie won the final stage to complete a good race for Lotto-Soudal.
Andre Greipel was in action again at the Sterm ZLR Tour, taking two wins and defending well on the stages that didn't suit him to take the general classification as well. He won a wind affected stage, and survived a hilly stage to take his other win in a sprint. Other stage wins went to Roger Kluge in the prologue, Moreno Hofland in an uphill sprint and Matt Brameier in a long solo breakaway.
The Tour of Korea was an appropriate scene for a decisive Caleb Ewan victory on GC as the neo-pro Australian-Korean rider won 3 stages from sprints. It was a sprinter's race with one hilly stage, where Ewan was able to survive. Patrick Bevin took a stage win, and he was the most consistent of Ewan's challengers in the sprints, and ended up finishing 2nd on the GC. Wouter Wippert, who has been in great form this season, took two other stages and Tino Thomel took a surprise win on the final day of the race.
The Route du Sud was a pre-tour warmup for Contador and Quintana, with the pair being largely matched on the climbs, but Contador escaped on the descent of the queen stage to take the stage win and the GC. Bryan Coquard won the two sprint stages, and Steven Tronet took a surprise win for Auber 93 in an uphill sprint. Worth noting as well was the performance of Pierre-Roger Latour, the AG2R neo-pro, who stuck with Quintana and Contador for most of the climb of the queen stage.
The Tour of Austria produced a surprising winner in Victor De La Parte of Team Vorarlberg, who took the biggest win of his career, and two stages to boot. Ben Hermans and Jan Hirt continued their good form for the season by filling out the podium, but they were a ways off De La Parte on the big climbs. Moreno Moser, Lukas Postleberger, Johann Van Zyl, Rick Zabel, David Tanner and Sondre Holst Enger all took stage wins as well, they are very much second-tier riders, but got their own chance to ride for results with the Tour de France being held concurrently.
The Tour de Wallonie was the final race of the period, Belgian style classics racing, with the protagonists largely being who you would expect. Niki Terpstra won the opening cobbled stage, putting quite a bit of time into other likely GC candidates. Danny Van Poppel took two wins in his young career in a sprint and an uphill sprint, and Phillipe Gilbert easily won a hilly finish on Stage 3. Jonas Van Genechten was the winner of Stage 4 in a flat sprint and the final stage had the potential to change the overall classification picture, but was well controlled by Etixx-Quickstep for Terpstra, which allowed Van Poppel to take the victory for the stage and the Dutch Paris-Roubaix winner the GC win.
The Tour of Luxembourg was won by 32 year old Linus Gerdemann of Cult Energy, primarily due to his stage win on the hilly classics-type stage, where he pulled off a successful attack. Andre Greipel took both the sprint stages, and young Sean De Bie won the final stage to complete a good race for Lotto-Soudal.
Andre Greipel was in action again at the Sterm ZLR Tour, taking two wins and defending well on the stages that didn't suit him to take the general classification as well. He won a wind affected stage, and survived a hilly stage to take his other win in a sprint. Other stage wins went to Roger Kluge in the prologue, Moreno Hofland in an uphill sprint and Matt Brameier in a long solo breakaway.
The Tour of Korea was an appropriate scene for a decisive Caleb Ewan victory on GC as the neo-pro Australian-Korean rider won 3 stages from sprints. It was a sprinter's race with one hilly stage, where Ewan was able to survive. Patrick Bevin took a stage win, and he was the most consistent of Ewan's challengers in the sprints, and ended up finishing 2nd on the GC. Wouter Wippert, who has been in great form this season, took two other stages and Tino Thomel took a surprise win on the final day of the race.
The Route du Sud was a pre-tour warmup for Contador and Quintana, with the pair being largely matched on the climbs, but Contador escaped on the descent of the queen stage to take the stage win and the GC. Bryan Coquard won the two sprint stages, and Steven Tronet took a surprise win for Auber 93 in an uphill sprint. Worth noting as well was the performance of Pierre-Roger Latour, the AG2R neo-pro, who stuck with Quintana and Contador for most of the climb of the queen stage.
The Tour of Austria produced a surprising winner in Victor De La Parte of Team Vorarlberg, who took the biggest win of his career, and two stages to boot. Ben Hermans and Jan Hirt continued their good form for the season by filling out the podium, but they were a ways off De La Parte on the big climbs. Moreno Moser, Lukas Postleberger, Johann Van Zyl, Rick Zabel, David Tanner and Sondre Holst Enger all took stage wins as well, they are very much second-tier riders, but got their own chance to ride for results with the Tour de France being held concurrently.
The Tour de Wallonie was the final race of the period, Belgian style classics racing, with the protagonists largely being who you would expect. Niki Terpstra won the opening cobbled stage, putting quite a bit of time into other likely GC candidates. Danny Van Poppel took two wins in his young career in a sprint and an uphill sprint, and Phillipe Gilbert easily won a hilly finish on Stage 3. Jonas Van Genechten was the winner of Stage 4 in a flat sprint and the final stage had the potential to change the overall classification picture, but was well controlled by Etixx-Quickstep for Terpstra, which allowed Van Poppel to take the victory for the stage and the Dutch Paris-Roubaix winner the GC win.
