The jerseys after Stage 14
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Yellow: Chris Froome (Sky)
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Green: Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step)
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Polka Dot: Warren Barguil (Sunweb)
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White: Simon Yates (Orica Scott)
A bad day at the office for Fabio Aru
Marooned at the back of the peloton without team-mates in the closing stages, Fabio Aru lost touch with the Big Boys and Sky took full advantage of his misfortune to take 25 seconds out of the Italian. On ITV, Chris Boardman has no sympathy whatsoever for Aru, saying today’s turn of events “was totally foreseeable and his team failed to foresee it”. He goes on to say he expects better from a major international cycling team with a multi-million pound budget.
Stage 14 Top 10
- 1. Michael Matthews (Sunweb) 4hr 21min 56sec
- 2. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) ST
- 3. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) +1sec
- 4. Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors)
- 5. Jay McCarthy (BORA-hansgrohe)
- 6. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida)
- 7. Chris Froome (Sky)
- 8. Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors)
- 9. Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac)
- 10. Tiesj Benoot (Lotto-Soudal) +5sec
What. A. Finish! It's a victory for @blingmatthews! @chrisfroome gains time on Aru and moves back into yellow too. #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/KSMfKNFrdT
— Le Tour de France UK (@letour_uk) July 15, 2017
New GC, Froome back in yellow #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/n2cHWTeO3d
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 15, 2017
Stage 14 top five
1. Michael Matthews
2. Greg Van Avermaet
3. Edvald Boasson Hagen
4. Philippe Gilbert
5. Jay McCarthy
Sunweb win their second stage in two days Michael Matthews sits up on his bike about 50 metres from the line and raises his arms in celebration, having crushed Greg van Avermaet and Edvald Boasson Hagan in the final uphill sprint to the line.
Michael Matthews wins the stage!
Michael Matthews wins the stage, with Greg van Avermaet having to settle for second. Fabio Aru finishes well off the pace and will lose the yellow jersey to Chris Froome.
500m to go: Philippe Gilbert, Michael Matthews, Greg Van Avermaet and John Degenkolb are on the front as they hit the ramp to the finish line.
1.6km to go: Sky riders Michal Kwiatkoski and Chris Froome race up the left side of the road, trying to take advantage of the yellow jersey’s poor position pinned at the back of the bunch.
2km to go: Fabio Aru is a long, long way back in the peloton. “Too far back for a finish like this,” says David Millar on ITV.
4km to go: The teams of Michael Matthews, Greg van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert are getting their ducks in a row ahead of what promises to a very intriguing finish.
5km to go: The breakaway is caught.
7.5km to go: Philippe Gilbert moves towards the front of the bunch, his passage made easy by the wide road. Ahead of him, our four-man breakaway is being led by Perichon.
8km to go: Caruso, Arndt, Maurits Lammertink (Katusha) and Pierre Luc Perichon (Fortuneo) have opened a 10-second gap on the peloton, where Edvald Boasson Hagen is visible at the front.
10km to go: Team Sky lead the peloton through the 10km To Go banner, chasing a group of four riders who are trying to establish a lead. One of them is Damiano Caruso from BMC, while another is Nikias Arndt from Sunweb.
12km to go: Martin continues to try to put some time between himself and the peloton, prompting a panicked reaction from Sunweb and BMC.
12km to go: Thomas De Gendt is caught, prompting an attack from Tony Martin on the climb. Warren Barguil tries to close it down. Behind them, the peloton is seriously strung out.
14km to go: It may not be an official climb, but it’s all uphill at the moment for TDG, as who is now about 10 seconds clear of the bunch. His face is a picture of pain.
14km to go: Thomas De Gendt seems to realise the jig is up, constantly looking over his shoulder to see if there’s any sign of the peloton behind him.
15km to go: BMC and Sunweb lead the chase as Thomas De Gendt’s lead over the chasing posse is reduced to 32 seconds.
19km to go: Thomas De Gendt puts the hammer down with the gap between himself and what’s left of the peloton down to 59 seconds.
An email from Conor Lundy: “Warren Barguil has just been asked to do the cycling equivalent of getting four pints in halfway through a stadium gig,” he writes and he’s not wrong. Barguil has finally been handed a load of bidons from the team car and is making his way back through the peloton to dispense them to his fellow Sunweb riders.
This is a narrow, blustery, technical and undulating run-in. The peloton are pushing hard with 25km to go #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/dezJLOjFnX
— Team Sky 🚲 (@TeamSky) July 15, 2017
27km to go: Warren Barguil is at the back of a peloton that has been broken into pieces, waiting for his team car to join him so he can collect serve the drinks. It can’t be easy making your way through a strung out peloton travelling at full speed weighed down by water bottles destined for those leading the chase.
