July 14/16 14:30 pm - Tour de France: Stage 12

Posted by Editoress on 07/14/16
 

De Gendt wins Ventoux stage, Froome has a big fright

Thomas De Gendt and Serge Pauwels made another 1-2 for Belgium at Mont Ventoux after Greg Van Avermaet and De Gendt did it at Le Lioran on stage 5. They fought for stage victory from a breakaway group but Chris Froome was victim of a mechanical in the finale after he and Richie Porte had dropped Nairo Quintana before the finish at Chalet-Reynard. He crossed the line one and half minute after his main rivals on GC but he was reinstated in the yellow jersey by a jury decision.

13 riders in the lead
191 riders started stage 12 in Montpellier. 14 of them managed to go clear off the peloton after three kilometers of racing. After Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18) had a flat tyre, Bertjan Lindeman and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-Jumbo), Stef Clement (IAM), Serge Pauwels and Daniel Teklehaimanot (DiData), André Greipel and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Bryan Coquard and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step), Chris Anker Sørensen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), Dani Navarro and Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) formed the front group. A chasing group of five with Diego Rosa (Astana), Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Drapac), Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin) and Voss couldn't make it across. The maximum lead of the 13 escapees over the peloton was 18.45 at km 70 while the highest ranked of the breakaway riders on GC was Navarro with a deficit of more than half an hour.

Simon Gerrans and Team Sky crash with 35km to go
Etixx-Quick Step put the hammer down after half way into the race. It split the bunch. Most of the GC contenders stayed in the first part but not Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida) and Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin). Simon Gerrans (Orica-BikeExchange) was leading the chase when he crashed 39km before the end while the deficit was down to 7.50. Three riders from Team Sky also crashed behind him. Chris Froome asked the whole group to slow down. Therefore, the dropped riders managed to come across and the peloton was regrouped but Sagan and Pinot were dropped again and the breakaway riders could race for the stage victory.

Porte, Mollema and Froome on the ground
Greipel attacked at the front with 14km remaining. 8.5km before the end, Lindeman, Navarro, De Gendt and Pauwels formed the reduced leading group. Chavanel briefly joined them but surrendered together with Lindeman. De Gendt attacked with 4km to go. Pauwels reacted. It took much longer to Navarro to make it back. The trio was reunited in the last kilometer. De Gendt outsprinted Pauwels and Navarro in that order for the stage win at Chalet-Reynard.

In the yellow jersey group, Froome accelerated with 3.5km to go. Only Richie Porte managed to follow him. Nairo Quintana didn't but Bauke Mollema made it across. Porte, Mollema and Froome hit a motorbike. Mollema managed to go back on his bike quickly but Porte and Froome couldn't. Froome started running to the finish line, got a spare bike and a second spare bike to complete the course with a deficit of one and half minute over his main rivals. Eventually the classification was reviewed so nobody was penalized by the incident.

Quotes
Chris Froome: "It's the correct decision"

“The Ventoux is full of surprises. In the last kilometer, a motorbike broke in front of us and made us crash. Another motorbike came from behind and broke my bike. That's how I became a walker. I knew the car with my spare bike was five minutes behind. I'm very happy with the commissaires' decision. It's the correct one. Thanks to them and to the Tour de France organization.”

Adam Yates: "Nobody would have wanted the jersey like that"
“Cycling is the only sport where people can be so close to the players. It has some risks. I was with Quintana and Valverde when Froome had a problem. I felt good but not good enough to follow Froome and Porte. Nobody would have wanted to take the yellow jersey like this so it's a good decision the jury has taken. Tomorrow it's a time trial. It's not my specialty. I hope to lose the less time possible.”

Thomas De Gendt: "My biggest victory"
“In the finale, Serge Pauwels and I talked about Dani Navarro as Serge didn't see him coming across but he made it back only in the last kilometer so we could still sprint for the victory. At the bottom of the climb, André Greipel attacked because the plan was to make the others work. Navarro also had a team-mate with him. During the stage, he brought me bottles, gave me advice and he did most of the pulling. Normally I do that for him. It says how much of a great guy he is. He works also for a smaller rider. My stage win at the Stelvio was more emotional because it was the first one and it took me to the final podium of the Giro. But this is the Tour. It's the biggest race of the year. For my career it's the biggest victory. Now only a stage victory at the Vuelta is missing so I might skip the other Grand Tour to achieve this goal of winning a stage at each of them.”

ASO/Tour de France report

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