With a twist in the tale that nobody could have expected, Peter Sagan took his second stage win of the 2016 Tour de France with an audacious attacking move 12km from the finish, taking teammate Maciej Bodnar and the Yellow Jersey with him. Peter’s stage win and the points amassed during the stage help the UCI World Champion to extend his lead in the points contest, and leads the second-placed rider by a significant margin.
Having been denied their bunch sprint by Peter Sagan’s breakaway group yesterday, the sprint teams were given a second chance to contest the finish before the Tour de France returned to the mountains tomorrow.
This didn’t stop a two-man break going up the road, but the peloton had little time to worry about the escape however with the constant threat of crosswinds making for nervous racing and resulting in several crashes. From 100km remaining however, the teams really started to pull at the front and upped the pace massively – so much so that when Tinkoff took the front, the pace was so high it caused a split in the peloton.
“We knew that it would be windy and in the direction to split it so we were up for a tough day, but for a lot of the stage there was a sense of false alarm with everyone looking at each other until we got near to the finish,” explained Sport Director Sean Yates after the finish.
This huge effort saw the gap drop massively and with 70km remaining, the gap was down to just 45 seconds and with 61km still to race, the break was caught. With such a high pace and strong winds buffeting the group, racing was hard, and shortly after the break was caught, a crash saw both Rafal Majka and Oscar Gatto go down. Luckily both were uninjured and able to rejoin the race.
The intermediate sprint saw the UCI World Champion take second and from here it was full gas to the finish. There was status quo until the 12km to go mark, where Peter and Maciej Bodnar were joined by the yellow jersey and one of his teammates. Quickly building up a twenty second advantage, this was a powerful break with strong riders working together – with Maciej particularly strong in holding the pace, fresh from his win in the Polish national TT championship race.
“The guys did a great job looking after Roman and riding at the front and then putting the hammer down late on,” Yates continued. “On the race radio they called it a violent acceleration when Peter raised it up a notch and pulled away with the other three, and it was already full gas.
Once they opened up the gap, they had four guys fully committed to make it stick. Once again Peter demonstrated that he’s one of a kind, especially after yesterday’s super hard stage, being up the road all day. He fully deserved that win, and he racked up a whole load more points for green today. Bodi was really strong and he always commits to the cause, so it was an ideal combination. A fantastic demonstration by the team again today, we couldn’t be happier with their performance.”
While the fast men had thought a bunch sprint was guaranteed, they were denied by the Slovakian rider and his Polish compatriot, who took the win with ease, and Maciej in third. Throughout the day the Tinkoff riders had controlled the stage, but it was at the finish where the team’s class really showed. From the finish, Peter couldn’t believe how the stage had turned out. “It was something crazy what happened. I didn’t believe when we attacked that we could go. After Froomey and Geraint Thomas went with us I said ‘we are too strong; they will never catch us’. We just pulled very hard and made it happen.”
The surprise outcome made the stage easily one of the most exciting of the Tour so far – and as Peter explained, it was completely unplanned. “Today everybody knew it was a crazy wind, but the real crazy wind only came in the last 15km. There was no planning for the end, we knew to stay up front in position as the bunch would split. But to go in break with yellow and two guys like Bodnar & Thomas, you cannot plan that, it just happened.”
The team’s owner, Oleg Tinkov, was full of praise for Peter – taking the stage win in a way few other riders could match. “As I said he is technically the best rider, and today we all saw it. He’s the character and the showman, he’s the best and I’m glad he’s in my team. Peter did something today that not many riders in the peloton can do. It’s also a relief for the team after we lost Contador. A second stage win is good for us and it keeps the spirit up. We hope to go for the KOM jersey although we will see how Rafal Majka feels after he fell today, but it’s looking good.”
After a hard stage with strong winds, Peter was thrilled with the support of his teammates, as wella s the support he received in the breakaway. “Today I’m very surprised and also very happy. We were trying all the time to be in the front and it was often dangerous with a lot of crashes and the wind was very dangerous. The last 12km was just decisive to do well. Thank you to Maciej Bodnar as he did a huge job, and also Chris Froome and Thomas as they were working with us to make the difference over the bunch.”
At the end of the stage, Peter’s lead in the Maillot Vert contest was extended to 90 points. “I am very happy – the green jersey, and the stage victory. Yesterday everybody was saying ‘are you frustrated?’ but I said I’m not and that I just look ahead each day. It was not planned at the end – it was in the moment, instinct. I bet everything on that attack as if the bunch caught us I wouldn’t have any thing left. It was four very strong riders in the front, and it was a winning combination.”
Tomorrow’s stage is another beast entirely, with a climb that will strike fear into even the strongest grimpeurs. On Bastille Day, the Tour de France will climb Mont Ventoux – 15.7km long and with an average gradient of 8.8%. The ‘Mont Chauve’ is not simply Hors Catégorie – it’s one of the hardest climbs in the world and can crack any rider. Tomorrow will show who still has the legs to compete in the GC race.
Ron is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.
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