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28 km to go: Behind De Gendt, Thomas Voeckler rejoins the peloton having slowed down to stock up on bidons for his team-mates.
30km to go: Thomas de Gendt attacks! The Lotto–Soudal rider has gone for home with 30 kilometres to go, with the gap between him and his team-mates down to 1 min 28sec.
36km to go: Thomas De Gendt picks up another two KOM points that guarantee him second place in that particular competition overnight. Back in the bunch, Warren Barguil, Laurens ten Dam and Sylvain Chavanel are working hard on the front.
37km to go: Thomas De Gendt leads the climb to Cote de Centres with Thomas Voeckler on his wheel. They’ve dropped Timo Rosen, Reto Hollenstein and Maxime Bouet.
37km to go: Kittel is paced back on to the bunch and immediately spat out the back again.
Hollenstein et Bouet distancés / dropped #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/qqMXkUFdht
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 15, 2017
38km to go Marcel Kittel is dropped from the peloton and his Quick-Step Floors team-mate Fabio Sabatini waits to help try to pace him back. In the breakaway group, Maxime Bouet is struggling to stay in touch with his four fellow riders.
49km to go: Hats off to Timo Rosen, who suffered a rear wheel puncture at the worst possible time and was forced to put in a heroic effort to catch up with his fellow escapees as Thomas de Gendt put the hammer down in the race for KOM points.
51km to go: The gap from the breakaway quintet to the peloton is 1min 59sec as they tackle the first of the day’s two climbs: Cote du Viaduc du Viaur, a Cat 3 climb of 2.3km with a gradient of 7 per cent. Thomas de Gendt is first over and goes into second place in the King of the Mountains. He’s a massive 60 points behind Warren Barguil, who currently wears the polka dot jersey.
56km to go: In a bid to break the tedium, ITV get Mark Cavendish on the blower from the Isle of Man, where he is recuperating from the shoulder injury that ended his Tour last week.
Asked to explain the difference between “ordinary” sprinters such as himself and the guys who specialise in uphill sprint finishes, he says it’s all down to “physiology”.
His tips for today’s stage? “It’s hard to say,” he says. “It doesn’t look that hard on TV but this stage is hard. From this point, the peloton was breaking up and I lost about a minute in that last kick. We were going for it but I wasn’t really very good in the last few hundred metres. You don’t really know who’s going to be there; it’s modern cycling. I think, for sure, the favourite is going to be Matthews but I wouldn’t put my money on anyone today.”
63km to go: Back in the peloton, a couple of BMC riders are doing the donkey work at the front.
64km to go: Up at the front of the race, the Direct Energie team car pulls up alongside Thomas Voeckler and he has a pow-wow with his sporting director, who hands him a sticky bottle.
68km to go: The gap from the breakaway group and the peloton is down to 1min 41sec, as Team Sunweb tow the bunch along.
An email from the splendidly monikered Zack Gomperts-Mitchelson: “VeloBaz!” it begins. “Having expected to be able to watch a lot of this Tour life has meant I’ve been restricted more or less to highlights. As such, this Tour has been great! Lots of very compressed drama on ITV4. I would however say it suffers in two ways, first the course is plain stupid, what on earth we needed all those pan flat 200k stages for I don’t know.
“In recent years as EPO has left the peleton it’s become pretty obvious that if the stage is too hard it’ll be boring; knackered cyclists can’t do anything but protect themselves and it applies both on the flat and in the high mountains. Also, I don’t really understand Christian Prudhomes new proclivity for downhill finishes; they’re both dangerous and have a tendency to neutralise the last climb. The best stages in all Grand Tours of late have been short flat run ins to HC climbs, the riders arrive fresh and unafraid to empty themselves so you get racing.
“Secondly, this years Giro was an absolute barn-burner for it’s second two weeks. Great stage design but also wonderfully varied racing across the days, plus the polemica between Dumoulin and his two big opponents was enormously entertaining, this Tour can’t but suffer in comparison.
“I would however say in this Tour’s favour that for the first time since 2011 there is both finally some GC intrigue going into the last week and a cast of characters capable enough of making for an exciting finale. So, although the appetiser has been prehaps somewhat bland with definite exceptions, I do have hope for a tasty main course next week.”
Still in the vaults: Two years ago, Tour nearly man Greg Van Avermaet put a distressing number of second place finishes behind him to beat Peter Sagan into second place the last time a Tour stage finished on the steep climb in Rodez. William Fotheringham saw there to see it.