Criterium du Dauphine
A really engaging race for this edition, as it has been over the last few years, with last year's GC being flipped on its head on the final stage, after the first few days had been a great battle between Froome and Contador. The course for this iteration had a lot of similarities to the upcoming Tour de France (TDF) route, with a team time trial (TTT) of a similar length to what is in the TDF as well as an exact replica of the Stage 16 stage into Pra Loup which the riders would face later. It's part of the attraction of the race for riders, and one of the main attractions that race organisers ASO opt for to get riders to go to their race rather than the Tour de Suisse or Route du Sud.
The first stage was on lumpy terrain, and coud have ended in either a sprint or a win for the attackers, and in the end Peter Kennaugh was able to attack out of a late move and just hold off the teams of the sprinters for a win. Nacer Bouhanni proved to be the fastest of the sprinters (not that there was much competition) on Stages 2 and 4, but it was worth noting the performances of Edvald Boasson Hagen, who was right up there on a lot of stages, foreshadowing his later good form in the TDF. The TTT win was taken by BMC with Movistar and Astana fairly close, but Sky were off the pace, in what must have been a worrying sign for the TDF TTT. Romain Bardet won on the replica TDF stage to Pra Loup, charging away on a daredevil descent, and maintaining his advantage on the final climb, taking the lead on GC. Tejay Van Garderen beat out Froome in the final run to the line, showing that he would be in good form for the TDF. Then came an incredibly aggressive stage in awful weather which lead to an escape royale, where Nibali, T Martin, Costa, Valverde and Gallopin formed perhaps the highest profile early breakaway of all time, holding off the peleton into the final climb, where Costa came from well back to swamp Nibali on the line, but the Italian still took yellow. Sky and BMC recovered to control the final two stages, allowing Froome to win the final two stages, and just win the GC after a close battle with Van Garderen. The big breakaway participants all faded, perhaps expending too much energy in that massive move, with Costa finishing up the best overall in 3rd.
The Dauphine comes at an interesting time, almost three weeks before the TDF and just after the Giro D'Italia, so you get a mix of riders just coming off their top form at the Giro and riders looking to build up to their peaks at the Tour. On this occasion, not many riders opted to back up after the Giro, with only lesser lights like Benat Inxausti (who finished 4th on GC) and David de le Cruz (15th) participating in both events. Plenty of TDF candidates were on show with Chris Froome (1st) and Tejay Van Garderen (2nd) looking to be the strongest and most consistent, but there were encouraging signs for most of the main players at various stages, with Alejandro Valverde (9th), Vincenzo Nibali (12th), Dan Martin (7th), Romain Bardet (6th) and Joaquim Rodriguez (8th) all showing some form.
A really engaging race for this edition, as it has been over the last few years, with last year's GC being flipped on its head on the final stage, after the first few days had been a great battle between Froome and Contador. The course for this iteration had a lot of similarities to the upcoming Tour de France (TDF) route, with a team time trial (TTT) of a similar length to what is in the TDF as well as an exact replica of the Stage 16 stage into Pra Loup which the riders would face later. It's part of the attraction of the race for riders, and one of the main attractions that race organisers ASO opt for to get riders to go to their race rather than the Tour de Suisse or Route du Sud.
The first stage was on lumpy terrain, and coud have ended in either a sprint or a win for the attackers, and in the end Peter Kennaugh was able to attack out of a late move and just hold off the teams of the sprinters for a win. Nacer Bouhanni proved to be the fastest of the sprinters (not that there was much competition) on Stages 2 and 4, but it was worth noting the performances of Edvald Boasson Hagen, who was right up there on a lot of stages, foreshadowing his later good form in the TDF. The TTT win was taken by BMC with Movistar and Astana fairly close, but Sky were off the pace, in what must have been a worrying sign for the TDF TTT. Romain Bardet won on the replica TDF stage to Pra Loup, charging away on a daredevil descent, and maintaining his advantage on the final climb, taking the lead on GC. Tejay Van Garderen beat out Froome in the final run to the line, showing that he would be in good form for the TDF. Then came an incredibly aggressive stage in awful weather which lead to an escape royale, where Nibali, T Martin, Costa, Valverde and Gallopin formed perhaps the highest profile early breakaway of all time, holding off the peleton into the final climb, where Costa came from well back to swamp Nibali on the line, but the Italian still took yellow. Sky and BMC recovered to control the final two stages, allowing Froome to win the final two stages, and just win the GC after a close battle with Van Garderen. The big breakaway participants all faded, perhaps expending too much energy in that massive move, with Costa finishing up the best overall in 3rd.
The Dauphine comes at an interesting time, almost three weeks before the TDF and just after the Giro D'Italia, so you get a mix of riders just coming off their top form at the Giro and riders looking to build up to their peaks at the Tour. On this occasion, not many riders opted to back up after the Giro, with only lesser lights like Benat Inxausti (who finished 4th on GC) and David de le Cruz (15th) participating in both events. Plenty of TDF candidates were on show with Chris Froome (1st) and Tejay Van Garderen (2nd) looking to be the strongest and most consistent, but there were encouraging signs for most of the main players at various stages, with Alejandro Valverde (9th), Vincenzo Nibali (12th), Dan Martin (7th), Romain Bardet (6th) and Joaquim Rodriguez (8th) all showing some form.
