Results 16th stage Tour de France 2014
1. Vincenzo Nibali (ita)
2. Thibaut Pinot (fra) + 1.10
3. Rafal Majka (pol) + 1.12
4. Jean-Christophe Peraud (USA) + 1.15
5. Tejay van Garderen (USA) s.t.
6. Romain Bardet (fra) + 1.53
7. Bauke Mollema (Nld) + 1.57
8. Leopold König (Cze) s.t.
9. Haimar Zubeldia (spa) + 1.59
10. Alejandro Valverde (spa) s.t.
11. Laurens ten Dam (Nld) s.t
12. Fränk Schleck (lux) + 3.30
18. Pierre Rolland (fra) + 4.33
GC after stage 16th stage
1. Vincenzo Nibali (ita)
2. Thibaut Pinot (fra) + 7.10
3. Jean-Christophe Peraud (USA) + 7.23
4. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 7.25
5. Romain Bardet (fra) + 9.27
6. Tejay van Garderen (USA) + 11.34
7. BaukeMollema (Nld) + 13.56
8. Laurens ten Dam (Nld) + 14.15
9. Leopold König (Cze) + 14.37
10. Haimar Zubeldia (spa) + 16.25
Race report
A lot of riders with ambition today and the pace is very high. Despite numerous attacks Oss and Huzarski are the first to have a go. From the hinterland a group of eighteen riders join them – Boom, Bakelants, Voeckler, De Marchi, Chavanel, Réza, Nieve, Herrada, Izaguirre, Trofimov, Marcato, Kadri, Ladagnous, Coquard, Simon, Wyss, Machado and Guillou – making it twenty upfront. The maximum gain is 4’09”.
Once at the foot of the Col du Tourmalet the advantage of the break is 3’30”. Nieve (image) and Kadri are the best climbers, a group with De Marchi, Huzarski and Trofimov is chasing.
Kadri and Nieve crest the Tourmalet with a 1’39” gain over De Marchi, Huzarski and Trofimov. The GC men are at 4’29”.
Valverde tries to rattle his opponents in the descent, but once in the valley the group is back together again. Astana is speeding, so it seems Nibali is opting for a new stage win.
With 25 kilometres left Kadri and Nieve have a 1’20” gain over the chasers and 2’45” over the GC bunch.
At the lower flanks of the climb to Hautacam Nieve goes solo and down the road the chasers are reeled, whilst Chris Horner attacks. The only one to react is Vincenzo Nibali. The two are off and with 10 kilometres left the Shark of Messina shows Horner his teeth. He eats Nieve alive, whilst down the road Majka attacks.
Valverde suffers and drops when Pinot opens fire, whilst Péraud and Van Garderen join the Frenchman. They power away and after being dropped by the likes of Mollema, Ten Dam and Konig Valverde manages to get back to them. Péraud and Pinot are half a minute down on him in the overall.
Majka’s pace drops and he is accompanied by Pinot et all. With 1.5 kilometres they are 1’30” behind Nibali, who cycles in a steady rhythm to his fourthe stage win this Tour. Pinot finishes second acfter a syrong climb and is the new runner-up in the overall, whilst Péraud becomes third and Valverde is fourth. Those three are within 0’15” of each other – making sure it will be a thrilling time trial the day after tomorrow.
Majka takes third today and is the mountain king in de 2014 Tour de France
Tour de France 2014 stage 18: Images and more
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