22 July, 2016, Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc (FRA)
Stage 19 of the Tour de France saw a crash-marred day in the mountains, with Richie Porte crossing the line in 10th place and moving up to fifth on the General Classification.
Marcus Burghardt and Amaël Moinard made it in the day’s breakaway of 20 riders which proved crucial for Porte in the final 50km of racing.
The breakaway started to disperse on the Montée de Bisanne as heavy rain started to fall, making for slippery conditions and causing multiple crashes.
Porte crashed with 25km to go and chased hard, thanks to Damiano Caruso, Michael Schär, Amaël Moinard and Greg Van Avermaet, to return to the yellow jersey group before the final summit.
Caruso put in a stellar effort on the climb to deliver Porte to the front of the group with 3km to go, from which point Porte attacked. It was a tough battle of the General Classification contenders, multiple of whom who had crashed, and Porte eventually rolled across the line just under a minute back from solo winner Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).
The battle for the podium comes down to the final day in the mountains on stage 20, which includes four category climbs and a descent into the finish in Morzine.
Quotes from the Finish Line
Richie Porte:
“I left a bit of skin out on the second descent. I just crashed in the descent, quite a lot of guys did, but I think I was the first one down. I think it’s just a bit of skin missing, it’s one of those things.”
“It was such a hard day and it was a mess out there in the final. I think everybody came down. But I think I worked well with what I had and tomorrow’s another day. Today, even up hill around the corners, it was a bit slippery, so we’ll see how tomorrow pans out. I gave it my all today. The team were just amazing out there. The way they brought me back to the group after the crash and their work on the climbs was phenomenal.”
Damiano Caruso:
“The final was really good for me. I was happy with my work for Richie. At the end we lost some time, just some seconds, but tomorrow we will try again. The Tour de France is not over yet.”
Yvon Ledanois, Sports Director:
“I am so proud of the way the team worked today around Richie. To say they were incredible is the absolute truth. Tomorrow is another day and as we saw today, anything can happen out there. Rain is forecast again which means it will be another hectic stage. We are ready for one last fight to get Richie on the podium.”
Race Profile
Tour de France
Stage 19 Albertville ‘ Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc (146km)
Top 3: Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Joaquim Rodriguez (Team Katusha), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team)
BMC Racing Team Top 3: 10. Richie Porte, 18. Damiano Caruso, 38. Amaël Moinard
BMC Racing Team Top 3 on GC: 5. Richie Porte, 24. Damiano Caruso, 27. Tejay van Garderen.
