Stephen Cummings made it a fantastic Mandela day for MTN-Qhubeka when he took a hugely surprising win in stage 14 of the Tour de France. Having been dropped by Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r) on the final climb, he caught them in the final flat 1500m and used superior technical skills to get a gap in a late turn before powering across the line to take the biggest win for the African team. Chris Froome (Sky) time trialled his way back to Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and beat the Colombian in the sprint to extend his overall lead as Tejay van Garderen (BMC) lost terrain and dropped to third in the overall standings.

 

Going into the Tour de France with the goal of winning a stage, MTN-Qhubeka were not picky but if they had the chance to select a stage to win they would probably have pointed to stage 14. The stage both included a prestigious finish on the Cote de la Croix-Neuve in Mende and was held on Mandela Day which the South African team celebrated by wearing orange helmets.

 

However, few would have expected the team to finish it off in the way they did when Stephen Cummings achieved the big goal by riding away with the victory on the Aerodrome on the outskirts of Mende. With a perfectly gauged effort on the final climb, he caught the strong French climbing duo of Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet in the flat final 1500m and made a great late attack in a turn to take a solo victory.

 

Cummings had been part of a big 20-rider breakaway that had escaped after a brutally fast first part of the stage. In the group he was joined by Pinot, Jeremy Roy, Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Bardet, Jan Bakelants (Ag2r), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Pierr-Luc Perichon (Bretagne), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Koen De Kort (Giant-Alpecin), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Michal Golas, Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep), Kristijan Koren (Cannondale-Garmin), Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) and Bob Jungels (Trek) and it was FDJ that had been the driving force that kept the break alive while Sky set a steady pace in the peloton.

 

Golas and Koren had anticipated the better climbers and they hit the front of the final 3km climb with an advantage of 15 seconds over their chasers while the peloton was 5.30 adrift. It was Roy who set the pace on the lower sloped and he immediately sent De Kort and Perichon out the back door.

 

Golas dropped Koren as he hit the steep section where Bardet started the attacking. He flew past both Koren and Bardet while Cummings was clearly suffering at the back of the group.

 

Pantano was the first to join Bardet and later Yates, Uran and Bakelants also made it back. Finally, Pinot paced his way back to the group with Gautier, Plaza, Jungels, Cummings, Castroviejo and Sagan on his wheel.

 

Gautier tried to attack but it was the counterattack from Bardet that made the difference. He was joined by Yates and the pair quickly got a big gap over the chase group which was led by Pinot.

 

Bardet attacked again and this time Yates was unable to respond. Meanwhile, Pinot, Uran and Bakelants dropped their companions and the pace soon became too much for the Belgian.

 

Pinot and Uran passed Yates and gradually approached Bardet who was 10 seconds ahead when just 1km of climbing remained. Moments later Uran fell off the pace and it looked like a battle between the embattled French climbers.

 

Pinot caught Bardet 300m from the top and the pair reached the summit together. Just as it looked like a French sprint duel, Cummings suddenly came flying, passing the Frenchmen with a big acceleration.

 

Pinot responded immediately but Cummings just kept riding on the front. Showing better technical skills, he got a gap in the final turn and from there the outcome was never in doubt. Bardet and Pinot sprinted as best they could, with the FDJ rider coming out on top, but Cummings had time to celebrate his win.

 

Meanwhile, the battle between the GC riders was on. Leopold König had led the group onto the climb and set a pace that immediately whittled the peloton down to less than 20 riders. However, it was Roman Kreuziger who made things hard when he took over just moments later and this was too much for Warren Barguil and Mathias Frank who were among the riders to get dropped.

 

Nairo Quintana opened the attacking and surprisingly Chris Froome didn’t respond. Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde saw an opportunity to gain time and quickly jumped across to the Colombian.

 

Froome just time trialled his way to the top, with Alberto Contador, Tejay van Garderen and Tony Gallopin glued to his wheel. The French was the first to get dropped and moments later van Garderen also had to surrender.

