Winners
Chris Froome
It was 43 years ago yesterday that Tom Simpson lost his life on Mont Ventoux, and today was the first time that a British rider has emerged victorious atop the Giant of Provence. After Richie Porte’s vicious pace had shed everyone but Contador, the Brit accelerated in the saddle to ride away from the two-time Tour winner, quickly riding across to Quintana. Apart from a couple of accelerations by Froome, the two best climbers in the Tour rode together for much of the final 7 km together, before the Colombian finally cracked under the yellow jersey’s pace with 1.3 km remaining. Froome’s lead over Bauke Mollema is now over four minutes, and surely unassailable. The Dutchman yesterday admitted as much, and although Contador has vowed to keep fighting, he is surely now duelling for a podium place with Mollema, Quintana, and Kreuziger.
Nairo Quintana
Quintana’s attack was brilliantly audacious with 14 km remaining on such a tough climb, and surely the young Columbian would have been rewarded with the stage win had Froome not gone on the offensive behind. The Movistar rider’s elegant style was a joy to watch as he appeared at ease riding away from the other GC contenders, only faltering in the final kilometre. Although the yellow jersey is out of reach, Quintana’s performance did move him to within striking distance of the podium as he distanced Mollema, Contador, Kreuziger, and Ten Dam by over a minute. With a tough final week, including Wednesday’s time trial where he should take time, the Colombian is in a good position to take second or third in Paris along with the white jersey.
Mikel Nieve
Since losing over five minutes in the time trial to Mont-St-Michel, Nieve has fallen out of contention in for the overall classification. However, he produced a superb climbing performance, attacking even earlier than Quintana, and holding on to claim third place on the stage, climbing away from the struggling Contador and surviving a late move by Rodriguez. With the clock ticking on the Euskaltel team’s future, it is headline performances like Nieve’s that might help to attract a new sponsor. And if a sponsor cannot be found then perhaps Nieve might have attracted the interest of Saxo-Tinkoff given the help he gave Contador to limit his losses.
Peter Sagan
The twenty points picked up by the Slovak at the intermediate sprint at Malaucène has now all but put the points classification to bed. The competition had been billed as a duel between Sagan and Cavendish, but with the Manxman seemingly suffering from a slight lack of form, it was the defending champion who is now almost 100 points clear with only the Champs Elysees to come for the sprinters. This year hasn’t been quite as spectacular for Sagan, as he has only picked up the one stage win (even if his wheelie when being caught today is sure to rack up the youtube hits), but the Cannondale rider has been ruthlessly consistent, and this is after all what the points classification is designed to test.
Losers
Alberto Contador
The last man to remain with Froome and Porte as all the other GC contenders were shed thanks to Sky’s ferocious pace on the lower slopes of Ventoux. However, the Spaniard had no answer to Froome’s acceleration, and seemed to go too deep trying to regain contact with the yellow jersey. In sharp contrast to his ride here in 2009, Contador really suffered on the upper slopes, losing contact with Nieve and struggling to stay on the wheel of Kreuziger as his teammate picked him up in the final few hundred metres. The only solace for Contador will be the small amount of time gained on Mollema, placing the Spaniard only 11 seconds off second place going into the rest day. This will be an enthralling battle for the podium as the race hits the Alps, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kreuziger take up leadership duties if Contador puts in a poor time trial on Wedneday.
Michal Kwiatkowski
Holding a slender lead in the young rider classification going into the stage, it was always going to be tough for the Pole to keep a leash on Quintana on such a tough summit finish. In the end he ended up surrendering almost three minutes to the Colombian, and with them all hope of taking the white jersey to Paris. Kwiatkowski also dropped to tenth in the overall classification, and it will take good, consistent riding to hold onto this position with riders of the calibre of Dan Martin and Michael Rogers breathing down his neck. But whatever the result this is definitely not the last we will see of the 23 year old, and hopefully we can look forward to more duels with Quintana in the years to come.
Pierre Rolland
A miserable day for the polka dot jersey as he endured a long, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to bridge across to the breakaway, before being quickly dropped by the main contenders on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. With 50 points available to the first man to the summit, it was always likely that Rolland would relinquish the lead in the mountains competition, but he would probably have liked to have secured a top ten finish to keep the polka dot jersey within reach. He now finds himself with a 32 point deficit on Froome, and with the Brit looking so strong he might end up being the first man to win both the yellow and polka dot jerseys since Eddy Merckx. Rolland will now be looking to long mountain raids through the Alps to pick up points, although with Mikel Nieve now finds himself in third position in that classification and might fancy similar tactics.
Cadel Evans
One of the first big names to disappear off the back on the lower slopes of Mont Ventoux as Sky set a fierce pace at the front. I was not alone in having Evans down as a genuine contender for the yellow jersey before the race, but the Australian clearly no longer has the legs, struggling from the very start in the Pyrenees. Today he rolled in almost nine minutes down on Froome, having to be paced by Steve Morabito and Philippe Gilbert, a long way from the form he showed in the Giro. I fear we may never see the tenacious Australian back at the superb best we saw in 2011.
Stage 16 Preview
After the rest day, the Tour makes its way into Alps with a stage finish at Gap, a veteran of 21 Tour visits. The final third of this stage is identical to the end of stage 16 of the 2011 Tour de France, where Thor Hushovd took the win from Edvald Boasson Hagen and Ryder Hesjedal, while Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, and Samuel Sanchez attacked on the Col de Manse before putting a vital 1:09 into Andy Schleck on the descent.
At 9.5 km, the Col de Manse is reasonably tough for a second category climb, but rarely strays far from its 5.2% average gradient. This is an ideal launching pad for an attack, especially given the technical descent.
Scenario
With reasonably small time gaps separating the top ten in GC (with the obvious exception of Chris Froome) I wouldn’t be surprised to see attacks, either on the climb or the descent of the Col de Manse. However, with the time trial looming on Wednesday, there may be some reluctance to fully commit.
But with infighting among the GC contenders, perhaps we could see a repeat of 2011 with a breakaway group staying clear to contest the stage win. A number of teams have enjoyed a fruitless Tour so far, most notably BMC. Perhaps then we could see Philippe Gilbert looking to notch up his first win in the rainbow jersey. The Belgian certainly looks in decent form with his performance on Mont Ventoux, but maybe Peter Sagan might also fancy notching up a second win of the Tour. Expect a fast first hour as half of the peloton fights to make the break.
Stage Win: Philippe Gilbert
Yellow Jersey: Chris Froome
Student Cyclist 