Once again MTN-Qhubeka riders impress at the Tour de France with Serge Pauwels’ impressive fourth place finish on Stage 11.
The 11th stage of the Tour de France had MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung fans on the edge of their seats as Serge Pauwels rode incredibly well to eventually finish in 4th place on the day. The stage victory went to Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo).
With most teams believing the break would survive today, there was a huge fight to get into the early move of the day. Edvald Boasson Hagen broke away after 5km of racing with three other riders and the quartet then held on to a 30 second lead for around 35km’s, riding at close on a 50km/h average. The peloton never gave up on the chase though and the four were eventually caught.
There was another flurry of attacks with Daniel Teklehaimanot and Jacques Janse van Rensburg both involved in the action but again, the peloton kept bringing the race back together. It was only after 75km’s had been completed that seven riders eventually got away from the main field. Pauwels was joined by Majka, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora Argon 18), Julien Simon (Cofidis), Steve Morabito and Arnaud Demare (FDJ). The leaders hit the first main obstacle of the day, the Col d’ Aspin where Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) then also rode across to the lead group.
The peloton sat up and allowed the leaders to open up a lead of just over seven minutes. When the riders reached the Col du Tormalet, Astana decided to up the tempo in the peloton and the reaction came straight away from the break. Majka attacked with 48km to go and Pauwels was the first to respond as the rest of the break fell behind. Pauwels summitted the Tormalet 1’50″ behind Majka and pulled back 50″ on the descent.
Unfortunately Majka was just too strong on the day and he went on solo to the victory. After Pauwels emptied the tank trying to bring back the Tinkoff rider, he was caught and passed by Martin and Buchmann in the final 3km, crossing the line in a courageous 4th place.
Said Serge Pauwels, “The goal was to have somebody in the breakaway. It was a really hard start and we first had Edvald there. I chose my moment and that was when the good breakaway went and a new race started. In the break Majka was the strongest. I tried to fight for the victory but there was one guy stronger. I am really happy with my result though.”
via Bicycling » Tour de France http://ift.tt/1Lc1LDH
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