 

Valverde dropped back to Froome and Contador and while Quintana distanced Nibali, the Spanish champion also lost ground from that group. Meanwhile, Froome and Contador time trialled past Nibali and rejoined Quintana.

 

Contador fell off the pace moments before Quintana made his next attack. Froome didn’t respond but time trialled his way back before they reached the summit.

 

Valverde had caught Contador and refused to work as he had Quintana ahead. A few metres from the summit he attacked and quickly approached the two main riders where Quintana did all the work.

 

On the finishing straight, Froome sprinted in an attempt to gain a few seconds while Valverde was just a few seconds behind at the finish. Contador was next while Nibali and van Garderen followed within the next few seconds.

 

The performance was enough for Froome to defend his overall lead and he now has an advantage of 3.10 over Quintana who moves into second. He should get an easier day tomorrow when the riders tackle a transitional stage to Valence. The first half is very undulating with several smaller climbs before a long descent leads to a mostly flat final half. However, the riders will have to tackle a tough category 2 climb just 50km from the finish, meaning that it is a day for a reduced bunch sprint or a breakaway.

 

A classic finale

After yesterday’s lumpy stage, the terrain got hillier in stage 14 which brought the riders over 178.5km from Rodez to Mende. The first half was lumpy with a small category 4 climb before the riders descended to a long flat section in the Tarn valley. Inside the final 45km, the riders tackled two climbs in quick succession before they descended to the bottom of the 3km, 10.1% Montee Laurent Jalabert that ended just 1.5km from the finish.

 

It was another day with brutal heat when the riders gathered for the start in Rodez. There were no non-starters as the peloton headed out on the neutral ride.

 

A big crash

The stage had been marked out as a good one for a breakaway so it was no surprise that a Bretagne rider attacked straight from the gun. He had no success and was quickly brought back though.

 

The aggression continued and at high speed a big crash split the peloton. Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Arnaud Demare (FDJ) were among the many riders to hit the deck but unlike Steve Morabito (FDJ) they were all able to continue. Unfortunately, the Swiss rider had to abandon the race.

 

The peloton splits

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) had been held up but managed to rejoin the peloton alongside the likes of Michele Scarponi (Astana), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka). It wasn’t easy though as the attacking continued.

 

After 10 kilometres, Cyril Gautier (Europcar) attacked and he was quickly joined by Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida). The pair got an advantage of 12 seconds while several riders tried to join them but aft 17km of racing, it was back together.

 

Sagan goes on the attack

While Richie Porte and Peter Kennaugh (Sky) were among many riders to get dropped, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) launched his third attack of the day. He was joined by Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), Damiano Caruso (BMC), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon 18) as he went up the first climb where the latter took the final point on offer.

 

At the top, the front quintet was 15 seconds ahead of a 19-rider chase group while the peloton was 1.05 behind. Moments later the two front groups merged and a big 24-rider group had been formed.

 

A 24-rider front group

Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Adriano Malori (Movistar), Warren Barguil and Koen de Kort (Giant), Giampaolo Caruso and Alberto Losada (Katusha), Pieter Weening and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Rigoberto Uran (Etixx), Pierre Rolland and Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Bob Jungels (Trek), Ruben Plaza and Rafael Valls (Lampre), Andrew Talansky and Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Bartosz Huzarski and Paul Voss (Bora), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Stephen Cummings (MTN) were the riders in the group that had an advantage of 1.17 when IAM started to chase. They worked hard to keep the gap around a minute for a long time.

 

At this point, Greipel, Boasson Hagen, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne) found themselves in a 30-rider group that had been distanced and it was not easy for them to get back as IAM continued to ride hard as Barguil was a threat to Mathias Frank’s GC ambitions. At the 40km mark, the gap was 48 seconds and after an hour of racing it was just 32 seconds.

 

The break splits up

Knowing that IAM continued to chase, Talansky, Plaza, Uran, Ladagnous and Grivko attacked out of the breakaway. At the 46km mark, they were 40 seconds ahead of the peloton while the chasers were still in between.

 

Jungels and Pantano took off his pursuit and were quickly joined by Sagan. While the rest of the break was caught and Sky took control of the peloton, those three riders made it across to the leaders.

