Nairo Quintana claimed the third Colombian stage victory at this year’s Tour de France after two bunch sprints by Fernando Gaviria. The Movistar climber took the highest summit finish of the 105th edition in a solo move in the last climb to Col du Portet as Geraint Thomas extended his lead in the overall ranking.
146 riders took the start of the 65-km long Pyrenean stage in Bagnères-de-Luchon with the top 20 riders on GC having a special position on the starting grid but Tanel Kangert (Astana) was the first attacker in the opening kilometre.
Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) was first to join him but 5km before the first summit at Peyragudes, Kangert was alone in the lead again with an advantage of 25″ over Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step) who continued his quest for the King of the Mountain title. The Frenchman was second to the Estonian at the top.
Alaphilippe and Durasek rejoined Kangert two kilometres before the intermediate sprint at Loudenvielle (km 27.5) where the Astana rider passed in first position. Three minutes behind the leading trio, Pierre Latour was first to up the tempo for AG2R-La Mondiale 6km before the top summit of Val Louron, the second category 1 KOM of the day.
Durasek lost contact with Alaphilippe and Kangert who crested the Col de Val Louron in that order. 15 kilometres before the finish line at Col du Portet, Kangert found himself alone in the lead again.
Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) attacked from the yellow jersey group as Chris Froome reacted to an attack by Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) and were chased by Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb).
With 10 kilometres to go, Kangert had 50″ lead over Alejandro Valverde, Quintana (Movistar) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and 1’30″ over the yellow jersey group. Quintana and Majka then seized command of the race with 8.5 kilometres to go.
6.5 kilometres before the finish, Quintana rode away solo as Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) tried to bridge the gap to the Colombian but was unable to. Behind, Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) lost contact with the yellow jersey group. Froome also couldn’t hold the pace when Roglic sped up again with 1.5 kilometres to go but Thomas kept the situation under control and put in the fastest ride of the favourites in the last 300 metres. Tom Dumoulin moved into second place in the overall ranking behind the Welshman from Team Sky.
