Manx Missile Mark Cavendish claimed his 30th Tour de France victory and fourth in this year’s race when he left sprint rival Marcel Kittel trailing at the end of the 14th stage yesterday.
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Despite being dropped twice by Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) on the second and final ascent of the Grand Colombier, Pantano appeared as if from nowhere to rejoin the Polish rider at 8.5km to go after an impressive descent.
Behind them, there was relatively little challenge to Chris Froome’s position in the yellow jersey as Team Sky neutralised all attempts to break away on the final climb. The country’s top rider Nairo Quintana has been strangely out of sorts over the Tour’s first two weeks, and sits fourth overall at 2min 59sec behind race leader Chris Froome.
“I’m really happy with another win for Team Dimension Data and more exposure for Qhubeka, to get 5000 children on bicycles”.
The only way in which this strategy can be countered is by concerted attacking from long range to wear out the domestiques, so that the leader – in this case Froome – is left exposed and has to respond to attacks on his own. He was dropped by Majka on both the last two climbs of the day, but each time closed the gap on the descent.
Higher up the mountain, Romain Bardet made his move, immediately before a tricky descent that should have favoured him.
The pair did not collaborate well on the flat roads to the finish, with Majka reluctant to take his share of the work.
“This is incredible. It’s a dream come true”.
Over the last three years Froome has been considered the best Grand Tour rider, with twice runner-up Quintana and two-time former victor Contador his greatest rivals. Im just disappointed of the outcome, because I had good sprinting legs.
A 30-man group got clear of the peloton on the opening first category climb of the day inside 20km.
On a constantly undulating course, Dutch rider Dylan van Baarle made the most of the lack of co-operation in the breakaway to try his luck soon after the feed zone but was quickly joined by Tom Dumoulin, who countered him in the Cote d’Hotonnes.
The move sparked a reaction from former Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali, who jumped out of the chasing group alongside Pantano and Alexis Vuillermoz.
But each time Froome’s Sky team-mates just increased the pace at the front of the peloton and methodically reeled them back in without Froome having to do the work.
Frenchman Bardet’s attack, however, hurt American Tejay van Garderen, who lost 1:28 to the leading riders and slipped from sixth to eighth overall as his hopes of a podium finish in Paris took a serious knock.
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Monday’s 16th stage is a 209-km ride from Moirans-en-Montagne to Bern.
