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2015 Tour de France Stage 12: El Purito doubles his pleasure, Froome in control

Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha) took his second victory of the 2015 Tour de France Thursday on the toughest stage of the Pyrenees. El Purito attacked early on the final HC-rated climb to win solo.

July 16, 2015
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Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha) took his second victory of the 2015 Tour de France Thursday on the toughest stage of the Pyrenees. El Purito attacked early on the final HC-rated climb to win solo. The rivals of Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) could not trouble the yellow jersey man.

No break was able to form over the first 20-km before the only intermediate sprint of the day, with Lotto-Soudal keeping the pace high for their man Andre Greipel. Sure enough, the German Gorilla took the sprint but still remains two points back of the green jersey Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff-Saxo).

With the fast men’s contest out of the way, an immense breakaway of 22-riders formed and scuttled up the road heading for the first climb of the day, the short but very steep Cat. 2 Col de Portet-d’Aspet. Georg Preidler (Austria/Giant-Alpecin) took the five KOM points at the top.

Just before the next climb, the Cat. 1 Col de la Core, the escapees received a couple of reinforcements, but on the ascent the group started to fragment. At the peak, it was Kristjian Durasek (Croatia/Lampre) first over and Preidler second. At this point the gap back to the peloton was 8:30.

The wet descent made for some splits in the breakaway and by the time the race reached the foot of the penultimate climb, the Cat. 1 Port de Lers, Preidler, Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland/Etixx-QuickStep) and Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/LottoNL-Jumbo) had moved clear with 12:00 over the yellow jersey group. The chase behind, comprised of the remnants of the breakaway, dithered and kept falling back from the trio.

Finally, halfway up the Port de Lers, the chase began to make headway on the three leaders. Six kilometres from the top, Preidler fell away just as the chasers started attacking one another. Seven riders including Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r) and Rodriguez bridged over to the remaining duo but the Pole and Belgian resisted to summit in front.

It was absolutely tipping down on the Plateau de Beille awaiting the race, with hail mixed in. Kwiatkowski and Vanmarcke insisted on dropping the thankfully dry descent of the Port de Lers by themselves. The duo and their chasers hit the rain, prompting one of the pursuers, Louis Meintjes (South Africa/MTN-Qhubeka) to crash, but he grabbed onto his chase-mates.

The HC Plateau de Beille is 15.8-km of 7.9% with the steepest grades at the start. The chase had failed to bring back the duo even though the two riders were within touching distance on the Port de Lers. Could the world champion and the Belgian Classics rider stay away? Surely the day’s winner would come from the duo and the eight chasers. Who would light the fuse in the yellow jersey group?

Michal and Sep hit the opening ramps of the final climb with 1:50 over the chase and 11:30 over the favourites group. Buckets of rain pounded the riders. With Bardet’s teammate Mikael Cherel drawing the chase closer, Kwiatkowski left Vanmarcke with 13.7-km remaining. Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Astana), Bardet and Rodriguez pulled away from the other pursuers as Kwiatkowski started to flag.

Back in the peloton Alberto Contador (Spain/Tinkoff-Saxo) put his men on the front. Rodriguez tried to encourage his companions as Kwiatkowski’s face became a rain-glazed mask of agony. With 8-km remaining Rodriguez left the others behind, blowing by the Pole 300-metres later.

El Purito squinted into the driving rain, Fuglsang his nearest pursuer. Finally, Contador attacked from the favourites group but Sky brought him back. Then it was Vicenzo Nibali’s turn but Alejandro Valverde’s dig brought the 2014 Tour champion back after a kilometre.

Rodriquez’s lead over the Dane was 53-seconds with 4-km remaining. Nairo Quintana attacked, doing nothing but dislodging Richie Porte as Sky’s main worker. Froome himself surged forward, and only Quintana and Contador could match him. Then the Movistar riders tried to gang up on Froome.

Rodriguez was exuberant at the line. Froome’s rivals gave up, Valverde prying out a second at the line, the winner of this year’s race seemingly a foregone conclusion.

Poor Kwiatkowski would finish 11:35 down. Nibali, under increased criticism, jumped up to ninth on GC. The top-Frenchman race hotted up as Pierre Rolland (Europcar) edged closer to Gallic leader Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal). Movistar now have three riders in the top-20.

Friday sees the Tour de France leave the Pyrenees heading northeast into the Central Massif, where the end of the stage is rather hilly.

2015 Tour de France Stage 12
1) Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha) 5:40:15
2) Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Astana) +1:12
3) Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r) +1:49
31) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +12:47
174) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) 36:54

2015 Tour de France GC
1) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) 46:50:32
2) Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) +2:52
3) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +3:09
51) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +1:07:51
174) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +2:23:55