2019 Tour de France: Stage 16 Results

Caleb Ewan takes his second stage win at the 2019 Tour de France on a blistering hot day in Nimes. Julian Alaphilippe finished with the peloton to gain another day in the yellow jersey.

Stage 16 of the 2019 Tour was a 177km mostly flat stage that started and ended in the French town on Nimes. Nimes’ appearance in Le Tour goes back to 1905, the first race, but you might know the name for something you’re wearing right now: Denim, the anglification of De Nimes.

This year’s race has seen the lowest rate of abandonments in 20 year. Only 12 riders have left the race so far. No rider has been excluded or has finished outside the time cut. Since 1999 when the two rest days have become a standard, it’s the lowest number by far. The second lowest at this stage of the Tour de France was 17 in 2016.

The race returns from the second rest day with Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe still in control of the maillot jaune of race leader. It’s his 11th day in the race lead with a 1’35’’ gap over defending champion Geraint Thomas and 1’47’’ over Steven Kruijswijk. His compatriot Thibaut Pinot is fourth at 1’50’’.

As the race rolled out, Alexis Gougeard (AG2R) and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis) immediately attacked and were soon joined by Lukas Wisnowski (CCC), Lars Bak (Dimension Data) and Paul Ourselin (Total). Rossetto had planned to attack today, telling French TV, “I’m fine. I feel in good shape to break away again. It’s summer time, I love it! It’s hot but as pro riders we are used to it. I rode La Vuelta four times and I’ve already experienced one week of such heat in Andalusia. I definitely prefer the heat than the rain.” It’s his fifth breakaway of the 2019 race.

For his part, Lars Bak is in the break, making an appearance for what will be his last Tour de France. On Danish television TV2, Bak said that he never suffered as much during the Tour de France as this year. It’s his 7th participation and he completed them all. “I didn’t ask for my contract to be renewed with Dimension Data”, he informed. “I might do one more season as a pro rider but for sure this is my last Tour de France.”

It’s fully expected that today’s stage will be one for the sprinters, really, their last chance to shine until Sunday’s showing on the Champs d’Elysees, so it was not expected that the attackers would survive to the end of the stage. It was a blistering hot day with temps in the mid nineties at the finish, so ice packs were going out to the riders throughout the stage.

While the gap to the peloton briefly went over 2 minutes, it was averaging 1’30” for most of the stage.

At the intermediate sprint at Vallérargues (km 65):

1. Lars Bak, 20 pts
2. Stéphane Rossetto, 17 pts
3. Paul Ourselin, 15 pts
4. Lukas Wisnowski, 13 pts
5. Alexis Gougeard, 11 pts

With 84km to go, speeds in the peloton began to increase, stretching out the pack and decreasing the gap to the leaders to 1’05”, but the gap was soon back to 1’30”.

68km to go and the gap dropped under a minute.

With about 50km to go, the gap began to plummet, dropping to about 25 seconds. Groupama-FdJ and Jumbo-Visma were the main protagonists pushing the pace in the peloton. It was expected that the speed would increase at this point in the stage as crosswinds began to buffet the riders.

At 28km remaining, there is a crash in the peloton. Several go down, but Jakob Fuglsang takes it the hardest, getting into the ambulance.

15km to go and the gap dropped to about 21 seconds.

Decuninck-Quick Step sent Kasper Asgreen up to the front to help reel in the break, as the leaders were still holding a 13 second gap with 9km remaining. Katusha moved several riders to the front as well.

Despite the break’s strong efforts, the catch took place with 2.5km remaining and the sprint teams started to do their work. There are a couple of roundabouts in the final kilometers that were expected to dampen (but not stop) the ferocity of the sprinters today.  Ewan, Groenewegen, Viviani and Sagan were all making their way to the front.

Viviani was perfectly placed for the sprint, but it was Caleb Ewan that had the legs, powering ahead of the Italian in the final meters. It’s his second stage win in the 2019 TdF.

2019 Tour de France Stage 16 Brief Results:

1. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) at 3h57’08”
2. Elia Viviani (Deceuninck Quick Step) s.t.
3. Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo Visma) s.t.
4. Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) s.t.

General Classification After Stage 16:

 

1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick Step) at 61h00’22”
2. Geraint Thomas (Team INEOS) at 1’35”
3. Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 1’47”
4. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama – FDJ) at 1’50”
5. Egan Bernal (Team INEOS) at 2’02”