France may not have the winner of the Tour De France this year, but they arguably have the rider of the race and the true King of the Mountains in the shape of Warren Barguil, who took the final Alpine Stage of the race and his second stage on the Izoard.
Behind him, Chris Froome took a giant step towards a fourth yellow jersey by managing to stay with Romain Bardet who would grab precious seconds back by sprinting to take third on the line, and Rigoberto Uran, who finished hot on the heels of a group that looks likely to be the podium now.
At the end of an explosive finale, Mikel Landa lost a small amount of ground on the front three, although he moved into fourth at the expensive of Fabio Aru, whose Alpine struggles continued as he lost a minute to the podium contenders and Landa, seesawing off the back of the yellow jersey group until he was finally dropped.
On Colombian Independence day, Darwin Atapuma did his countrymen proud and trashed his breakaway companions to the tune of two minutes, although a surging Barguil, close to the Flamme Rouge, caught him and took victory by twenty seconds .
South African Louis Mentijes, from the same team, took twenty seconds from Simon Yates, but he looks unlikely to rest the white jersey from the Brit’s shoulders, as he is over two minutes down after 18 stages.
Dan Martin ceded a little more time, but to his credit, it was only 20 seconds to the leading group, a fine effort considering the lack of cover he had and the fact he was the first rider to launch a full attack when the favourites were racing each-other.
Behind him Alberto Contador showed the effects of age, although his displays on both days in the Alps have given great excitement to the race and the fans are in his gratitude.
Nairo Quintana came a little closer to the end of a long season, the Giro having clearly taken a major toll on him, and he crossed the line a couple of seconds ahead of Carlos Betancur, once looking like a lost talent but now getting back into shape and improving steadily through these three weeks of racing.
A very large break – basically a second Peloton – went away, with this being the last chance for climbers off the GC board to win a stage. Stephen Cummings, Serge Pauwels and Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Gianluca Brambilla and Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors), Robert Kiserlovski, Maurits Lammertink, Tiago Machado and Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Tiejs Benoot, De Gendt, Tony Gallopin and Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal), Simon Geschke (Sunweb), Dimitri Claeys, Nicolas Edet and Dani Navarro (Cofidis). Jan Bakelants and Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Carlos Betancur and Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), De Marchi, Amaël Moinard and Nicolas Roche (BMC), Andrei Grivko, Bakhtiar Kozhatayev, Alexei Lutsenko and Michael Valgren (Astana), Darwin Atapuma, Kristjian Durasek, Marco Marcato, Ben Swift and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Rudy Molard (FDJ), Daryl Impey (Orica). Thomas Voeckler, Calmejane, Sylvain Chavanel, Romain Sicard and Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie), Pierre Rolland, Simon Clarke and Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac), Sonny Colbrelli and Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain-Merida), Guillaume Martin, Marco Minnaard and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Brice Feillu, Gesbert, Romain Hardy, Eduardo Sepulveda and Florian Vachon (Fortuneo-Oscaro).
As the Sky led peloton sat back, the gap stretched to 8:15 at the intermediate sprint where Sonny Colbrelli took the points. Little happened – bar AG2R taking the running from Sky in order to drive back some of the time gaps and perhaps give Romain Bardet a chance of bonus seconds - until the Col de Vars, the first of two serious tests.
The group split into two on the Vars, with Dani Navarro of Cofidis attacking towards the summit. Only Lutsenko, Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), followed by Atampuma, could really follow.
AG2R were driving the pace up the climb and the break, now aware that they were close, pushed on. Astana’s broke free, taking Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Oscaro) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) with him before dropping the pair. A chase was not to be found for a while, much to the frustration of Tony Gallopin.
The opening slopes of the Izoard saw AG2R’s riders drop off as Team Sky moved through the gears to take the lead. Michal Kwiatkowski, mangificant like the hole Sky team this tour, pulled so hard that he came to an actual stop when he pulled off the front. Dan Martin then moved to start the racing from the general classification contenders, and upfront the break was shattered through that movement and the earlier pacesetting.
Contador went again and the to managed to get a gap whilst Aru was dropped – his struggle beginning again today, Barguil followed and began to hoover up riders who were backpedalling whilst also passing Contador and Martin. Romain Bardet tried the first of several attacks as Froome, Landa and Uran followed, the rest of the field struggling to hold the wheel.
All were on their limit but Landa was the next to go, followed by Martin and then Froome, Bardet and Uran. They reformed and Bardet attacked, before being countered by Froome, putting in his best attack of the Tour so far. However a slight downhill saw the pair catch them.
Ahead however, Barguil was away and gone, the Frenchman truly sealing his King of the Mountains Jersey in style.