Tour de Suisse
Tom Dumoulin took the opening prologue here in a battle of the specialists, just beating out Cancellara and Matthias Brandle, by 2 and 4 seconds respectively. The next stage was one of those attackers vs sprinters stages, and a surprise winner in Kristijan Durasek emerged to win with a late attack from the front group. That stage formed the early hierarchy for the general classification, with the names that finished high here, going on take the top spots on the final GC. Peter Sagan then showed himself to have maintained his strong form from the Tour of California, winning on a technical finish, and then just finishing second to Michael Matthews on an uphill sprint on Stage 4. Sagan took another stage win on Stage 6, as well as another 2nd place, this time to Kristoff on a tough uphill finish. Alexey Lutsenko was able to take the best win of his career with a smart late attack on Stage 8.
The real GC battle occurred on the massive climb up the Rettenbachferner, and the final medium length TT. The Rettenbachferner is a truly massive climb, and the favourites struggled up it manfully. Stefan Denifl of IAM was hanging out the front from a break for quite awhile, and Simon Spilak made several attacks, but the decisive move was made by Pinot with a few kilometres to go, and none were able to follow, with Pozzovivo and Spilak finishing closest. Classy time triallists, Geraint Thomas and Tom Dumoulin both finished handily, and would hope to be in contention with a good time trial, where Pinot isn't very strong. Come the TT, Dumoulin took an impressive win, but Spilak took a surprising 2nd beating TT specialists Cancellara and Malori, and ended up winning the overall. Geraint Thomas was only 5 seconds behind, and Tom Dumoulin 19 seconds, so it was a very close call, and organisers will be happy that it came right down to the wire. Pinot was 1 minute 50 seconds behind on the TT and ended up 4th, but would have been happy with his form, and happier still that there wouldn't be many TT kilometres in the TDF.
Tom Dumoulin took the opening prologue here in a battle of the specialists, just beating out Cancellara and Matthias Brandle, by 2 and 4 seconds respectively. The next stage was one of those attackers vs sprinters stages, and a surprise winner in Kristijan Durasek emerged to win with a late attack from the front group. That stage formed the early hierarchy for the general classification, with the names that finished high here, going on take the top spots on the final GC. Peter Sagan then showed himself to have maintained his strong form from the Tour of California, winning on a technical finish, and then just finishing second to Michael Matthews on an uphill sprint on Stage 4. Sagan took another stage win on Stage 6, as well as another 2nd place, this time to Kristoff on a tough uphill finish. Alexey Lutsenko was able to take the best win of his career with a smart late attack on Stage 8.
The real GC battle occurred on the massive climb up the Rettenbachferner, and the final medium length TT. The Rettenbachferner is a truly massive climb, and the favourites struggled up it manfully. Stefan Denifl of IAM was hanging out the front from a break for quite awhile, and Simon Spilak made several attacks, but the decisive move was made by Pinot with a few kilometres to go, and none were able to follow, with Pozzovivo and Spilak finishing closest. Classy time triallists, Geraint Thomas and Tom Dumoulin both finished handily, and would hope to be in contention with a good time trial, where Pinot isn't very strong. Come the TT, Dumoulin took an impressive win, but Spilak took a surprising 2nd beating TT specialists Cancellara and Malori, and ended up winning the overall. Geraint Thomas was only 5 seconds behind, and Tom Dumoulin 19 seconds, so it was a very close call, and organisers will be happy that it came right down to the wire. Pinot was 1 minute 50 seconds behind on the TT and ended up 4th, but would have been happy with his form, and happier still that there wouldn't be many TT kilometres in the TDF.
Tour De France
Stage Winners + GC Developments
Stage 1- Rohan Dennis takes initial yellow over the short, technical opening TT. Other specialists TTists relatively close, and there isn't that much between the overall contenders.
Stage 2- Winds wreak havoc on the peleton down the Zeeland coast with Etixx-Quickstep the main instigators as they try to get Martin into yellow and thin down the number of sprinters for Cavendish. Cancellara upsets the first part of the plan by finishing third and taking bonus seconds to move into yellow after Dennis missed the move, and Greipel upsets the second part by beating Cav, who had to start his sprint a long way out. A lot of favourites lost time, and only Froome, Van Garderen, Contador, Barguil and Thomas avoided a loss of time of over a minute and a half. Pierre Rolland was the biggest GC loser of the day, falling over 5 minutes behind.
Stage 3- The Mur de Huy stage allowed the classics specialists to come to the fore, but it was a huge crash that resulted in a neutralisation of the race that created the big talking point of the day, and shaped the rest of the Tour. Joaquim Rodriguez powered clear on the Mur, with Chris Froome surprisingly nearly joining him as he put time into the rest of the contenders, but it was more of a mental advantage for the Brit than a significant time advantage at this stage. Cancellara was caught up in the crash, and limped in to the finish, later retiring, and losing yellow to Chris Froome, with Martin only a second behind.
Stage 4- The cobbled stage was dry and relatively easy, with most of the contenders staying out of trouble. However, Thibaut Pinot and Pierre Rolland both lost over 3 minutes, whilst Daniel Martin fared the worst, dropping over 5 minutes. Tony Martin had a much better day however, soloing off the front in final kilometres to take the stage win and yellow.
Stage 5- A sprint stage, with strong winds in the early part of the stage which caused a big split in the peleton, luckily without any big names missing out. The sprinters had lost part of their leadout trains, which made the sprint a bit unstructured, which lead to a sprint from a long way out, which allowed an out of position Greipel to come from a long way back to win.
