Tour de France 2016: Stage 12 Final KM

How it unfolded

With only 178km on the menu of the shortened stage to Mont Ventoux, and the peloton facing howling winds, it was a brave rider who would go on the attack, but there were plenty such men in the peloton.

The attacks flew from the drop of the flag at kilometer zero, and soon there were 14 riders off the front – plenty of help to battle the winds. The group included Bertjan Lindeman and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-Jumbo), Stef Clement (IAM Cycling), Serge Pauwels and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), André Greipel and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Bryan Coquard and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step), Dani Navarro and Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) and Chris Anker Sorensen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).

Voss punctured out of the group, but found himself in a chase group in no-man’s land with Diego Rosa (Astana), Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Drapac), and Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin).

The leaders gained a massive 18:15 by the midpoint of the stage, with all of the riders contributing to the pace. But behind the winds caused havoc in the peloton, splitting it to bits in an exposed section in wicked crosswinds.

The main overall favourites including the BMC duo Van Garderen and Porte, Nairo Quintana, Adam Yates, Dan Martin, Fabio Aru and most of Team Sky with Froome were at the front, but the Frenchmen Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) were caught out together with green jersey holder Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).

Aru had a panic when he was forced to take a bike change from teammate Jakob Fuglsang as the Astana team car was trapped behind the second peloton. He rejoined the lead group after some effort.

The chasing peloton made up ground on the riders in no-man’s land on the two smaller climbs with 40km to go, and were closing in on the leaders – they had the gap under eight minutes until Simon Gerrans (Orica-BikeExchange) was blown over in a turn on the descent from the Col des Trois Termes and took down Team Sky’s Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe.

Inexplicably, the maillot jaune himself stopped and went back to pace his teammates back through the following cars as the peloton respected the go-slow. They rejoined a few kilometers later, without Stannard, and began the pursuit anew. The brief respite in pace allowed the second peloton to rejoin, bringing Barguil, Pinot and Vincenzo Nibali back into the action.

At the foot of the Ventoux, the breakaway still had nearly nine minutes, and Greipel decided to get a head start on the climb, powering away with 14km to go, but his move was only a boomerang. He was quickly caught and dropped. Soon it was De Gendt, Pauwels and Navarro alone up front. De Gendt was distanced from the leading group with 7km remaining, but rejoined a few kilometers later.

The fireworks from the yellow jersey group came with a probing attack from IAM Cycling’s Jarlinson Pantano that was countered by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). The surge dropped Geraint Thomas out the back, leaving Froome with his main climbers Henao, Poels and Nieve for protection. Nieve was soon dropped, and Quintana inserted himself into the Sky train as they reeled in Valverde.

As Valverde was reeled in, Quintana put in a dig that was marked by Sky, but the acceleration spat Dan Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) out the back, with Daniel Moreno (Movistar) along for company.

Not willing to quit, Quintana put in another dig but was once again shut down by Poels. The clash of the titans whittled the yellow jersey group down to only a few favourites and their main climbing domestiques. Mollema, Mientjes, Yates and Bardet held onto the back for dear life. A telling head shake from Quintana came before Joaquim Rodriguez injected some pace into the yellow jersey group, marked quickly by Valverde. Again, Poels proved too strong and nailed it back. It was not a day for the Colombian to gain time, in fact he would lose contact when Froome himself went with 1.6km to go, marked quickly by Richie Porte (BMC) with Quintana unable to stay on the wheel. Mollema attacked from Quintana’s group to make it across to Froome and Porte.

Ahead, De Gendt, having had to chase back to Pauwels and Navarro, showed his strategy was on track as he attacked with 3km to go and distanced his companions. Only Pauwels could keep him in reach, and the Belgian made contact and quickly attacked with 1.9k to go. The two played too much cat and mouse, allowing Navarro to rejoin with 1km to go. De Gendt proved victorious however, but his victory would be forever overshadowed by the incident of the race leader Froome behind.

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