Spain’s Omar Fraile of Astana took his first Tour de France stage victory, in line with the tradition of Spanish winners in Mende after Marcos Serrano in 2005 and Joaquim “Purito” Rodriguez in 2010. The Basque attacker fended off Julian Alaphilippe who took the second place.
152 riders took the start of stage 14 in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. It was a fast start with crosswinds in the Rhône valley. Echelons were formed and the peloton was split in four with the likes of Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa in the second and fourth group respectively. At the initiative of Julian Alaphilippe who had also been the first attacker of the day, seven riders rode away from the front group. They were rejoined by 25 riders while all GC contenders formed the main peloton again. 32 riders gathered in the lead at Bidon, km 20.5: Dani Martinez and Pierre Rolland (EF), Simon Geschke (Sunweb), Gorka Izagirre and Kristjian Koren (Bahrain-Merida), Michael Hepburn and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Damiano Caruso, Stefan Küng and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Alaphilippe, Philippe Gilbert and Yves Lampaert (Quick Step), Peter Sagan and Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe), Omar Fraile (Astana), Tom-Jelte Slagter and Julien Vermote (Dimension Data), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Lilian Calmejane, Jérôme Cousin, Thomas Boudat, Sylvain Chavanel and Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie), Michael Gogl and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Christophe Laporte, Nicolas Edet, Anthony Perez and Anthony Turgis (Cofidis), Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
Spanish national champion in action
Alaphilippe took 1 KOM point at côte du Grand Châtaignier and Sagan won the intermediate sprint in Bessèges (km 90) just after the breakaway extended his lead to 7’10’’. Boudat and Lampaert forced the green jersey holder to really sprint for the 16th intermediate sprint victory at the Tour de France (since stage 14 in 2012). Meanwhile the time gap went above ten minutes, Izagirre rode away solo in the climb to col de la Croix de Berthel where Alaphilippe took two more KOM points. Slagter and Stuyven rejoined him in the downhill. With 50km to go, just before the col du Pont sans Eau, the leading trio was 40’’ ahead of their former breakaway companions and 13’40’’ ahead of the peloton led by Team Sky.
Stuyven alone for 33km
Stuyven forged on by himself with 35km to go. 10km before the end, he was 1’40’’ ahead of the chasing group led by Gilbert meanwhile the peloton was cruising almost twenty minutes behind. The gap was 1’30’’ at the bottom of the final ascent to la Croix Neuve. Fraile was first to come across to Stuyven meanwhile Alaphilippe made his move 3km before the end. The Frenchman in the polka dot jersey didn’t manage to come across to the Basque rider who scored Astana’s 13th stage victory in the Tour de France, his personal first. His compatriots Serrano and Rodriguez also claimed their first Tour de France victory in Mende. Primoz Roglic was the first of the favourites to cross the line. Geraint Thomas kept the situation under control to finish with Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin. The Welshman retained the yellow jersey.
