There is one mountain stage left in this tour de France, and for the main contenders, still everything to play for. Tomorrow’s finish atop the Col d’Izoard will go a long way to deciding the order of the podium on Sunday, even with the looming presence of a Contre-La-Montre through Marseilles on Saturday, but today was as consequential a stage as the Tour has seen so far on many accounts and there will be relief for Chris Froome as he rests this evening.
Primoz Roglic used to ski down many of these Alpine climbs, and he descended just as fast to take a well-deserved victory.
Directly behind him, the leading contenders for the race, minus Astana’s Fabio Aru, who lost his spot on the podium today after cracking on the Galibier, took the other bonus seconds with Rigoberto Uran taking a joint second – on count-back no less – with six bonus seconds, whilst Chris Froome managed to extend his lead a little with third place on the day and four bonus seconds.
Behind him was a small group, composed of the riders that can now win this race, with Romain Bardet taking fourth ahead of Mikel Landa, who was sixth; Warren Barguil’s polka dot jersey is now his to keep following another tireless effort to defend the jersey, having missed the break.
Behind, Simon Yates was another to crack, managing to cede over two minutes – although not the white jersey, which stays with him by a margin of two minutes and twenty three seconds from Louis Mentijes. The Briton now lies in seventh, with a place in the top five seemingly beyond him.
There was also a huge change in the green jersey competition – as the leader Marcel Kittel, who was just nine points clear of Michael Matthews at the time – had to withdraw after the effects of a heavy crash earlier in the day which ended up taking a decent amount of the field down.
Kittel battled on as best he could whilst the magnificent Sunweb team pushed on, eager to make sure Matthews had the best chance of earning 20 points to take the gap to just nine. He did eventually, although midway through the day, having ridden up the d’Ornon with an icepack attached to his shoulder, Kittel climbed off his bike, leaving him as the defacto green jersey.
The battle to make the break was always going to be fierce. This has been a tour of huge splits and today was no different.
Nicolas Edet and Dani Navarro (Cofidis), Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas Voeckler and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Alberto Bettiol and Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac), Ondrej Cink (Bahrain-Merida), Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Brice Feillu and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Robert Kiserlovski (Katusha-Alpecin), Thomas De Gendt and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Michael Matthews, Simon Geschke and Albert Timmer (Sunweb), Cyril Gautier and Mathias Frank (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jonathan Castroviejo and Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Michael Gogl, Jarlinson Pantano and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Amaël Moinard, Nicolas Roche and Danilo Wyss (BMC), Darwin Atapuma and Ben Swift (UAE), Rudy Molard (FDJ), Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), and Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe) all made the major escape and established a decent advantage.
Matthews and De Gendt would establish a decent advantage ahead of the main chasers – and it extended to nearly two minutes over the 31 chasing riders and 5:50 over a Team Sky led peloton.
And of course, here Alberto Contador decided to attack. He took Nairo Quintana with him, the pair reminding the audience that they were better than they had showed this tour, whilst Pierre Latour attempted to follow – a move for which he would pay later. Quintana couldn’t go with Contador, feeling the effect of the Giro in his legs, and Contador would eventually go solo, climbing at such a pace that team-mate Michael Gogl was waiting to bridge across to the breakaway. This was the Alberto of old, the rider that redefined stage race wins and won at least two of each Grand Tour, taking a page from the old 2000’s racebook, and it would be proven with a record ascent of the Glandon and Croix de Fer.
Dani Navarro attacked from the peloton and joined the two leaders whilst Thibaut Pinot quit to leave FDJ with only three riders, a French tragedy for a squad that looked so strong nearly three weeks ago. Joining him later was the British sprinter Dan McLay, who had shown himself well in sprint finishes. De Gendt took the points atop the Col de la Croix-de-Fer, the yellow jersey group now 3:25 behind him.
The leading group was shed to 24 whilst Pantano and Mollema pulled hard for their leader. Pantano was spent before the beginning of the double header of the Télégraphe and the col du Galibier. Contador had a mechanical down at the bottom of the climb, although he remained calm and rejoined the lead group which saw Poljanski, Voeckler and Roche dropped as Mollema set the pace.
Roglic took the points for the Télégraphe and with him were Alberto Contador and Serge Pauwels whilst Michal Kwiatkowski paced the yellow jersey group ahead of Nieve, Landa and Froome. Quintana was shot out of the back there whilst the leaders had made it onto the Galibier – with Navarro rejoining the leaders.
Pauwels tried to go solo 8km before the top at Plan Lachat, but Primoz Roglic had a much better attack and he was clear 5 kilometres from the summit.
In the yellow jersey group, things were becoming more explosive. Dan Martin, looking to recover the time he lost in crosswinds yesterday, went first and Romain Bardet, feeling strong and racing mano-a-mano against the main contenders, pushed hard to break the group. He was reeled in but went again and had Simon Yates dropped, whilst Louis Mentijes, the Briton’s main rival for the white jersey, followed the moves.
Upfront, Roglic had pushed on and done so well, taking the 20 KOM points and the 5,000 euros given to the winner of the Souvenir Henri-Desgrange at the highest peak of the race.
He started the descent with 90 seconds advantage over the main contenders and on what was a long, flat descent, the time trial specialist was never going to be caught unless there was a sustained and major push.
Behind however there was movement in the general classification as Fabio Aru was the one to crack, the sustained attacks becoming too much. A major push from Romain Bardet finally saw a gap open and it would be the last time that the Astana man would see the wheels of Froome, Bardet, Uran or Barguil, who is now in the top 10 overall.
Aru would come to the finish with Martin, Mathias Frank, Louis Mentijes, his hopes bruised but not over, even if victory now is perhaps out of his grasp. With due respect, it looks that way for many.