 

Puncture for Talansky

With 115km to go, the gap had gone out to 2.10. At this point, Talansky had extremely bad luck as he punctured out of the lead group.

 

The attacking continued as Gautier, Michal Golas (Etixx-QuickStep), Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka), Jonathan Castrovieo (Movistar) and Jan Bakelants (Ag2r) took off in pursuit before a second chase group with Thibaut Pinot, Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Romain Bardet (Ag2r), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne), Koen De Kort (Giant-Alpecin), Kristijan Koren (Cannondale) and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) was formed. Those two groups merged. Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) also tried to bridge the gap but he never made it.

 

Sagan wins the sprint

With 105km to go, the chasers were 40 seconds behind the leaders who were clearly not waiting for them. Meanwhile the peloton slowed completely down and when Luke Rowe finally upped the pace slightly the gap had gone out to 6.00.

 

No one wanted to challenge Sagan in the intermediate sprint where he was first across the line followed by Plaza, Grivko and Jungels. The rest of the group was 15 seconds behind while the peloton was at 7.30.

 

Sky in control

Surprisingly, Plaza went on a solo attack just after the sprint and he built a 15-second advantage while the two chase groups merged. Wisely he quickly decided to wait and so a 20-rider front group was formed with 95km to go.

 

In the peloton, Ian Stannard was doing all the work for Sky and only occasionally got some help from Rowe. They were now 8.10 behind before the Brit clearly upped the pace and started to slowly reel the break in.

 

Sinkeldam abandons

There was no cooperation in the break which briefly split in two but with 75km to go, it came back together. Meanwhile, Ramon Sinkeldam (Giant-Alpecin) left the race due to stomach problems.

 

Stannard rode pretty fast and as they entered the final 60km, the gap was only 6.25. There was still no cooperation in the break as everybody wanted to save energy for the finale.

 

Porte hits the front

With 41km to go, the front group hit the first categorized climb with an advantage of 6.20 and this was the signal for FDJ to kick into action. Ladagnous sacrificed himself completely and set a solid pace all the way up the climb.

 

As soon as the peloton hit the climb, Richie Porte took over the pace-setting for Sky and his speed was too fast for most of the sprinters who were dropped.  The Australian gradually brought the gap down but it was still a relatively big group that reached the summit.

 

Golas attacks

Ladagnous led Roy, Bakelants and Pantano over the top of the climb while the peloton followed 5.25 later. Porte quickly swung off and it was Rowe who took over after his teammate.

 

In the front group, the attacking started on the descent when Golas attacked. He rode strongly downhill and had an advantage of 30 seconds when he reached the flat section at the bottom.

 

Koren gets clear

In the peloton, the fight for position had started but nonetheless the gap had gone out to 5.40 when they entered the final 20km. At this point Koren tried to attack but FDJ quickly short it down.

 

With 15km to go, the gap was still 25 seconds but a relentless Koren tried again. This time he got an advantage and quickly went into time trialling mode. Meanwhile, Ladagnous again hit the front of the chase group, sacrificing himself for Pinot.

 

Koren makes the junction

Koren made the junction with 11km to go while Porte lost contact with the peloton due to a puncture. Moments later the front duo hit the penultimate climb with an advantage of 13 seconds over the Ladagnous-led chase group.

 

Ladagnous blew up and so it was Roy who took over as they went up the climb. He kept the gap at around 10 seconds while the peloton fought for position behind. Surprisingly, Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) took off and quickly got a small advantage but he was caught back a little later

 

Ladagnous leads the chase.

Koren led Golas over the top of the climb with an advantage of 22 seconds while the peloton had now been distanced by more than 6 minutes. Bakelants and Perichon tried to attack over the summit but they had no success.

 

The peloton exploded to pieces as Wout Poels, Winner Anacona and Michael Rogers were lined out on the front. Joaquim Rodriguez was one of the riders to sit up. Moments later the front group hit the climb while Roy led the chasers onto the slopes just a few seconds later.