Stage 6- A stage along the coast, again with the potential for high winds, but they didn't eventuate, and it came down to the hill which ended just before the finish, making it one for the climby sprinters. Zdenek Stybar escaped from the bunch, and no one took up the chase, not wanting to drag Sagan into contention, and it ended up with Stybar taking the win. Unfortunately his yellow-jersey wearing teammate, Tony Martin crashed out of the race, and caused momentary panic, as he also brought down Froome and Nibali.
Stage 7- Noone wore the yellow jersey on this stage, as Martin managed to finish the previous day, and because the crash was in the final 3 kilometres, he received the bunch time, but subsequently retired. Cavendish took the stage in a sprint, shouldering Sagan off Greipel's wheel, who launched an early sprint to make up for his bad position, and then smartly taking the inside line on the corner to take the stage win. Froome would move back into yellow, with Sagan looking at the possibility of moving into contention with a good sequence of results.
Stage 8- The first win for the French with Vuillermoz taking the stage win, when he escaped in a canny attack from the front group on the Mur de Bretagne and then was strong enough to maintain his gap to the line. Some contenders lost time here; Geraint Thomas, Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet and Vincenzo Nibali all showed weakness and lost a bit of time.
Stage 9- The team time trial was tight at the top, with BMC taking the win by a solitary second from Sky, with Movistar only 4 seconds back. Tinkoff-Saxo and Astana both conceded about half a minute, but all other contenders conceded over a minute with Joaquim Rodriguez being the worst effected, losing 1.53.
REST DAY
Top 10 on GC after first rest day:
1. Chris Froome- Leader
2. Tejay Van Garderen- 12 seconds
3. Greg Van Avermaet- 27 seconds
4. Peter Sagan- 38 seconds
5. Alberto Contador - 1.08
6. Rigoberto Uran- 1.18
7. Alejandro Valverde- 1.50
8. Geraint Thomas- 1.52
9. Nairo Quintana- 1.59
10. Zdenek Stybar- 1.59
Other significant riders:
13. Vincenzo Nibali- 2.22
15. Robert Gesink- 2.52
16. Bauke Mollema- 2.56
19. Andrew Talansky- 4.17
20. Matthias Frank- 4.32
21. Romain Bardet- 4.38
25. Samuel Sanchez- 6.17
36. Pierre Rolland- 11.43
Stage Winners + GC Developments
Stage 1- Rohan Dennis takes initial yellow over the short, technical opening TT. Other specialists TTists relatively close, and there isn't that much between the overall contenders.
Stage 2- Winds wreak havoc on the peleton down the Zeeland coast with Etixx-Quickstep the main instigators as they try to get Martin into yellow and thin down the number of sprinters for Cavendish. Cancellara upsets the first part of the plan by finishing third and taking bonus seconds to move into yellow after Dennis missed the move, and Greipel upsets the second part by beating Cav, who had to start his sprint a long way out. A lot of favourites lost time, and only Froome, Van Garderen, Contador, Barguil and Thomas avoided a loss of time of over a minute and a half. Pierre Rolland was the biggest GC loser of the day, falling over 5 minutes behind.
Stage 3- The Mur de Huy stage allowed the classics specialists to come to the fore, but it was a huge crash that resulted in a neutralisation of the race that created the big talking point of the day, and shaped the rest of the Tour. Joaquim Rodriguez powered clear on the Mur, with Chris Froome surprisingly nearly joining him as he put time into the rest of the contenders, but it was more of a mental advantage for the Brit than a significant time advantage at this stage. Cancellara was caught up in the crash, and limped in to the finish, later retiring, and losing yellow to Chris Froome, with Martin only a second behind.
Stage 4- The cobbled stage was dry and relatively easy, with most of the contenders staying out of trouble. However, Thibaut Pinot and Pierre Rolland both lost over 3 minutes, whilst Daniel Martin fared the worst, dropping over 5 minutes. Tony Martin had a much better day however, soloing off the front in final kilometres to take the stage win and yellow.
Stage 5- A sprint stage, with strong winds in the early part of the stage which caused a big split in the peleton, luckily without any big names missing out. The sprinters had lost part of their leadout trains, which made the sprint a bit unstructured, which lead to a sprint from a long way out, which allowed an out of position Greipel to come from a long way back to win.
Stage 6- A stage along the coast, again with the potential for high winds, but they didn't eventuate, and it came down to the hill which ended just before the finish, making it one for the climby sprinters. Zdenek Stybar escaped from the bunch, and no one took up the chase, not wanting to drag Sagan into contention, and it ended up with Stybar taking the win. Unfortunately his yellow-jersey wearing teammate, Tony Martin crashed out of the race, and caused momentary panic, as he also brought down Froome and Nibali.
Stage 7- Noone wore the yellow jersey on this stage, as Martin managed to finish the previous day, and because the crash was in the final 3 kilometres, he received the bunch time, but subsequently retired. Cavendish took the stage in a sprint, shouldering Sagan off Greipel's wheel, who launched an early sprint to make up for his bad position, and then smartly taking the inside line on the corner to take the stage win. Froome would move back into yellow, with Sagan looking at the possibility of moving into contention with a good sequence of results.
Stage 8- The first win for the French with Vuillermoz taking the stage win, when he escaped in a canny attack from the front group on the Mur de Bretagne and then was strong enough to maintain his gap to the line. Some contenders lost time here; Geraint Thomas, Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet and Vincenzo Nibali all showed weakness and lost a bit of time.
