The Tour de France resumed today after yesterday’s second rest day with a tough stage finish to Finhaut-Emosson and Irish rider Dan Martin hung on to his top-10 position.
Team Sky’s Chris Froome stays in yellow with just four stages remaining and his team kept a stranglehold on the race with attacks by Martin and Richie Porte being controlled.
Today’s 184-kilometre stage between Berne and Finhaut-Emosson was the first of four brutal Alpine stages, where a shake-up of the standings was expected. Today’s finishing climb had never been used in the Tour before but had been used previously in the Tour de l’Avenir (2006) and Critérium du Dauphiné (2014).
There were breakaway attempts from the start, but the peloton didn’t seem content with any of these, so it rode a high pace in the opening hour, covering 52 kilometres and neutralizing all moves.
It was only after 70 kilometres, almost halfway through the stage, that 14 men got away. Immediately, another group countered, and Julian Alaphilippe – most aggressive rider of stage 16 – was among those who tried to bridge to the leaders before the second classified ascent.
The escapees built a 13-minute gap by the foot of the penultimate climb, and in that moment it became obvious the winner would come from the break. Many riders got shed from that group, only Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) making it over the top in the lead.
On the gruelling Finhaut-Emosson (10.4 kilometres, 8.4% average gradient), Zakarin moved away from his companions and soloed to the win, while behind, the yellow jersey group was slimming under the impetus of Astana.
With four kilometres to go, Dan Martin jumped from the yellow jersey group and opened a 10-second gap on the others, but Sky didn’t give him too much space, bringing the Irishman back after 500 metres.
Inside the final two kilometres, the group disintegrated following an attack of Richie Porte (BMC), to which only race leader Chris Froome could respond.
The duo gained time on the others, while Martin pushed hard in order to limit his losses and eventually crossed the line less than a minute later, keeping his place in the top 10, with just four days to go.
His showing in stage 17 in which he had to fight also with the hot temperatures and the frenetic rhythm of the peloton, left Dan Martin fairly satisfied: “It was a very fast day and we finished way ahead of the schedule, despite the scorching heat. Movistar and then Astana pushed a hard tempo, whilst I didn’t feel as good as after the first rest day, but even so I tried to attack.”
“I thought Sky will back off, especially as Chris Froome didn’t have any problems, but they kept on going and chased me. I am five minutes down on him in the GC, so I take this as a compliment, because it looks like I’m still a threat for them”, said Martin, before concluding: “I remain confident and hope for some nice results in the next three days in the mountains.”
