A French Winner, Bardet, in Stage 19
It took until Stage 19 of the 2016 Tour de France for a French cyclist to win a Stage victory. Romain Bardet won on a mountainous stage to Saint-Gervais near Mont Blanc. This was the next to the last competitive stage for the top contenders to challenge Team Sky and Chris Froome. Despite a late crash, Froome maintained his Yellow Jersey lead. And there was a big shakeup in the Tour podium standing. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Adam Yates (Orica–BikeExchange) struggled in today’s stage and fell to fourth and tenth place respectively. Bardet and Nairo Quintana (Team Movistar) have moved up to second and third place, but are over four minutes behind Froome.
The 146 km (91 mile) mountain stage from Albertville to Saint-Gervais with one Category 2, two Category 1 and one Hors Categorie climb.The Hors Categorie climb, Montée de Bisanne, was 1,723 m (5,653 ft) in height and 12.4 km long, averaging 8.2%. The stage finishes with a mountain top finish at the end of a Category 1 climb, Le Bettex, 9.8 km (6.1 miles) at 8%.
20 riders formed a breakaway at 5.5 km. The group included Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Thomas De Gendt and Tony Gallopin of Lotto-Soudal, Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step). The group built a gap of up to 4 minutes.
Astana led the peloton and reduced the gap by one minute by the time the race began the climb up the Category 1 Forclaz de Montmin. Yates suffered a mechanical problem and had to have his bike replaced and he tried to get back to the lead group. Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) then crashed and had to abandon the Tour. With 55 km to go, the breakaway group had been reduced to 11 riders with Rolland, Costa, Majka and Gallopin. The group was 2 minutes in front of the peloton. Majka locked up the King of the Mountains jersey with a first place finish on Montée de Bisanne. He just needs to finish the Tour now.
The wet roads caused Mollema and Froome to crash separately on the road with 15 km to go. Froome took his teammate Geraint Thomas’s bike to finish the stage. Froome rode hard to rejoin the lead group after his crash with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Pro Team).
Costa opened an attack on the remaining lead group with 25 km to go, just before the Yellow Jersey group caught the breakaway group. Bardet then pulled away from the Yellow Jersey group with 10 km to chase Costa up the last climb of the day. Bardet caught Costa with 7 km to go, and the two rode together for a while. Bardet attacked with 3 km to go and on the steeper portion of the climb. Bardet continued in front to win the stage. Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) and Quintana attacked Froome late in the stage to gain some time on Froome. However, Froome remains well in front with one mountain stage to go before Paris.
Stage Results
1
|
Romain Bardet
|
AG2R La Mondiale
|
4:14:08
|
2
|
Joaquim Rodriguez
|
Team Katusha
|
0:00:23
|
3
|
Alejandro Valverde
|
Movistar Team
| |
4
|
Louis Meintjes
|
Lampre - Merida
| |
5
|
Nairo Quintana
|
Movistar Team
|
0:00:26
|
6
|
Fabio Aru
|
Astana Pro Team
|
0:00:28
|
7
|
Daniel Martin
|
Etixx - Quick-Step
| |
8
|
Wouter Poels
|
Team Sky
|
0:00:36
|
9
|
Chris Froome
|
Team Sky
| |
10
|
Richie Porte
|
BMC Racing Team
|
0:00:53
|
General Classification Standings
1
|
Chris Froome
|
Team Sky
|
82:10:37
|
2
|
Romain Bardet
|
AG2R La Mondiale
|
0:04:11
|
3
|
Nairo Quintana
|
Movistar Team
|
0:04:27
|
4
|
Adam Yates
|
Orica-BikeExchange
|
0:04:46
|
5
|
Richie Porte
|
BMC Racing Team
|
0:05:17
|
6
|
Fabio Aru
|
Astana Pro Team
|
0:06:00
|
7
|
Alejandro Valverde
|
Movistar Team
|
0:06:20
|
8
|
Louis Meintjes
|
Lampre - Merida
|
0:07:02
|
9
|
Dan Martin
|
Etixx - Quick-Step
|
0:07:10
|
10
|
Bauke Mollema
|
Trek-Segafredo
|
0:07:42
|
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