Thibaut Pinot claimed his second stage win at the Tour de France on the mythical Alpe d’Huez three years after his debut at Porrentruy.
Photo: ASO/letour.fr
It was a brilliant win built collectively by FDJ with Alexandre Geniez attacking from the gun. Pinot resisted to the return of Nairo Quintana who attacked Chris Froome just as he promised to do but the Kenyan-born rider kept an advantage of 1.12 over his arch-rival in the overall classification on the eve of the conclusive stage in Paris.
How the race unfolded
160 riders took the start of stage 20 at Modane Valfréjus. Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) attacked from the gun taking Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin) with him. They were reinforced after 2km of racing by Lars Bak (Lotto-Soudal) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis). The quartet got a maximum lead of four minutes until Geniez rode away solo 6km before the summit of la Croix-de-Fer. He crested in first position while Movistar launched a spectacular move with 3km to go to the top of the climb. Alejandro Valverde was first to attack the yellow jersey with 3km left to climb, Nairo Quintana did so too one kilometre further. They united their efforts before the top. Chris Froome was left with no team-mate but he always kept his adversaries in sight. No more than 15 seconds difference were recorded and the yellow jersey group was reassembled at the beginning of the downhill.
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Winner Anacona (Movistar), Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Ruben Plaza and José Serpa (Lampre) launched a counter-attack with 50km to go. Geniez forged on to reach the bottom of the mythical ascent to L’Alpe d’Huez with an advantage of two minutes over nine counter-attackers: Pinot, Rolland, Anacona, Hesjedal, Plaza, Serpa, Navardauskas, Edet and Bak. The yellow jersey group was at four minutes.
Pinot rejoined Geniez at the front with 9km to go. Hesjedal came across. At the same time, Valverde and Quintana attacked Froome on several occasions, starting their assault to the yellow jersey 11km before the end. Quintana found his compatriot Anacona who dragged him for a few kilometrEs on the way up to L’Alpe d’Huez. Pinot rode away solo in search of the stage victory with 6km to go. He courageously resisted to the return of Quintana who crossed the line in second position. With the help of Poels and Porte on the way up to the ski resort, Froome retained the yellow jersey by 1.12.
via Bicycling » Tour de France http://ift.tt/1LKxlHx
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