Zakarin climbs to Tour de France stage win, Froome extends GC lead

Russian Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) climbed his way to a mountaintop stage victory on Wednesday in stage 17 of the Tour de France, held entirely in Switzerland, as riders from the breakaway fought for victory on the hors categorie climb of the Col de la Gueulaz to the finish in Emosson.

Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) finished as runner up, 55 seconds behind, while KOM leader Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) came home in third, 1:26 back.

Majka and Pantano entered the final climb to the finish with a slim advantage over their fellow breakaway companions. Zakarin quickly bridged to the leading duo and then attacked them. The Russian powered over the final 6 kilometres of the stage to take the victory — a bit of redemption after he was forced out of the Giro d’Italia with a broken collarbone a few days before the finish, sitting fifth overall at the time.

“I did my best today,” Zakarin said after the stage. “I’m really happy now. Thank you to my teammates, they’ve been super. This result is not a surprise for me. In the first week, I also tried to go for it.”

ZAKARIN fait barrage à Pantano ! / @IlnurZakarin for the win! #TDF2016 pic.twitter.com/ZrX2svOZbn

— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 20, 2016

Australian Richie Porte (BMC Racing) attacked in the final two kilometres of the climb, and only Chris Froome (Team Sky) was able to follow. Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who entered the Tour as Froome’s biggest adversary for the overall, lost more time on the summit finish. The Colombian finished not only behind Froome, but also behind GC contenders Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange), Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), and Fabio Aru (Astana).

“I really want to be on the podium so they’re the moves that you have to pull,” Porte said. “I felt strong today and I’m happy with how it all went.”

Dutch rider Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), who began the day sitting second overall, suffered in the final kilometres and finished behind Quintana on the stage.

“The body is fine, like in previous years,” Quintana said. “I feel well, it was just a bad day today. But my form is quite good and I hope physically to be even better soon like in my other races. There will be other stages.”

However the biggest loser on the day was American Tejay van Garderen; the BMC rider saw any hop for a high overall finish wiped away, as he was dropped on the penultimate climb, finishing about 18 minutes behind the yellow jersey contenders.

Froome now leads Mollema by 2:27 with Yates in third, 2:53 behind. Quintana remains in fourth overall, but is now 3:27 back of Froome.

How It Happened

The 184.5km (114.6mi) stage 16 on Wednesday traveled from Berne to Finhaut-Emosson and included 3,750m (12,303ft) of climbing. The finish in Emosson sat atop the hors categorie Col de la Gueulaz, which is 10.4 kilometres long, and averages 8.4%.

The breakaway riders were Tanel Kangert (Astana), Pantano and Stef Clement (IAM), Kristjian Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Majka and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Steve Morabito (FDJ), Zakarin, and Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Alberto Losada (Katusha), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick Step) and Ruben Plaza (Orica) chased the 11 riders in hopes of joining the leading breakaway.

Majka took maximum KOM points over the Category 3 climbs of the Côte de Saanenmöser and Col des Mosses. At the top of the Col des Mosses with just under 80km left in the stage, the breakaway held a lead of over 11 minutes on the peloton. On the descent the breakaway group swelled to 14 riders as Voeckler, Van Avermaet, and Lutsenko made the junction to the leaders. The chase group had split apart on the Col de Mosses.

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— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 20, 2016

Shane Archbold (Bora-Argon 18) and Bozic crashed on the descent of the Col des Mosses. It was the second crash of the day for the latter, and he abandoned the race.

The finale of the stage kicked off with the Category 1 Col de la Forclaz (13km at 7.9%), which began with 31km remaining. The leading 14 riders held an advantage of nearly 13 minutes over the peloton, which was led by the black kits of Team Sky.

The duo were aware of each others capabilities, as Pantano out-sprinted Majka to win stage 15 on Sunday in Culoz.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) came to the front of the select group of GC favorites on the Forclaz, and his increase in tempo put van Garderen in difficulty.

“In other years I’ve crashed or been sick, but this year I don’t know, it’s not responding,” van Garderen said. “There’s really no excuse, I wish I had one but I don’t know. I guess I’m going to have to sit down with our performance team and see what we did in the build up. I’ve raced against a lot of these guys before in other races and I’ve been able to be there with them, and for some reason this year it’s not happening.”

On the lower slopes of the finishing climb, Zakarin accelerated away from the chase group in pursuit of the two leaders, quickly making the junction to the leading duo.