Stage 9- The team time trial was tight at the top, with BMC taking the win by a solitary second from Sky, with Movistar only 4 seconds back. Tinkoff-Saxo and Astana both conceded about half a minute, but all other contenders conceded over a minute with Joaquim Rodriguez being the worst effected, losing 1.53.
REST DAY
Top 10 on GC after first rest day:
1. Chris Froome- Leader
2. Tejay Van Garderen- 12 seconds
3. Greg Van Avermaet- 27 seconds
4. Peter Sagan- 38 seconds
5. Alberto Contador - 1.08
6. Rigoberto Uran- 1.18
7. Alejandro Valverde- 1.50
8. Geraint Thomas- 1.52
9. Nairo Quintana- 1.59
10. Zdenek Stybar- 1.59
Other significant riders:
13. Vincenzo Nibali- 2.22
15. Robert Gesink- 2.52
16. Bauke Mollema- 2.56
19. Andrew Talansky- 4.17
20. Matthias Frank- 4.32
21. Romain Bardet- 4.38
25. Samuel Sanchez- 6.17
36. Pierre Rolland- 11.43
Stage 10- Chris Froome wins the stage and puts over a minute into all his rivals on the first mountain stage of the Tour. Quintana was the closest at 1.04 down, and all the rest lost big time, with Bardet, Pinot and Talansky in particular losing huge chunks of time.
Stage 11- Rafal Majka took a win from the break, escaping at the top of the Col du Tourmalet, and holding off the chase of Martin, Buchmann and Pauwels to win the stage. The battle for the GC was muted, but riders like Nibali, Barguil and Talansky still lost a bit of time. Bardet lost a massive amount of time again, and Rodriguez capitulated here, and would refocus him ambitions after falling completely out of the GC fight.
Stage 12- A big break was allowed to get away and build up a big advantage, and Rodriguez took a stage win on the big summit finish to Plateau de Beille, beating out Fuglsang and Bardet. Froome looked his most vulnerable so far in the GC battle, but a combination of a headwind and Geraint Thomas ensured that Froome was able to defend well enough.
Stage 13- A lumpy day with a tough uphill finish in Rodez, where Greg Van Avermaet did a tired little celebration after going hammer and tongs for the whole of the final climb. Sagan managed to get to his wheel, but was unable to come out of it, consigning the Slovakian to yet another minor placing.
Stage 14- A devilish final climb to Mende was the finale of the stage here, with it looking like it would be decided by Pinot and Bardet from a breakaway, but Steven Cummings swept in late on the downhill after the climb to surprise the French duo and take a memorable win for the African team MTN-Qhubeka. Quintana and Froome were the fastest of the GC candidates, with all the others losing a fair bit of time, entrenching expectations that Quintana vs Froome would be the main battle for the rest of the Tour.
Stage 15- Another sprint stage and another win for Greipel after Katusha kept the break in check throughout the stage. The sprinters had every chance to beat the Gorilla here, he had to leadout the sprint from a long way out, with Degenkolb in particular being in a great position to take advantage, but just wasn't quick enough.
Stage 16- The stage into Gap is always one for the breakaway, and it proved no different here, with an in-form Ruben Plaza taking the win. Geraint Thomas had a bad looking crash on the descent, but suffered no lasting injury, and recovered to finish in the main group.
REST DAY
Top 10 on GC after second rest day:
1. Chris Froome- leader
2. Nairo Quintana- 3.10
3. Tejay Van Garderen- 3.32
4. Alejandro Valverde- 4.02
5. Alberto Contador- 4.23
6. Geraint Thomas- 5.32
7. Robert Gesink- 6.23
8. Vincenzo Nibali- 7.49
9. Bauke Mollema- 8.53
10. Warren Barguil- 11.03
Other significant riders:
12. Romain Bardet- 13.10
13. Matthias Frank- 13.23
14. Samuel Sanchez- 15.18
15. Pierre Rolland- 15.55
17. Andrew Talansky- 23.15
Stage 11- Rafal Majka took a win from the break, escaping at the top of the Col du Tourmalet, and holding off the chase of Martin, Buchmann and Pauwels to win the stage. The battle for the GC was muted, but riders like Nibali, Barguil and Talansky still lost a bit of time. Bardet lost a massive amount of time again, and Rodriguez capitulated here, and would refocus him ambitions after falling completely out of the GC fight.
Stage 12- A big break was allowed to get away and build up a big advantage, and Rodriguez took a stage win on the big summit finish to Plateau de Beille, beating out Fuglsang and Bardet. Froome looked his most vulnerable so far in the GC battle, but a combination of a headwind and Geraint Thomas ensured that Froome was able to defend well enough.
Stage 13- A lumpy day with a tough uphill finish in Rodez, where Greg Van Avermaet did a tired little celebration after going hammer and tongs for the whole of the final climb. Sagan managed to get to his wheel, but was unable to come out of it, consigning the Slovakian to yet another minor placing.
Stage 14- A devilish final climb to Mende was the finale of the stage here, with it looking like it would be decided by Pinot and Bardet from a breakaway, but Steven Cummings swept in late on the downhill after the climb to surprise the French duo and take a memorable win for the African team MTN-Qhubeka. Quintana and Froome were the fastest of the GC candidates, with all the others losing a fair bit of time, entrenching expectations that Quintana vs Froome would be the main battle for the rest of the Tour.
