After two difficult days in the mountains which favored the climbers and general classification leaders, Stage 16 set off near the sea in the south of France, preparing for a bunch sprint finish.
Thomas Gachinard (TotalEnergies) put in an early attack off the front in his first Tour de France, looking to take a chance on capturing a surprise victory and showing off some advertising time for his team sponsors in the process. This move was fun to watch throughout the day from Gachinard, as the 23-year-old French rider was making his first appearance at a Tour de France and seeing riders go off the front, hoping to capture some magic and hold off the peloton makes flatter, faster stages in particular much more interesting in the early hours as these riders not only still hold a small hope of winning the stage, but also put serious heart and soul into the ride in this attempt and to serve their role for the good of the team.
While Gachinard was eventually caught by the peloton in the final kilometers towards the line, he was voted as the Most Combative Rider on the day, and put it a gritty effort to make this push on his own for most of the day.
At the intermediate sprint riders jockeyed for position as Wout van Aert (Alpecin–Deceuninck) supported teammate Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck). Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) was well-positioned, as well as Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco–AlUla) in the final 300 km to the sprint, while Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Wanty) was late on his move.
The pace picked up in the final 5 kilometers as the riders went up to speeds of 35 mph on the approach. Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) was well-position on what would be most likely his last opportunity to capture a Tour de France stage in his illustrious career.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) was following his lead out with 3 kilometers to go as the peloton went around a roundabout. The young Belgian cyclist had not yet won any stages, but had put in a number of solid top-5 performances at the 2024 Tour de France, showing a strong career ahead of him.
Uno-X-Mobility had a number of riders set up for Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X-Mobility). This required other teams to respond as the Uno-X-Mobility team kept a high pace 2.5 kilometers out from the line. With 2 kilometers to go, there was a crash on a roundabout which included Biniam Girmay. This was a huge blow to the stage ambitions for the Green Jersey holder, and would hurt his overall lead in the classification.
Mathieu Van der Poel led out his teammate Jasper Philipsen, similar to as he had done on the intermediate sprint, around the last roundabout. Philipsen went off the front with his good support from Van der Poel and no one could come close on the day.
No major changes happened in the classifications with Tadej Pogačar leading in the general classification and King of the Mountains, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick-Step) as Best Young Rider, and Biniam Girmay in the lead of the points classification. Girmay did lose his padding in the points classification on Jasper Philipsen, with Philipsen only 22 points behind going into Stage 17.
Stage 17 will return to the mountains with 2,850 meters of elevation gain on a route from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Superdévoluy.
Comments
Post a Comment