Chris Froome and Richie Porte repeated the performance they delivered in the first mountain stage of the 2013 Tour de France when they crushed the opposition in a 1-2 for Sky in the first big battle in the Pyrenees. After Geraint and Thomas had prepared the attack, the race leader made a formidable acceleration to ride away from everyone else before Porte clawed his way back to Nairo Quintana (Movistar) before distancing the Colombian. Froome extended his lead over Tejay van Garderen (BMC) to 2.52 while Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) both lost a lot of time.

 

In 2013 Chris Froome and Richie Porte resoundingly showed their superiority in the Tour de France when they made it a dominant 1-2 for Team Sky on Ax-3-Domaines in the first stage in the Pyrenees. Today it was a case of déjà vu when the peloton again tackled the first serious climbs in the mountain range on the French-Spanish border.

 

After he had let Movistar do the bulk of the work on the final climb to La Pierre Saint-Martin, Froome asked his Sky teammates to push the pace in the steepest section. Wout Poels and Geraint Thomas did the first part of the work to distance the likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador before Porte made the big acceleration that blew the peloton to pieces.

 

Finally, Froome took off and immediately distanced Nairo Quintana who was the final rider to follow the Sky duo. From there he time trialled his way to a dominant solo win, putting more than a minute into Quintana. To make things even better for the British team, Porte managed to claw his way back to the Colombian and jumped him inside the final kilometre to make it a 1-2 for Sky.

 

Pierrick Fedrigo (Bretagne) and Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) had hit the bottom of the final 15.3km ascent with an advantage of 2.40 but it was clear that they had no chance to stay away. It was Winner Anacona who led the peloton onto the ascent and he immediately made the group explode to pieces.

 

Fedrigo distanced Vanbilsen immediately while Ryder Hesjedal, Daniel Navarro and Rui Costa were some of the first big names to get dropped. The Colombian swung off with 13km to go before Jose Herrada took over and he quickly brought the fading Vanbilsen back.

 

Gorka Izagirre wsas next in line for Movistar and his pace was enough to send Andrew Talansky and Romain Bardet out the back door. Haimar Zubeldia was also distanced before Thibaut Pinot who had used his teammates to set the pace early in the stage fell behind too

 

With 11km to go, Jean-Christophe Peraud was dropped just as Robert Gesink launched an attack. The Dutchman flew past the fading Fedrigo while Izagirre reeled the Frenchman in.

 

Rafael Valls took off in pursuit of Gesink while Rigoberto Uran was the next big name to get dropped. Things got even more dramatic a little later when Vincenzo Nibali suddenly lost contact and quickly lost a lot of time.

 

The main group had now been whittled down to Izagirre, Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, Thomas, Porte, Froome, Poels, Tejay van Garderen, Samuel Sanchez, Rafal Majka, Joaquim Rodriguez, Alberto Contador, Serge Pauwels, Laurens Ten Dam, Warren Barguil, Pierre Rolland, Louis Meintjes, Eduardo Sepulveda, Tony Gallopin and Adam Yates. Meanwhile, Valls caught Gesink but he was distanced by the Dutchman as they hit the steepest section.

 

As Izagirre swung off, Valverde took over and that was enough for Rodriguez and Meintjes to crack. That was the signal for Sky to hit the front and as Poels upped the pace, Ten Dam, Sepulveda and Barguil were dropped.

 

As Thomas took over, Sanchez and Sepulveda fell off before Valverde launched an attack. He passed Valls but was quickly brought back by the impressive Thomas.

 

Majka was the next rider to get dropped as Valverde tried again, with Thomas quickly shutting it down. Next Valls and Yates lost contact and when Porte took over everything blew to pieces.

 

Contadro was the first to drop off before Gallopin, Valverde and Rolland surrendered. Porte, Froome, Quintana and van Garderen caught Gesink who lost contact alongside the American.

 

Porte continued for a few hundred metres before Froome made his attack and he got an immediate advantage. Quintana kept him at 10 seconds for a little while but from there the Brit put time into the Colombian with every single pedal stroke.

 

Van Garderen was dropped by Gesink and instead saw Valverde, Rolland and Thomas catch him. Later Yates and Gallopin also made it back but van Garderen didn’t receive any help.

 

Froome sprinted all the way to the line to maximize his time gains while Porte clawed his way back to Quintana as they passed the flamme rouge. He took a short breather before he accelerated to take second while Quintana had to settle for third. Gesink held onto fourth while Valverde and Thomas made a late attack with Yates and Rolland to complete the top 8 while Gallopin and van Garderen rounded out the top 10. Contador lost 2.51 while Nibali saw his deficit increase to 4.25 as he crossed the line.

