Nicolas Roche’s strong performance on the Tour de France has continued today with another breakaway ride on stage 16 to Villard-de-Lans, where his father Stephen took the race’s yellow jersey back in 1987.
The Team Sunweb rider was off the front in several groups
before they were recaptured only for Roche to get clear in the large winning
move, initially with Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers).
In the battle for the green jersey, neither Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) nor his rival Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) scored points at the intermediate sprint or at the finish meaning the Irish rider still holds the points classification lead.
The 164km stage featured five climbs, including two cat
2s - Col de Porte and Côte de Revel – before the cat 1 Montée de
Saint-Nizier-du-Mouchrotte and the cat 3 up to the finish line.
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The pace at the start was relentless before the winning
group went away – in several groups which formed to create a very large
breakaway.
As well as Roche and Carapaz it also included, among
others, Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), Matteo
Trentin (CCC Team), Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Andrey Amador
(Ineos Grenadiers), Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe), Julian Alaphilippe
(Deceuninck-QuickStep), Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Pavel
Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Neilson Powless (EF Pro Cycling) and Roche’s two
team mates Casper Pedersen, Tiesj Benoot.
With the gap ballooning out to over 13 minutes, the race
for the stage victory began just inside the 30km to go marker on the Montée de
Saint-Nizier-du-Mouchrotte when Pacher attacked.
From that point the pattern in the breakaway was one of attacks, chasing and regrouping as the number of riders up front continually got smaller.
While Roche initially proved one of the strongest as the
group began to split, Kämna looked especially impressive as he closed down
moves by Carapaz before attacking himself and getting clear by the top of the
climb.
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He then time trialed the 20km to the finish where he took
the victory by an impressive 1:27 from Carapaz. Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ)
was 3rd at 1:56, with Sivakov finishing 4th at 2:34.
Simon Geschke (CCC Team) was next followed by Warren
Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) and Roche; the Irish cyclist
in 8th place, at 2:47.
Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) was 9th at 2:51 while Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) rounded out the top 10 at 2:54.
Sam Bennett finished in the same group as Dan Martin
(Israel Start-Up Nation) today, alongside Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers); all
27:27 down on the stage winner.
In the battle for the yellow jersey, the favourites’
group finished 16:48 down on the stage winner with race leader Primoz Roglic
putting his Jumbo Visma team on the front for long stretches to control the and
discourage attacks.
However, Roglic’s nearest rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) tried an attack on the
final climb and Miguel Ángel López (Astana), who is 4th overall, tried to gain time at the finish;
though neither rider managed to shake the other GC men.
Roglic still leads overall from Pogačar by 40 seconds
with Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling)
in 3rd at 1:34.
Tomorrow’s stage 17 is set to be a big showdown; some 170km with a summit finish atop the 18.6km Col de la Loze, at 7.7 per cent, after the 15.8km Col de la Madeleine, at 8.1 per cent, is tackled earlier in the day.
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