Tour de France 2016 – Stage 12 [LAST 2 KM]

July 14, 2016
Tour de France 2016 – Stage 12 [FULL STAGE] – Montpellier – Mont Ventoux-Chalet Reynard – 178 km (Mountain stage)

The 2016 Tour de France is the 103rd edition of the Tour de France cycle race and is currently taking place between 2 and 24 July 2016.

Thomas De Gendt finally claimed the Tour de France stage victory he has been fighting for, taking out the shortened Mont Ventoux stage from the day’s large breakaway over Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) and Daniel Navarro (Cofidis).

After high winds forced organisers to move the finish to Chalet Reynard, lopping 7km off the finishing climb, the finale still provided plenty of drama, but not exactly the type the organisers imagined.

Chris Froome (Sky), Richie Porte (BMC), and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) were clear of the other contenders when they were swarmed by a horde of fans outside the barriers of the final kilometer. The camera motorbike was halted by the crowd, and Porte crashed into it. Froome’s bike was broken in the mayhem, and he had to run up the climb until neutral support could give him a bike. But the machine did not fit, and by the time Froome finally got one his own bikes with 500m to go and rode across the line, he was 1:14 behind the Quintana group and 1:40 behind Mollema.

The incident nullified his time-gaining attack, and the race jury would have to decide how to sort out the time gaps. Provisionally, Adam Yates claimed the maillot jaune, with Mollema at 9 seconds and Quintana at 14. Froome tumbled to sixth overall at 53 seconds.

The 3km rule that protect riders on flat stages do not apply under the rules for mountain top finishes, but if the incident was caused by the fans or the motorbike, the judges could neutralise the final.

How it unfolded

With only 178km on the menu of the shortened stage to Mont Ventoux, and the peloton facing howling winds, it was a brave rider who would go on the attack, but there were plenty such men in the peloton.

The attacks flew from the drop of the flag at kilometer zero, and soon there were 14 riders off the front – plenty of help to battle the winds. The group included Bertjan Lindeman and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-Jumbo), Stef Clement (IAM Cycling), Serge Pauwels and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), André Greipel and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Bryan Coquard and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step), Dani Navarro and Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) and Chris Anker Sorensen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).

Voss punctured out of the group, but found himself in a chase group in no-man’s land with Diego Rosa (Astana), Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Drapac), and Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin).

The leaders gained a massive 18:15 by the midpoint of the stage, with all of the riders contributing to the pace. But behind the winds caused havoc in the peloton, splitting it to bits in an exposed section in wicked crosswinds.

The main overall favourites including the BMC duo Van Garderen and Porte, Nairo Quintana, Adam Yates, Dan Martin, Fabio Aru and most of Team Sky with Froome were at the front, but the Frenchmen Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) were caught out together with green jersey holder Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).

Aru had a panic when he was forced to take a bike change from teammate Jakob Fuglsang as the Astana team car was trapped behind the second peloton. He rejoined the lead group after some effort.

The chasing peloton made up ground on the riders in no-man’s land on the two smaller climbs with 40km to go, and were closing in on the leaders – they had the gap under eight minutes until Simon Gerrans (Orica-BikeExchange) was blown over in a turn on the descent from the Col des Trois Termes and took down Team Sky’s Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe.

Inexplicably, the maillot jaune himself stopped and went back to pace his teammates back through the following cars as the peloton respected the go-slow. They rejoined a few kilometers later, without Stannard, and began the pursuit anew. The brief respite in pace allowed the second peloton to rejoin, bringing Barguil, Pinot and Vincenzo Nibali back into the action.

At the foot of the Ventoux, the breakaway still had nearly nine minutes, and Greipel decided to get a head start on the climb, powering away with 14km to go, but his move was only a boomerang. He was quickly caught and dropped. Soon it was De Gendt, Pauwels and Navarro alone up front. De Gendt was distanced from the leading group with 7km remaining, but rejoined a few kilometers later.

The fireworks from the yellow jersey group came with a probing attack from IAM Cycling’s Jarlinson Pantano that was countered by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). The surge dropped Geraint Thomas out the back, leaving Froome with his main climbers Henao, Poels and Nieve for protection. Nieve was soon dropped, and Quintana inserted himself into the Sky train as they reeled in Valverde.

As Valverde was reeled in, Quintana put in a dig that was marked by Sky, but the acceleration spat Dan Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) out the back, with Daniel Moreno (Movistar) along for company.

Not willing to quit, Quintana put in another dig but was once again shut down by Poels. The clash of the titans whittled the yellow jersey group down to only a few favourites and their main climbing domestiques. Mollema, Mientjes, Yates and Bardet held onto the back for dear life. A telling head shake from Quintana came before Joaquim Rodriguez injected some pace into the yellow jersey group, marked quickly by Valverde. Again, Poels proved too strong and nailed it back. It was not a day for the Colombian to gain time, in fact he would lose contact when Froome himself went with 1.6km to go, marked quickly by Richie Porte (BMC) with Quintana unable to stay on the wheel. Mollema attacked from Quintana’s group to make it across to Froome and Porte.

Ahead, De Gendt, having had to chase back to Pauwels and Navarro, showed his strategy was on track as he attacked with 3km to go and distanced his companions. Only Pauwels could keep him in reach, and the Belgian made contact and quickly attacked with 1.9k to go. The two played too much cat and mouse, allowing Navarro to rejoin with 1km to go. De Gendt proved victorious however, but his victory would be forever overshadowed by the incident of the race leader Froome behind.

Results :
1 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 4:31:51
2 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data 0:00:02
3 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:14
4 Stef Clement(Fra) IAM Cycling 0:00:40
5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie
6 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNL – Jumbo 0:02:52
7 Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eri) Dimension Data 0:03:13
8 Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:03:26
9 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Fortuneo – Vital Concept 0:04:23
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek – Segafredo 0:05:05

General classification after Stage 12:
1 Adam Yates (GBr) ORICA-BikeExchange 57:12:20
2 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek – Segafredo 0:00:09
3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:14
4 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:28
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:52
6 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:53
7 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:57
8 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:07
9 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx – Quick Step 0:01:09
10 Joaquim Rodríguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:01:24