British riders have had an eventful week on and off the bike but Simon Yates gave some much needed national pride with a spectacular victory atop the Valdeblore La Colmiane, putting him into the race lead and setting up an epic stage tomorrow as he defends his lead from a host of challengers.
The closest of them is Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain), 11 seconds back, with his brother just another second back and the Belgian Tim Wellens (Lotto) just another second back, to set up a truly fantastic finish tomorrow around Nice with eight riders within a minute including Dylan Teuns (BMC), Marc Soler (Movistar) and Patrick Konrad (BORA-Hansgrohe). Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step) fought hard but cracked late on and is now 1:48 behind the overall leader.
This week has been one where the breakaway has always been competitive, and with two stages left to go, it was not a surprise in hindsight that initial scape was one of strong quality. Rory Sutherland (UAE), Tony Gallopin (AG2R), Alessandro de Marchi (BMC), Nicolas Roche (BMC), Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Amael Moinard (Fortuneo) and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) managed to break away early, setting up what was likely to be a fast day’s action given the dangerous contenders for stage glory and the fact that Alessandro De Marchi was just 2:36 behind Sanchez, and as thus threatened the whole top 10.
Their gap would grow to 3:10 at the beginning of the Cote de la Sainte-Baume but by the time De Gendt has taken the 10 points available at the top, making him the provisional holder of the mountains classification jersey, the gap had come down to 2:10. Herrada would be dropped to bring the lead group down to seven as they headed towards the day’s finale. De Gendt beat Sutherland, Roche, Pantano and Moinard to the top of the Col St. Raphael, to make the polka dot jersey very much his, and the gap was holding despite the oncoming finish. When the peloton went forward to the climb, Bahrain Merida sent Manuele Boaro to the front and his acceleration was the catalyst for the peloton to split, with Tim Wellens and Lillian Calmejane behind by 20 seconds midway through the ascent.
On the descent, Rory Sutherland was dropped from the leading breakaway whilst the Wellens group had lost leaders. The downhill section, with snow on either side of the roads, was treacherous and it proved, with Pantano and De Marchi hitting the deck, the latter going across the road and over the barriers – although thankfully he was able to continue, even if he needed a new bike. Dumont of AG2R hit the deck next, and the peloton did slow before the ascent of Valdeblore La Colmiane.
Molard and Galllopin were both caught on the lower slopes of the climb, and soon after the mountain trains began to kick into action as Michael Valgren, the winner of Omloop, drove on the front with Omar Fraille to ensure that nobody launched an early attack on Luis Leon Sanchez, still in the race lead. The group was about 40 strong but Bauke Mollema was not one of them, going backwards with 7 kilometres left to go.
Mitchelton-Scott decided that this state of affairs was not satisfactory and they took the bull by the horns with Romain Kreuziger pushing on hard, and this was the spark that the race had been looking for. Instantly his acceleration was too much for Fraile and the impressive Valgren, and then soon after riders started to drop one after another, including the yellow jersey Luis Leon Sanchez.
Fulsang was the only rider left to him, and with Kreuziger still pushing hard for Simon Yates, and very soon Sanchez was now down by 30 seconds and struggling. Yates, sensing the time was right, pushed with a big attack that was followed by Gorka Izaguirre of Bahrain-Merida, and the two broke away to build a gap that was 14 seconds with 3 kilometres left to go.
Sanchez had now fallen over a minute behind, with Fuglsang's efforts proving futile, whilst the rest of the top 10 were in their own group chasing the front two. Dylan Tuens of BMC counter attacked, dropping Julian Alaphiippe who was just about holding on at the time and stretching the front group still further.
Teuns took Wellens, Ion Izaguirre, Patrick Konrad and David de La Cruz with him and then Yates went with just over a kilometre to go, dropping Izaguirre and effectively sealing the stage race whilst also giving himself a chance of overall glory. The impressive Marc Soler was then dropped at this point too, as the race exploded behind. This was Yates’ day.