Stage 15- Another sprint stage and another win for Greipel after Katusha kept the break in check throughout the stage. The sprinters had every chance to beat the Gorilla here, he had to leadout the sprint from a long way out, with Degenkolb in particular being in a great position to take advantage, but just wasn't quick enough.
Stage 16- The stage into Gap is always one for the breakaway, and it proved no different here, with an in-form Ruben Plaza taking the win. Geraint Thomas had a bad looking crash on the descent, but suffered no lasting injury, and recovered to finish in the main group.
REST DAY
Top 10 on GC after second rest day:
1. Chris Froome- leader
2. Nairo Quintana- 3.10
3. Tejay Van Garderen- 3.32
4. Alejandro Valverde- 4.02
5. Alberto Contador- 4.23
6. Geraint Thomas- 5.32
7. Robert Gesink- 6.23
8. Vincenzo Nibali- 7.49
9. Bauke Mollema- 8.53
10. Warren Barguil- 11.03
Other significant riders:
12. Romain Bardet- 13.10
13. Matthias Frank- 13.23
14. Samuel Sanchez- 15.18
15. Pierre Rolland- 15.55
17. Andrew Talansky- 23.15
Stage 17- The theme of breakaway wins continued, with Simon Geschke winning after launching a brave move of the escape group to take an emotional win. Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome again proved stronger than the rest in the battle behind and equal, but the other contenders struggled behind, with Contador in particular dropping out of contention for the yellow, losing another two minutes.
Stage 18- Romain Bardet escaped over the top of the Col du Glandon, and expanded the gap on the descent, and was able to hold off a spirited chase by Pierre Rolland to take a stage win. The battle for yellow expected behind didn't really occur, and the GC riders finished together.
Stage 19- The Col de la Croix de Fer saw a furious pace set from the bottom by Astana and Movistar, and the attacks near the top isolated Froome from most of his squad except for Wouter Poels. He then suffered a mechanical, which Nibali used to attack, and whilst the other riders didn't follow, and Froome was allowed to return, the Italian was well gone and joined up with early escapee Rolland, and pushed out his lead to 2.30. At the margin he was beginning to threaten the positions of the Movistar pair, but they had little in the way of teammates to chase the move, and it had to wait for a general regrouping of Sky riders at the front to organise a chase. The summit finish up La Toussuire saw an attack by Valverde, forcing Froome to respond and the counterattack by Quintana saw the Colombian get a gap, which he continued to increase gradually into the finish line, taking an advantage of 32 seconds. All the other contenders were well back, and it was a particularly disastrous day for Geraint Thomas, who lost 22 minutes on the day, tumbling from 4th to 15th overall.
Stage 20- The pace was again hot on the Col de la Croix de Fer, the climb which had to do double duty after landslides on the Col du Galibier. Attacks went away and Quintana was on the move early, and even had a small gap heading over the climb, but was swiftly gathered in by Froome, who despite being dangerously isolated at that point, had a number of riders join him on the descent and the subsequent flat. Thibaut Pinot and Ryder Hesjedal made use of the slow down on the flat to launch and escape, which would last into the finish, with Pinot taking a consolation win, but a very memorable one up Alpe d'Huez. Behind him, the GC battle was on in earnest as Valverde launced Quintana in a coordinated attack. Sky then used up Porte and Poels in setting a good pace for Froome most of the way up the climb, but the Brit had to still do the last 5 kilometres by himself. Quintana was riding away quickly, but not fast enough to trouble Froome's lead, and in the end Froome still had over a minute in hand when he crossed the line.
Stage 21- What little GC suspense there may have been was taken away by the organisers announcing that the last 60 kms were neutralised from a GC perspective. The stage was still on for the sprinters however, and Greipel took another win, after Katusha's leadout just faltered before Kristoff was in the best spot to launch his sprint. Coquard also passed the Norwegian, but couldn't challenge Greipel, who took his 4th win in a memorable Tour for the big German.
Top 15 on GC:
1. Chris Froome- Winner
2. Nairo Quintana- 1.12
3. Alejandro Valverde- 5.25
4 . Vincenzo Nibali- 8.36
5 . Alberto Contador- 9.48
6. Robert Gesink- 10.46
7. Bauke Mollema- 15.14
8. Matthias Frank- 15.39
9. Romain Bardet- 16.00
10. Pierre Rolland- 17.30
11. Andrew Talansky- 22.03
12. Samuel Sanchez- 22.50
13. Serge Pauwels- 31.03
14. Warren Barguil- 31.15
15. Geraint Thomas- 31.39
Stage 18- Romain Bardet escaped over the top of the Col du Glandon, and expanded the gap on the descent, and was able to hold off a spirited chase by Pierre Rolland to take a stage win. The battle for yellow expected behind didn't really occur, and the GC riders finished together.
