Last Year’s Champ ‘The Shark of Messina’ wins Stage 19
Vincenzo Nibali won Stage 19 staying ahead of a surging Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team. Nabili's victory was his first of this year's Tour. Because of the splits in the peloton going up La Toussuire, a Category 1 climb to the finish at the summit, there were changes in the GC and the King of the Mountain standings. Chris Froome, Team Sky, lost 30 seconds to Quintana, and a little over a minute to last year’s Tour champion, Nibali, who is currently 6 minutes 44 seconds behind in the GC Standings.
Stage 19 was the next to last stage of the Tour De France that GC contenders had to battle Chris Froome, Team Sky, for the Yellow Jersey. Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team, had the most realistic chance to overtake Froome. So far Team Sky has helped Froome hold off all challengers.
Stage 19 is a 138 km (86 mile) stage through the Alps with a Hors Categorie (HC) climb of the Col de la Croix De Fer (Pass of the Iron Cross), from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire. It was another partly sunny day with temperatures reaching up to 34 degrees C (93 F) with rain at the opening part of the stage.
A breakaway group of 21 riders was 1 minute ahead of the peloton as it passed through the intermediate sprint.The breakaway group included Romain BaSagan.Joachim Rodriguez, Pierre Rolland and Rigoberto Uran. The breakaway group took all of the sprint points. Peter Sagan, Tinkoff-Saxo, was in the peloton and not in the breakaway group for the second day in a row. Sagan was 104 points ahead of Andre Greipel, Lotto-Soudal and Greipel and the other Green Jersey contenders were well behind Sagan.
Team Sky was leading the peloton with the other leading GC leaders in the same group. To compete for the Yellow Jersey, the attacks would have to start well before the end of the stage.
On the Col de la Croix de Fer, Astana Pro Team with Nibali set the pace for the peloton. Some cyclists from Team Sky began to fall away from the peloton during the long climb. Froome was left with one other Team Sky rider at the 63 km (39 miles) to go in the stage. Geraint Thomas, Team Sky, was among the team riders falling away from the Yellow Jersey group. Alberto Contador, Tinkoff-Saxo, moved ahead of Thomas. Alejandro Valverde, Movistar Team, attacked Froome and up with the two remaining riders in front of the peloton. The rest of the breakaway riders fell away during the climb.
Vincenzo Nibali, Astana Pro Team, moved 1 minute ahead of the Yellow Jersey group. Romain Bardet was third over the summit and earned enough points to move into the lead in the King of the Mountains standings over Rodriguez, who faded on the climb.
Nibali rejoined the Yellow jersey group but attacked again while Froome was having trouble with his brakes. According to the unwritten rules of the Tour, that was questionable move by Nibali.
Nibali joined Pierre Rolland, Team Europcar, on the descent from the Col de Mollard. Bardet was chasing Nibali and Rolland but was having problems with his front dérailleur. Bardet got his bike changed just before the last climb of xxx.
Nibali attacked Rolland with 16 km (9.8 miles) to go in the stage. Nibali's attacks today moved him into a virtual fourth place in the GC standings. The Yellow Jersey group of 11 riders caught Rolland at the 7.6 km (4.7 mile) mark. As soon as the last supporting Team Sky teammate fell away leaving Froome alone, Quintana attacked with 4.5 km (2.5 miles) to go. Froome responded to the attack while Contador and Valverde cracked. Quintana pulled away from Froome, closing in on Nibali near the finish.
Stage 19 Results
1.
|
Vincenzo Nibali
|
Astana Pro Team
|
04h 22' 53''
| |
2.
|
Nairo Quintana
|
Movistar Team
|
04h 23' 37''
|
+ 00' 44''
|
3.
|
Chris Froome
|
Team Sky
|
04h 24' 07''
|
+ 01' 14''
|
4.
|
Thibaut Pinot
|
FDJ
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
5.
|
Romain Bardet
|
AG2R La Mondiale
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
6.
|
Alejandro Valverde
|
Movistar Team
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
7.
|
Bauke Mollema
|
Trek Factory Racing
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
8.
|
Robert Gesink
|
Team Lotto NL - Jumbo
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
9.
|
Alberto Contador
|
Tinkoff-Saxo
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
10.
|
Samuel Sanchez
|
BMC Racing Team
|
04h 25' 19''
|
+ 02' 26''
|
11.
|
Pierre Rolland
|
Team Europcar
|
04h 25' 28''
|
+ 02' 35''
|
King of the Mountain Standings
1.
|
Romain Bardet
|
AG2R La Mondiale
|
90 pts
|
2.
|
Chris Froome
|
Team Sky
|
87 pts
|
3.
|
Joachim Rodriguez
|
Team Katusha
|
78 pts
|
4.
|
Jakob Fuglsang
|
Astana Pro Team
|
64 pts
|
GC Standings
1.
|
Chris Froome
|
Team Sky
|
78h 37' 34''
| |
2.
|
Nairo Quintana
|
Movistar Team
|
78h 40' 12''
|
+ 02' 38''
|
3.
|
Alejandro Valverde
|
Movistar Team
|
78h 42' 59''
|
+ 05' 25''
|
4.
|
Vincenzo Nibali
|
Astana Pro Team
|
78h 44' 18''
|
+ 06' 44''
|
5.
|
Alberto Contador
|
Tinkoff-Saxo
|
78h 45' 30''
|
+ 07' 56''
|
6.
|
Robert Gesink
|
Team Lotto NL - Jumbo
|
78h 46' 29''
|
+ 08' 55''
|
7.
|
Mathias Frank
|
IAM Cycling
|
78h 50' 13''
|
+ 12' 39''
|
8.
|
Bauke Mollema
|
Trek Factory Racing
|
78h 50' 56''
|
+ 13' 22''
|
9.
|
Romain Bardet
|
AG2R La Mondiale
|
78h 51' 42''
|
+ 14' 08''
|
10.
|
Pierre Rolland
|
Team Europcar
|
78h 55' 01''
|
+ 17' 27''
|
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