Monday, 15 July 2013

The Tour de France: Stages Fourteen and Fifteen

Stage fourteen turned out to be day for the breakaway men. After a surprising stage twelve, the GC contenders were happy to sit back and let a group of 18 go down the road. Having slipped up previously, Sky made sure that Froome was securely placed at the front, so there would be no more unexpected attacks. Amongst the 18 riders were David Millar, Tejay van Garderen, Lars Bak, Simon Geschke, Jan Bakelants, Blel Kadri, Andrew Talansky, Michael Albasini, Julien Simon, Matteo Trentin and a number of others all looking to take the stage victory. As the stage neared the end, it looked as though Julien Simon was going to take the win, having gone off the front, but some of the other riders had managed to bring him back and it ended up being a sprint, which Trentin won ahead of Albasini and Talansky. The rest of the peloton rolled in about seven minutes later.

Stage fifteen, on the other hand, was very much a day for the GC contenders, as Movistar took control of the race, hoping to set up the stage for their superstar climber, Quintana, who would eventually go on the attack. Ultimately, the work put in by Peter Kennaugh and Richie Porte at the front helped decimate the field, so that when Froome went off to catch Quintana, there was no one who could match him. Having caught Quintana, it didn't take long for Froome to overtake him and it was he who ended up victorious at the top of Mont Ventoux. Froome managed to put even more time into his rivals, with Quintana finishing 29 seconds down, Nieve and Rodriguez 1:23 down, Kreuziger and Contador 1:40 down. Once again, Froome has shown he is the dominant force in the 2013 Tour de France and there were no visible cracks in Sky's performance this time, either.

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