 

With the dominant win, Froome extends his overall lead over van Garderen to 2.52 while Quintana is now third at 3.09. He faces another test in the Pyrenees in tomorrow’s stage where a flat first section leads to a difficult finale with the the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet before the riders descend to the bottom of a relatively easy category 3 climb that summits 3.5km from the finish in Cauterets.

 

The first stage in the mountains

After a well-deserved, a new race was expected to start in stage 11 where the riders finally reached the first mountains in the Pyrenees. The stage brought the riders over 167km from Tarbes to a mountaintop finish on the HC climb La Pierre Saint-Martin but didn’t include much climbing in the first part. In fact, it was almost completely flat – there were only three category 4 climbs to warm up the legs – before the riders hit the bottom of the final climb which was 15.3km long and had an average gradient of 7.4%.

 

It was a very hot day in the Pyrenees when the riders gathered for their first big mountain battle. However, two riders were absent: Ivan Basso (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Lars Boom (Astana). The Italian quit the Tour yesterday after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. The Dutchman had fever since two days.

 

Fedrigo takes off

As expected, the opening part of the stage turned into the first true battle to join the early breakaway as it took longer than it has done in the first stages for the group to get clear. No one had any success until Pierrick Fedrigo (Bretagne) attacked after 7km of racing but initially things didn’t look good for him as he dangled in front of the peloton with a 5-second advantage for some time.

 

While Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r) worked his way back from a puncture, several riders tried to counterattack but no one had any success. Instead, Fedrigo had extended his lead to 15 seconds at the 12km mark.

 

Vanbilsen bridges the gap

Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) managed to take off in pursuit before the peloton finally stepped off the gas. At the 16km mark, the Belgian was 30 seconds behind Fedrigo while the peloton was at 1.40 and 1km later, the gaps were 40 seconds and 2.25 respectively.

 

Surprisingly, Fedrigo didn’t wait for Vanbilsen who was 1.10 behind at the 25.5km mark where the peloton had been distanced by 6.45. However, as the gap had gone out to 9.20 at the 30km mark, he finally stepped off the gap and allowed his Belgian chaser to get closer. The junction was made after 45km of fast racing at a point when the peloton was 11.20 behind.

 

Movistar take control

Team Sky took control in the peloton with Ian Stannard but he was not chasing yet. Hence, the front group passed the 50km mark with an advantage of 12 minutes.

 

Stannard and Luke Rowe allowed the gap to go out to 14.40 with 94km to go just after Vanbilsen had won the first KOM sprint. However, that was as much as the break would get as Movistar hit the front with Imanol Erviti and Alex Dowsett. Those two riders combined forces to gradually reduce the gap to 13.40 with 82km to go.

 

Barguil goes down

At this point, the peloton passed through the feed zone and here disaster struck for Barguil who hit the deck hard. The Frenchman finally got back on his bike but found himself more than 3 minutes behind the peloton.

 

While Vanbilsen won the second KOM sprint, Barguil got a lot of help from his team car and finally his teammate Rmaon Sinkeldam to rejoin the peloton with 65km to go. At this point the gap was still 12.00.

 

FDJ come to the fore

Mark Cavendish made his way back to the peloton after a puncture while Tom Leezer was the next rider to go down in a small crash. Meanwhile, Erviti and Dowsett still set the pace but with 50km to go, the gap was still 11.30

 

That was the signal for FDJ to kick into action. Arnaud Demare and Sebastien Chavanel started to trade pulls with Erviti and Dowsett and this had a big impact on the gap which was melting away. When Fedrigo led Vanbilsen across the line in the intermediate sprint, the gap was 9 minutes.

 

Greipel takes the green jersey

Giant-Alpecin gave John Degenkolb a full lead-out but he had to settle for third in the sprint behind André Greipel and Mark Cavendish. Jens Debusschere pipped Peter Sagan on the line and so the Slovakian lost the green jersey to Greipel.

 

Demare, Chavanel, Erviti and Dowsett went back to work while Contador and Quintana worked their way back to the peloton from a bike change. A little later, Vanbilsen won the third KOM sprint.

 

A fight for position

Adriano Malori was now also working on the fron for Movistar while FDJ had stopped their work. The gap was down to 5.05 with 27km to go where the fight for position really intensified.

 

Movistar got swarmed by Cannondale, Lampre, IAM and Ag2r who were lined out in the front row as they passed the 20km to go banner with a deficit of 4.00. With 15km to go, Sky also came to the fore as did Tinkoff-Saxo with Daiele Bennati and Contador. As riders started to get dropped, Anacona hit the front and led the peloton onto the climb to start the drama.