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2017 Tour de France Stage 18: Barguil doubles up atop Izoard, wins KOM in style

Froome's rivals can't budge him from top spot

14-07-2017 Tour De France; Tappa 13 Saint Girons - Foix; 2017, Team Sunweb; Barguil, Warren; Foix;

Frenchman Warren Barguil was crowned the King of the Mountains while winning his second stage of the 2017 Tour de France on Thursday, prevailing atop the formidable Izoard in the final day in the mountains. Barguil also earned top honours on Stage 13. Romain Bardet could only put a few bonus seconds into Chris Froome, who keeps the yellow jersey.


The Course and La Course
It would be the first time in Tour history that the race finished on the Izoard, a 14-km, 7.3% beast at the end of 179.5-km. There was also a Cat. 1 climb on the way to the Izoard. Thursday was the end of the mountains.


Earlier in the day the Women’s WorldTour held Stage 1 of La Course by Le Tour de France, a shortened version of the men’s route with Izoard intact. Orica-Scott’s Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten crushed the route, beating Boels-Dolmans’ Lizzie Deignan by 43-seconds. Even though van Vleuten led the Women’s WorldTour in April, Thursday was her first WWT win of the season. Deignan’s teammate Anna van der Breggen, who didn’t race, still leads the WWT. Leah Kirchmann was the top Canadian in 15th, 4:34 back.

Since Kirchmann and Karol-Ann Canuel were in the top-20, they will race the 22.5-km pursuit in Marseille on Saturday.


The Huge Breakaway
What started out as a quartet of refugees turned into a whole flotilla, as 54-riders separated from the yellow jersey peloton. Only 30-km into the stage, the gap was 4:00. Atop the early Cat. 3 climb, firestarter Thomas De Gendt was first over. With 93-km remaining, the mob had 7:30 over Froome, Rigoberto Uran and Bardet.

At the day’s intermediate sprint, Sonny Colbrelli–and Bahrain-Merida–finally got some satisfaction.


Col de Vars


Just ahead of the Cat. 1 the escape group split in two. After several failed attempts to fly clear of the break, a quarter scampered away, with Kazakh Alexey Luksenko (Astana) first over. A couple of kilometres behind in the yellow jersey group, AG2R took over the front.


At the bottom of Vars’ descent, the lead quartet led a chasing quartet by only 15-seconds and the yellow jersey peloton by 5:40.

Izoard


Lutsenko found partnership in Cofidis rider Nicolas Edet (France) as the race hit the foot of the Izoard before going it alone. Back in the peloton, AG2R’s efforts had tailed off all of Fabio Aru, Uran and Daniel Martin’s teammates, but riders kept shuffling back into the deck from the huge early breakaway.

Darwin Atapuma (Colombia/UAE-Emirates) joined Lutsenko with 6.5-km left to go. Aru disappeared from the yellow jersey group. As Atapuma attacked, so did Alberto Contador and Barguil. Bardet then put in a surge but couldn’t dislodge Froome and Uran. Barguil left Contador behind.

Martin hit the gas but didn’t get far. Atapuma had to be a little worried about the speed Barguil was heading towards him with 4-km left to race. Aru kept fighting back on and losing ground. It was Mikel Landa’s turn to attack.


Bardet lashed out with Froome and Uran responding. Froome put in a dig. Barguil got on even terms with Atapuma out front. The duo only had a 30-second gap on Froome et al. Barguil went clear in the final 2-km and took a fantastic second stage triumph, Sunweb’s fourth on the 104th edition.

Froome and Bardet gapped Uran by a couple of seconds. Bardet nipped Froome for the remaining bonus seconds and reclaims second place. Aru lost fourth place to Landa.

Friday’s rolling stage is somewhat of an anticlimax before Saturday’s key time trial.


2017 Tour de France Stage 18

1) Warren Barguil (France/Sunweb) 4:40:33
2) Darwin Atapuma (Colombia/UAE-Emirates) +0:20
3) Romain Bardet (France/AG2R) s.t.

2017 Tour de France GC
1) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) 78:08:19
2) Romain Bardet (France/AG2R) +0:23
3) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/Cannondale) +0:29

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