With 6.5km to go, Zakarin attacked and Pantano dug deep to follow the him. Majka had no response to the acceleration. The Katusha rider accelerated again and was able to dispatch Pantano.

“I’m happy. I got close, but I couldn’t win,” Pantano said. “The most important is to do the maximum, always. I hope I have pleased Colombia today. I’ve tried everything to be ahead with Zakarin but he’s a great rider and there was no way to beat him today.”

Meanwhile, the peloton hit the bottom of the climb more than 10 minutes behind the leaders, led by the light blue kits of Team Astana.

After Nibali, and then Diego Rosa, whittling down the group by setting a high tempo for Astana team leader Aru, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) came to the front for Quintana.

Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) was the first of the GC riders to attack, and soon Valverde was out the back of the group, as Sergio Henao (Team Sky) set the pace on the front. Henao reeled in Martin quickly, and just four kilometres remained in the stage for the group containing many of the GC contenders.

Zakarin took the stage victory for Katusha, the first Russian stage winner at the Tour since 2009. Pantano came home in second, more than a minute behind, with Majka in third. The Tinkoff rider gained considerable KOM points over the course of the stage and holds a hefty lead in the competition for the polka-dot jersey.

Froome bridged to Porte, as they rode under the flamme rouge. Mollema was in difficulty and losing time to the riders sitting behind him. Quintana, Yates, Bardet, Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida), and Aru were chasing Froome and Porte.

“I did not have such good legs today,” said Mollema. “I felt it already on the second-last climb, and when the attacks started, I couldn’t follow. At two kilometers to go, I had to go my own tempo. My positioning wasn’t great before that, I knew I should be more towards the front, but you do what you can, and I couldn’t do more at that point. I did not have the legs I had the last weeks. It’s a pity, but I just kept fighting until the finish line so as not to lose too much time.”

Quintana was dropped from the chase group 450 metres from the finishing line after Yates went to the front of the group.

Froome and Porte finished together nearly eight minutes down of the stage winner.

“I spoke with the Sports Directors this morning and they said just use your head and if you feel like it, attack them,” Porte said. “I have to anyhow. The tempo was not so fast there and it was a good time to get a gap there.”

Yates finished nine seconds behind the duo, with Bardet a further three seconds behind.

“It was a good day,” Bardet said. “The final climb suited me well. I had decided to make my effort in the last kilometre. I knew that was the spot when the decision would be made. I’m glad of the way I’m tackling this last block. I managed the last climb perfectly. With Yates, we took some time in the last kilometres and it was the best way to make up for lost time.”

Quintana lost 28 seconds to Froome in the race to wear the maillot jaune in Paris. Mollema, who looked strong on the previous mountain stages, finished 40 seconds behind Froome and Porte.

“I don’t think it was possible to go faster than Richie at the end,” Froome said. “I didn’t need to pull. Today was the only the first of a block of four difficult days in the mountains.”

The top positions in the GC did not change, but the time gaps to Froome grew, except for Porte, who is still 4:27 behind in sixth place. Second thru sixth place on the GC are only separated by two minutes, so the race for the podium is not over.

“We gave it a try, I think there’s no one who can say we didn’t,” Valverde said. “It’s become really difficult to achieve the win here, but we must keep fighting for the podium. Our plan with my acceleration was making it harder and harder, trying for Sky to have as few riders supporting Froome as possible, so a subsequent attack by Nairo would have to be responded by Froome himself. I pushed hard, with a couple of strong accelerations, and later set my own pace to try and lose as little time over the line as I could. Froome is much superior, you’ve got to admit it. We must remain focused, with good morale and battling until the end. Obviously, the Tour is not done until Paris on Sunday; should we have a chance to take the podium with Nairo, it’d be a nice goal to keep our minds set on.”

Yates again pulled on the white jersey of Best Young Rider after the stage and Sagan further extended his lead in the points classification by winning the intermediate sprint during the stage.

On Thursday the riders will tackle the second and final individual time trial of the 2016 Tour de France. The solo effort requires the riders to tackle a 17km route from Sallanches to Megève. The stage includes only 10 metres less of climbing than the first time trial, 650 metres (2,132ft), but is half the distance. The hilly profile will make it difficult for the time trial specialists to contend for victory and a shake-up on the GC is likely.