Stage 19- The Col de la Croix de Fer saw a furious pace set from the bottom by Astana and Movistar, and the attacks near the top isolated Froome from most of his squad except for Wouter Poels. He then suffered a mechanical, which Nibali used to attack, and whilst the other riders didn't follow, and Froome was allowed to return, the Italian was well gone and joined up with early escapee Rolland, and pushed out his lead to 2.30. At the margin he was beginning to threaten the positions of the Movistar pair, but they had little in the way of teammates to chase the move, and it had to wait for a general regrouping of Sky riders at the front to organise a chase. The summit finish up La Toussuire saw an attack by Valverde, forcing Froome to respond and the counterattack by Quintana saw the Colombian get a gap, which he continued to increase gradually into the finish line, taking an advantage of 32 seconds. All the other contenders were well back, and it was a particularly disastrous day for Geraint Thomas, who lost 22 minutes on the day, tumbling from 4th to 15th overall.
Stage 20- The pace was again hot on the Col de la Croix de Fer, the climb which had to do double duty after landslides on the Col du Galibier. Attacks went away and Quintana was on the move early, and even had a small gap heading over the climb, but was swiftly gathered in by Froome, who despite being dangerously isolated at that point, had a number of riders join him on the descent and the subsequent flat. Thibaut Pinot and Ryder Hesjedal made use of the slow down on the flat to launch and escape, which would last into the finish, with Pinot taking a consolation win, but a very memorable one up Alpe d'Huez. Behind him, the GC battle was on in earnest as Valverde launced Quintana in a coordinated attack. Sky then used up Porte and Poels in setting a good pace for Froome most of the way up the climb, but the Brit had to still do the last 5 kilometres by himself. Quintana was riding away quickly, but not fast enough to trouble Froome's lead, and in the end Froome still had over a minute in hand when he crossed the line.
Stage 21- What little GC suspense there may have been was taken away by the organisers announcing that the last 60 kms were neutralised from a GC perspective. The stage was still on for the sprinters however, and Greipel took another win, after Katusha's leadout just faltered before Kristoff was in the best spot to launch his sprint. Coquard also passed the Norwegian, but couldn't challenge Greipel, who took his 4th win in a memorable Tour for the big German.
Top 15 on GC:
1. Chris Froome- Winner
2. Nairo Quintana- 1.12
3. Alejandro Valverde- 5.25
4 . Vincenzo Nibali- 8.36
5 . Alberto Contador- 9.48
6. Robert Gesink- 10.46
7. Bauke Mollema- 15.14
8. Matthias Frank- 15.39
9. Romain Bardet- 16.00
10. Pierre Rolland- 17.30
11. Andrew Talansky- 22.03
12. Samuel Sanchez- 22.50
13. Serge Pauwels- 31.03
14. Warren Barguil- 31.15
15. Geraint Thomas- 31.39
Tour de France Tactics
This TDF underlined the importance of having a strong team around your GC candidate at all times, with the Sky team really the difference between Froome and Quintana in the end. The time gap from stage 2 was 1.28 and the final margin 1.12. Apart from that the riders were largely equal, with Froome taking time in the first few weeks, whilst Quintana got stronger and stronger throughout, but just had too much time to make up when it came down to it. Team Sky came into play crucially for Froome in those latter stages, in two key moments in particular, the Plateau de Beille stage, where Thomas rode down repeated attacks from all the main players, and kept the race together; and on the Alpe d'Huez where Froome couldn't even try to keep up with Quintana's attack, and relied on Porte and Poels to keep him going for as long as possible up the final climb. They also did a very good job setting him up for his stage win on Stage 10, something Movistar didn't do for Quintana.
Which brings me to my next point, the success of breakaways in the Tour. Team Sky had a nice cushion for Froome, and once confirming that none of the top 10 or so riders were attempting a breakaway (which they did try a few times) they were very happy to let the move go and win the day. This had the effect of taking the bonus seconds away from the finish, and lessened the impact of Quintana finishing ahead of Froome. What surprised me was that Movistar rarely took up the race themselves and drove the pace in the peleton. True, it would have taken seven stage wins for Quintana to make up the extra time, but you have to take all the advantages available to you, and setting a higher tempo earlier in the stage should have the added effect of dropping Sky riders and possibly isolating Froome. None of the teams really tried this until the final two stages, and it worked well there, with Sky riders falling away, and Froome losing time.
Movistar also played Valverde interestingly, quite conservatively, but it was clear that both he and the team wanted him to maintain his podium spot in the GC. He did often make the first move on climbs, trying to provoke a response, which could be countered by Quintana, but his attacks were often ridden back just by Sky's riders, and really required Froome to be isolated to do the chasing by himself.
For the rest of the Top 6 down to Gesink, they were in the front group each time up the main mountains stages, and weren't allowed any freedom beyond that, with the exception of Nibali, who used Froome's mechanical to attack and win a stage. Lower than that however, and it was a breakaway extravaganza, with Bardet, Rolland, Pauwels and Talansky participating in 3 or 4 long breakaways each during the Tour. These were critical in getting these riders up the GC, and when you look at where those riders were on the GC after the first week or two of stages, Rolland in particular it was a great effort for them to recover. As I said however, it was totally due to the fact that no team was willing to take up the chase that this happened, and credit to them for identifying the dynamic and profiting from it.
In terms of general day-to-day tactics I was surprised by the lack of ambition by most teams, with the notable exceptions of Ettixx-Quickstep and Europcar, who were at least trying different tactics, and always racing for the win. Ettixx-Quickstep managed a few wins, by just attacking rather than waiting for the race to go to a sprint (with Tony Martin and Zdenek Stybar), and all the other teams just watched them go. They also instigated the Stage 2 peleton split, and were the primary drivers of the move, and even though they didn't achieve their goals for the stage (getting Martin in yellow and Cavendish the stage win), they were at least proactive in their strategies. Europcar also drew my attention by actively supporting Rolland in his breakaways, he would often have Gautier, Voeckler or Sicard with him to drive the move and help his drive up the GC, as well as for the chance of a stage win.
