Omar Fraile (Astana) took his first Tour de France stage victory on stage 14 today in Mende, fending off Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) who took second place.
152 riders took the start of stage the in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and it was a fast start with crosswinds in the Rhône valley. Echelons were formed and the peloton was split in four with the likes of Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Mikel Landa (Movistar Team) in the second and fourth groups respectively.
At the initiative of Julian Alaphilippe who had also been the first attacker of the day, seven riders rode away from the front group. They were joined by 25 riders while all GC contenders remained in the peloton.
Alaphilippe took 1 KOM point at the Côte du Grand Châtaignier and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the intermediate sprint in Bessèges (km 90) just after the breakaway extended his lead to 7’10″.
As the time gap went above ten minutes, Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) rode away solo on the climb to Col de la Croix de Berthel where Alaphilippe took two more KOM points. Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) rejoined him on the downhill. With 50 kilometres to go, just before the Col du Pont sans Eau, the leading trio was 40″ ahead of their former breakaway companions and 13’40″ ahead of the peloton led by Team Sky.
Stuyven forged on by himself with 35 kilometres to go and 10 kilometres before the end, he was 1’40” ahead of the chasing group led by Gilbert meanwhile the peloton was cruising almost twenty minutes behind. The gap was 1’30” at the bottom of the final ascent to la Croix Neuve.
Fraile was first to come across to Stuyven while Alaphilippe made his move 3 kilometres before the end. The Frenchman in the polka dot jersey didn’t manage to get across to the Basque rider who scored Astana’s 13th stage victory in the Tour de France. Primoz Roglic (LottoNL Jumbo) was the first of the favourites to cross the line. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) kept the situation under control to finish with Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb). The Welshman retained the yellow jersey.