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74.6km to go: As the peloton enjoy their lunch and talk on the Eurosport commentary turns to dry white wines, the gap to the breakaway stretches to 2min 35sec. The breakaway passes though Carmaux, which was the scene of Andre Greipel’s first Tour de France stage win in 2011. He beat Mark Cavendish by a wheel-length and Richard Williams was there to chronicle proceedings for the Guardian.
An email from Guy Hornsby: “It’s always fascinating when team mates are trying to maintain a unified front but the leader is struggling, and Sky seem to be in this mess more often, by dint of their galaxy of GC talent,” he writes.
“Froome/Wiggins, Froome/Porte, Froome/Landa, with G and Kwiatkowski also leaders in any other team (though none has reached the LeMond/Hinault apogee). Sending a team mate up the road is de rigeur these days, but I genuinely think Sky hedged their bets yesterday after Froome’s travails on Peyregudes, and had he had legs Landa never would’ve been up the road.
“I doubt Froome was happy about it, but it made tactical sense. I’m sure he’d have been ordered to drop back if Froome struggled. That would’ve been a hell of a radio exchange to listen to. Sky are nothing if not ruthless. But you can’t see Landa staying, he’s a GC rider, like Porte before him.”
The riders pass through the feed zone: Arguably the highlight of their day, the riders are handed their musettes of rice cakes, energy bars, gells, brioche and other nutritious goodies. With 83 kilometres to go, the gap between the breakaway and the peloton is 1min 56sec.
Those Mavic neutral service vehicles and motorbikes? What are they all about, eh? As usual, our friends at the Global Cycling Network are here with another informative and entertaining video to help brighten up an otherwise dull afternoon.
89km to go: The gap is down to 1min 40sec as the breakaway rolls along roads lined on either side by spectators out tfor some Saturday afternoon fun.
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An email from Billy O’Brien: “ Just like to add to Conor Lundy’s reminder,” he writes. “The idea that Landa might be aiming for yellow glory - anyone who grew up with racing in the 80s this is far from an outlandish idea. As well as the astonishing 87 Giro with playboy Roberto Visentini versus Roche in the Carrera team, there was the Hinault/LeMond broken promise. Basic rule I think being if you are team leader at start you better live up to it else all is fair in love and cycling.
“Also with Pippa on ITV someone should ask her about riding shotgun with Carrera’s Eddie Schepers to protect Roche from the enraged Tifosi. They apparently spat and punched Roche with Millar and Schepers riding either side to protect him physically on the mountains - and Millar wasn’t even on the Carrera team, Panasonic I think. Eddie Schepers was the only Carrera domestique who supported Roche. Of course Roche survived and did the Triple; Giro Tour and Worlds - for any of the under 40s watching today.”
Even the French TV guys have lost interest! As Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Timo Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Reto Hellenstein (Katusha-Alpecin) and Maxime Bouet (Fortuneo-Oscaro) pedal along with a gap of 2min 09sec, the people in charge of the French TV pictures completely ignore the cyclists and opt instead for a long aerial shot of the countryside, including various swimming pools, churches and assorted other buildings.
107km to go: Team Sunweb continue to tow the peloton along in pursuit of a five-man breakaway that must be annoyed at only being allowed to open a gap of 1min 56sec. I’ve read and heard some cycling enthusiasts and commentators saying that this year’s Tour has been one of the least exciting in many years, and while I wouldn’t necessarily agree with them, today’s stage is showing every sign of being one that won’t live long in the memory.
116km to go: The gap between the breakaway and the bunch is at 2min 21sec. Meanwhile on ITV, Pippa York, upon being asked which of today’s teams she’d like to ride on, opts for BMC because she likes their kit. She says there are several teams she wouldn’t like to be on because of the way they’re set up, but diplomatically opts not to name
Sky
them.
An email from Conor Lundy: “I agree with you about Froome not having a desire to see Landa in yellow,” he says. “I think had he let him get the jersey yesterday then it would have caused a discussion in the team at least. With Froome still ahead in GC there’s no discussion, though Landa might think otherwise.
“On the subject of team politics, RTE 1 radio have a feature up today on Stephen Roche’s 1987 triumphs. He flouted the team hierarchy in the 1987 Giro in pursuit of glory and was nearly lynched by the home crowd. He went on to become a legend. Fill your bottles Mikel!
Worth a listen if any readers are finding proceedings slow.”