Final point, Peter Sagan is a phenomenal rider who gets no support. He did all his sprints without a leadout, got in a few breakaways and did his own thing for some placings, and even on the hillly finishes which suited him down to the ground, he wasn't given any help. The problem Sagan faces is that on those hilly stages where all the other sprinters are eliminated, all the other riders know that he's the fastest, so they're not prepared to do any work on the front, and if any attacks go, the onus is on him to chase them down, ala the stages Stybar and Vuillermoz won. On the other hand, if he attacks, he is putting himself in a position where he has to rely entirely on his climbing, which whilst good, isn't his strongest ability, and we saw Van Avermaet beat him in a straight up slog up the final hill. In all those stages he just needed one rider to do a job for him, maybe a lesser classics rider like a Simon Geschke or Paul Martens. It's the difference between him and a rider like Gilbert, who has full team support and is allowed to race each race on his own terms.
This TDF underlined the importance of having a strong team around your GC candidate at all times, with the Sky team really the difference between Froome and Quintana in the end. The time gap from stage 2 was 1.28 and the final margin 1.12. Apart from that the riders were largely equal, with Froome taking time in the first few weeks, whilst Quintana got stronger and stronger throughout, but just had too much time to make up when it came down to it. Team Sky came into play crucially for Froome in those latter stages, in two key moments in particular, the Plateau de Beille stage, where Thomas rode down repeated attacks from all the main players, and kept the race together; and on the Alpe d'Huez where Froome couldn't even try to keep up with Quintana's attack, and relied on Porte and Poels to keep him going for as long as possible up the final climb. They also did a very good job setting him up for his stage win on Stage 10, something Movistar didn't do for Quintana.
Which brings me to my next point, the success of breakaways in the Tour. Team Sky had a nice cushion for Froome, and once confirming that none of the top 10 or so riders were attempting a breakaway (which they did try a few times) they were very happy to let the move go and win the day. This had the effect of taking the bonus seconds away from the finish, and lessened the impact of Quintana finishing ahead of Froome. What surprised me was that Movistar rarely took up the race themselves and drove the pace in the peleton. True, it would have taken seven stage wins for Quintana to make up the extra time, but you have to take all the advantages available to you, and setting a higher tempo earlier in the stage should have the added effect of dropping Sky riders and possibly isolating Froome. None of the teams really tried this until the final two stages, and it worked well there, with Sky riders falling away, and Froome losing time.
Movistar also played Valverde interestingly, quite conservatively, but it was clear that both he and the team wanted him to maintain his podium spot in the GC. He did often make the first move on climbs, trying to provoke a response, which could be countered by Quintana, but his attacks were often ridden back just by Sky's riders, and really required Froome to be isolated to do the chasing by himself.
For the rest of the Top 6 down to Gesink, they were in the front group each time up the main mountains stages, and weren't allowed any freedom beyond that, with the exception of Nibali, who used Froome's mechanical to attack and win a stage. Lower than that however, and it was a breakaway extravaganza, with Bardet, Rolland, Pauwels and Talansky participating in 3 or 4 long breakaways each during the Tour. These were critical in getting these riders up the GC, and when you look at where those riders were on the GC after the first week or two of stages, Rolland in particular it was a great effort for them to recover. As I said however, it was totally due to the fact that no team was willing to take up the chase that this happened, and credit to them for identifying the dynamic and profiting from it.
In terms of general day-to-day tactics I was surprised by the lack of ambition by most teams, with the notable exceptions of Ettixx-Quickstep and Europcar, who were at least trying different tactics, and always racing for the win. Ettixx-Quickstep managed a few wins, by just attacking rather than waiting for the race to go to a sprint (with Tony Martin and Zdenek Stybar), and all the other teams just watched them go. They also instigated the Stage 2 peleton split, and were the primary drivers of the move, and even though they didn't achieve their goals for the stage (getting Martin in yellow and Cavendish the stage win), they were at least proactive in their strategies. Europcar also drew my attention by actively supporting Rolland in his breakaways, he would often have Gautier, Voeckler or Sicard with him to drive the move and help his drive up the GC, as well as for the chance of a stage win.
Final point, Peter Sagan is a phenomenal rider who gets no support. He did all his sprints without a leadout, got in a few breakaways and did his own thing for some placings, and even on the hillly finishes which suited him down to the ground, he wasn't given any help. The problem Sagan faces is that on those hilly stages where all the other sprinters are eliminated, all the other riders know that he's the fastest, so they're not prepared to do any work on the front, and if any attacks go, the onus is on him to chase them down, ala the stages Stybar and Vuillermoz won. On the other hand, if he attacks, he is putting himself in a position where he has to rely entirely on his climbing, which whilst good, isn't his strongest ability, and we saw Van Avermaet beat him in a straight up slog up the final hill. In all those stages he just needed one rider to do a job for him, maybe a lesser classics rider like a Simon Geschke or Paul Martens. It's the difference between him and a rider like Gilbert, who has full team support and is allowed to race each race on his own terms.