Chamrousse, 18th of July – 2014
A high-adrenaline finale was expected in today’s 197 kilometer long 13th stage of Tour de France from Saint-Etinne to the dreaded 18 kilometer long HC finish to Chamrousse with an average gradient of 7.3 per cent. Just prior to the mountain finish, a category 1 climb, Col de Palaquit greeted the riders and could be an invitation for some riders to catapult themselves away from the field. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka were to play a main role in this epic stage of this year’s Tour de France.
A breakaway group created the gap early on, but Alessandro de Marchi (Cannondale) was alone to crest the top of Col de Palaquit but chased by Jan Bakelandts (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) and Luis Angel Mate Mardones (Cofidis). The latter lost his GC captain, Daniel Navarro who abandoned during the stage and was therefore free to try his luck.
In the peloton, FDJ was setting the pace in a group now down to about 50 riders entering the uphill finish to Chamrousse where de Marchi had a gap of 2 and a half minutes. As the gradients started to kick in, Movistar took over the reigns of the pack picking up the speed ,which immediately sent several riders out the backdoor of the group. The first big name bing dropped was Sky’s Richie Porte and Nibali’s trusted teammate, Fuglsang crashed earlier and was distanced even before taking on the final slope. De Marchi was eventually caught as the select group of riders started their engines.
Halfway up the climb, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka put in a determined move following the attack of Leonard Konig (Net-App) but soon after, the big guns of race leader, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alessandro Valverde (Movistar) initiated a series of attacks mostly animated by Valverde who tried to knock out the Italian climber. But with 6.2 kilometers to go, Nibali danced away from Valverde and bridged the gap to Majka and Konig. With 3.2 kilometers to go, the leader’s jersey demonstrated that he is indeed the strongest rider remaining in the peloton and soloed his way to stage glory and extended his overall lead.
Behind, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka fought his way up the mountain, side by side with Konig, and he finished second, only ten seconds behind the Italian race leader.
“It was a very fast start of the stage as Katusha took control of the pace probably to score more points in the mountain classification. As the stage progressed and we entered the final climb, we had Michael, Nico and Rafal in the group of favorites. Nico was the first to get dropped but Rafal showed good form by launching a promising attack but he wasn’t strong enough to follow Nibali’s pace as he went past. But there’s another day tomorrow with longer climbs and we’ll try to win, which is our target now,” said DS, Philippe Mauduit.