Intermediate sprint result
1. Thomas De Gendt 20 points
2. Maxime Bouet 17
3. Thomas Voeckler 15
4. Reto Hollenstein 13
5. Timo Roosen 11
6. Marcel Kittel 10
7. Michael Matthews 9
8. Fabio Sabatini 8
9. André Greipel 7
10. Sonny Colbrelli 6
11. Jack Bauer 5
12. Roy Curvers 4
13. Zdenek Stybar 3
14. Amaël Moinard 2
15. Danilo Wyss 1
Kittel wins the bunch sprint: Well, in so far it was a sprint - he took the points, finishing first of the peloton and sixth overall, with Michael Matthews rolling over the line behind him.
Thomas de Gendt wins the intermediate sprint: And takes the €1,500 prize that goes with it, to be shared among himself and his team-mates. Back in the bunch, Marcel Kittel’s team is lining up at the front to ensure their man mops up the majority of what points were left behind by the breakaway group.
128km to go: The gap is down to 1min 53sec as the riders head for the intermediate sprint in Rabastens.
Interesting Rabastens fact: the 19th century French lawyer, historian and member of the Société des Antiquaires de France, which is based in the Louvre, was born there on 25 August 1815.
137km to go: Following their stage win yesterday, the Sunweb team of King of the Mountains leader Warren Barguil are controlling the pace at the front of the peloton, with a couple of BMC riders upsides them. With their team leader Richie Porte out of the race, BMC will be keen to win this stage with Greg Van Avermaet.
“Without Richie, our main objective now is stage wins,” said Van Avermaet this morning. “Today is my big chance. I have the support of the whole team to keep the peloton together. Hopefully I can write the same script as two years ago. But the competition is high with Matthews, Degenkolb, Gilbert, Boasson Hagen and maybe a few GC guys in the mix as well.
“But I’m ready for it. I feel a lot pressure. I’d prefer to be here helping Richie instead. It’s been a hard Tour for me so far because I couldn’t show my real good legs. The only big chance I had before today was [in Stage 3 to] Longwy. It hasn’t been a Tour for attackers so far so I prefer to play my cards from a sprint finish today as well.”
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139km to go: Not a lot going on, with the gap between the five-man breakaway and the peloton hovering around the 2min 10sec mark.
.@BMCProTeam, @TeamSunweb & @Bahrain_Merida quickly got into action to control the gap under 3'.#TDF2017 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/ZpZ09XqL5n
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 15, 2017
146km to go: Our five-man breakaway is now 2min 09sec clear of the peloton.
A veteran speaks: Guesting on the ITV co-comms, Pippa York - three-times a stage winner in the Pyrenees and a one-timer Tour King of the Mountains - is asked by a viewer if she misses bike racing. “I don’t miss racing,” she says. “I raced so long that I actually got mentally tired of it. You eventually reach a point where you’re saturated with it. You eventually reach a point where you can still do it physically but not mentally. I miss being able to cycle fast, I only have the downhill for that now.”
For any readers that may not be aware that York was once Robert Millar, arguably Britain’s greatest ever cyclist, you can read more here in this fascinating interview.
An email from Guy Hornsby: “I’ll stick my hand up on the Velogames front,” he says. “Been playing it for a few years now and usually I’ve done pretty well. Sadly this year I managed to pick G, Porte and Majka. So basically I’m cursed. My team name? Froome Wagon.”
@bglendenning If Sky switched leadership to Landa, then Froome should not have attacked. But, absent that, he had to defend his position.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) July 15, 2017
159km to go: Reto Hollenstein has bridged the gap to the breakaway, which is now five strong and 2min 56sec clear of the bunch: Reto Hollenstein (Katusha-Alpecin), (Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Timo Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Maxime Bouet (Fortuneo-Oscaro).
169km to go: On Eurosport, Carlton Kirby is discussing an interview Sky rider Mikel Landa gave to Spanish TV last night in which he said “I’ve got the legs to win this Tour, I just don’t have the stripes”, meaning he thinks he can win the race but won’t be allowed to pull rank on Chris Froome.
Rumoured to be off to Movistar at the end of this season, only time will tell whether or not he’ll do so attack Froome anyway. While nobody seems to have a clue what Sky were doing chasing down Landa’s breakaway yesterday, my own possibly hair-brained theory is that Froome doesn’t trust his team-mate and had no desire to see him in yellow. Other conspiracy theoreis are, of course, available. It could be a long afternoon, so feel free to share yours via email or on the Twitter.
