Almost at the line, Jack Bauer and Martin Elmiger were exhausted, but could see it coming — their first Tour de France stage victory. However, those last 50m got in the way.
A bunch of sprinters leading the peloton came speeding like a runaway train and plowed past the huffing breakaway duo in the final milliseconds. Stage 15 belonged to Norwegian speedster Alexander Kristoff, his second stage victory on this year’s Tour.
The 222km stage went smoothly for overall leader Vincenzo Nibali of Italy. He made sure his main rivals could not claw back any time and he kept the maillot jaune by finishing in the peloton.
Photo: EPA
After two days in the Alps, Sunday’s stage offered some relief over a flat course from Tallard, southeast France’s parachuting capital, to Nimes, known for its Roman arena and bullfighting. More relief came yesterday — a second rest day.
The stage showed yet again on the Tour how mighty efforts so often go unrewarded.
Garmin-Sharp’s Bauer is a New Zealander who had a better shot of holding off the sprinters than Swiss champion Elmiger of IAM Cycling. Bauer dropped his bike after the finish line, sat on the ground and cupped his face in his hands, crying. They had led from just kilometers after the start.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a fantasy for any cyclist to win a stage at the Tour and especially for a Kiwi cyclist, not many of us turn professional and not many of us get a chance to start the Tour de France,” Bauer said.
The 29-year-old rider came to the Tour to help Garmin-Sharp team leader Andrew Talansky, who dropped out before stage 12 because of injuries from an earlier crash.
The peloton perfectly timed its move on the breakaway duo and proved too strong. Bauer was pedaling with his last remaining strength and when he looked back a last time they were already zooming by. He finished in 10th place, with Elmiger 16th.
“I really gave it absolutely everything and as you can see from my meltdown at the finish I was pretty disappointed to come away empty-handed,” Bauer added, adding he is usually a support rider. “I thought I had it, but then I realized in the last 50 meters that I had nothing.”
The Swiss rider took it more in his stride. After all, it was not the first breakaway to fail in this year’s Tour.
“I am not disappointed because I actually did not have the best legs today,” Elmiger said. “Being caught by the pack is not so bad when you are convinced you have given everything. As I have already said three times this Tour after breaks have failed, one of these days the wheels will turn in my favor.”
Kristoff, the Katusha rider who also won stage 12, sighed in relief.
“It was a little bit late for comfort. It was very close,” he said. “I thought I would be second... We turned on the gas. Of course, that’s a pity for them, but I don’t feel sorry for them. Normally, the break should never have had a chance, but they did. They were really strong guys... That must have been really hard.”
With about 20km left, rain briefly doused the riders, though skies brightened by the end. A series of roundabouts and leg fatigue among the sprinters after the Alpine stages gave an advantage to the breakaway pair until the final seconds.
Astana’s Nibali kept his main rivals for the title at bay. He leads Spain’s Alejandro Valverde of Movistar by 4 minutes, 37 seconds, while AG2R La Mondiale’s Romain Bardet of France is third, 4:50 behind. BMC Racing’s Tejay van Garderen of the US is fifth, 5:49 back.
Nibali is in good shape to take the maillot jaune when the three-week race ends on Sunday in Paris. Some of his closest rivals have already said the race is now for second place.
The Italian has shown savvy — gaining time on cobblestones on stage 5 — and is nearly insurmountably dominant on the high climbs. He won stage 13’s entree into the Alps and was second a day later, also in the snow-capped mountains.
On Sunday, Nibali showed he was not going to leave any chances to his rivals. With about 65km left, he sped out of the peloton and briefly took the lead.
“At that moment, there was a lot of side wind,” Nibali said. “I really didn’t want to miss the good opportunity and try to move up into position ... because when there’s wind, you have to be at the front.”
More grueling climbs loom in the Pyrenees this week, before the only individual time trial of this year’s Tour on Saturday.
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