Cannondale-Garmin has had no manner of luck in the Tour de France, but a tenacious ride by Andrew Talansky for second place on stage 17 to Pra-Loup has the American team hoping their fortunes have finally turned a corner.
Talanksy was part of a huge breakaway that escaped midway through the 161km stage, and by the end he was chasing eventual stage winner Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) alone on the descent from the Coll d'Allos. Finishing 32 seconds behind, Talanksy said he ran out of road.
"Once I got in that breakaway I thought I had a really good chance. I was suffering a little bit early on, but I looked at the faces of the other guys, and I know the way I'm feeling in the third week, the way I've been climbing I was pretty confident I was the best climber in the group. That proved to be true by the end. Geschke just had a bit too much time coming into the final climb," Talansky said.
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"I rode the race as smart as I could, and rode with my heart and not my head in the end. I ended up being second, but I did everything I could."
Talansky came over the Coll d'Allos with 22km to go chasing behind Geschke and FDJ's Thibaut Pinot, but after the Frenchman slid out and then lost his confidence on the highly technical and treacherous descent, Talansky blasted past and went off in pursuit of Geschke, but couldn't close down the gap.
"Geschke is a pretty good descender, too, and the gap stayed pretty much the same between the top and the bottom. My only hope was that he was going to blow up in the steeper last two kilometers. He's a great bike rider, a class rider, and he knows how to meter his effort, obviously. I think I closed 50 seconds to a minute at the end, but it wasn't enough. I ran out of road."
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