De Gendt (LTS), Roosen (TLJ), Voeckler (DEN) & Bouet (TFO) covered the first 10km at 45.7km/h to open a 2'45 gap over the Peloton.#TDFdata
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 15, 2017
So this has been my office twice a day for the past week. The Isle of Man Hyperbaric Chamber is… https://t.co/vKkXzXe8DP
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) July 15, 2017
“So this has been my office twice a day for the past week,” writes Mark in the post that accompanies his photo of what looks like a giantPolo mint covered in fridge magnets. “The Isle of Man Hyperbaric Chamber is a publicly funded facility that not only treats divers, but people with injuries and chronic illness, from every walk of life. I swear by the treatment when I’m injured, but not nearly as much if it wasn’t for the amazing people that work there. They honestly care so so much about every patient and go above and beyond for anyone who enters. Just want to give a massive thank you too everyone there.”
174km to go: Voeckler, Roosen, De Gendt and Bouet have opened a gap of 2min 40sec on the bunch, from which Katusha’s Swiss rider Reto Hollenstein has been allowed to escape.
An email from Dan Phillips: “Few would bet against Van Avermaet?” he says. “Well allow me to. I’ve Mr Matthews in one of my fantasy cycling teams. Yes that’s right I have a few across the various platforms. Yes, I have a problem. But can we feed my addiction with a Guardian Readers’ Fantasy League? Anyone else on Velogames?”
If you have the slightest clue what Dan is talking about, please feel free to ... do whatever it is he wants you to do.
179km to go: Riders from BMC, Sunweb, Astana and Sky line up across the front of the peloton, in a bid to block any potential attempts from those behind them to bridge the gap to the four-man breakaway.
That breakaway: Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Timo Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Maxime Bouet (Fortuneo-Oscaro).
The flag drops ...
Slightly behind schedule, they’re off and racing in Stage 14 of this year’s Tour, with one particular veteran Direct Energie rider up towards the front of the bunch eager to attack. So eager in fact, that Prudhomme announces it’s time for “un attack de Thomas Voeckler”. The Frenchman duly obliges and is followed by Thomas de Gendt, Maxime Bouet and one other rider.
Today’s stage has two climbs: A pair of Category 3 climbs, they don’t amount to much more than hills of beans compared to yesterday’s monsters but will still take some negotiating. The first is the Cote du Viaduc du Viaur, 50 kilometres from the finish. It’s 2.3 kilometres in length and has a gradient of 7%. Further up the road, 36 kilometres from the finish, Cote de Centres is spookily similar: the same length and has a gradient of 7.7%.
Today's stage is under way ...
Well, sort of under way - the peloton is currently riding in procession through the streets of Blagnac, awaiting the flag-drop of race director Christian Prudhomme to signal the start of racing.
Two more withdrawals yesterday ...
Despite his valiant attempt to soldier on with fractures to his left wrist and elbow, Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang was forced to abandon yesterday, when it became apparent he couldn’t grip his handlebars properly. Francaise Des Jeux rider Arthur Vichot also dropped out, still suffering from the after effects of a heavy fall two days previously. His withdrawal means FDJ only have four of their original nine riders left in the race, after Arnaud Demare and three team-mates were eliminated on Sunday after missing the Stage 9 time cut. Fuglsang and VIchot’s withdrawals bring the number of riders sidelined so far to 21, leaving 177 riders in the race.
Behind the scenes with Orica Scott
Orica Scott is one of the more media friendly and accessible teams on the Tour and – occasionally questionable choices of soundtrack aside – their daily Backstage Pass invariably makes for informative and interesting viewing. Enjoy ...
Rash prediction for the day, breakaway with at least one rider lying between 15th and 25th moving into or towards the top 10 overall...
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) July 15, 2017
Here's how the GC looks now! Froome 2nd, Martin down to 6th & Yates extends his lead in the White Jersey comp. #TDF2017 🇬🇧🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/v5ogS0WQYl
— Le Tour de France UK (@letour_uk) July 14, 2017
Stage 14: Blagnac to Rodez (181.5km)
After yesterday’s short, mountainous and intriguing stage, the riders embark on a transitional stage of almost 200 kilometres that ends in a steep uphill kick with a gradient just shy of 10% that will suit riders such as Michael Matthews, Ben Swift, Tony Gallopin, Jan Bakelants and Greg Van Avarmaet, a winner in Rodez in 2015.
An early breakaway looks a certainty and after yesterday’s perplexing climax, in which Sky helped to chase down a breakaway featuring one of their own big-hitters, it will be intriguing to see which riders are sent to join any escape party by assorted teams.
Will Fotheringham’s take on today’s stage
Out of the frying pan of the mountains into the fiery heat of the plains for a punchy uphill finish which will not suit a conventional sprinter. The Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet won here last time around and, after the spring he has enjoyed, few would bet against him or his fellow Belgian Philippe Gilbert.
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