photo credits @ Le Tour/Twitter
excerpts from Le Tour
British champion Peter Kennaugh made Team Sky shine in a way and a day they weren’t expected to do so, as he rode away from a front group to anticipate the bunch sprint in a pursuiter’s style, which is one of the most beautiful cycling gestures. In a thrilling finale, hot favorites Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) could only realize the damage was done by the reigning Olympic champion for team pursuit.
A crash after 3km took Gert Dockx (Lotto-Soudal) out of the race as the Belgian broke an elbow and a collarbone. Maarten Wijnants (LottoNL-Jumbo), Romain Guillemois (Europcar), Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) and Björn Thurau (Bora-Argon 18) rode away from the peloton at km 8.5. Their advantage reached a maximum of 7.20 at km 26 before several teams successively took the command of the peloton: Lampre-Merida, Cofidis, Cannondale-Garmin, Orica-GreenEdge… While Teklehaimanot was busy catching every point he could for the King of the Mountains price, the gap was stabilized under six minutes after one hour of racing.
Teklehaimanot in the polka dot jersey
The lanky Eritrean secured the first polka dot jersey and the front group split in two in the second last ascent of the côte du Villard with 27km to go. Teklehaimanot was the only rider able to follow the rhythm of Thurau. But one lap (15km) later, he couldn’t, so the German tried to finish it off on his own while counter-attacks were formed behind him, firstly by Daniel Oss (BMC) who eventually received the help of Pete Kennaugh (Sky), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) and Danilo Wyss (IAM Cycling).
Thurau the last man to surrender
Thurau got caught by his five chasers with 4km to go. Just before the 2km mark, Kennaugh rode away solo in a similar effort he learnt on the track. He resisted to the come-back of the peloton and it was a missed opportunity for the sprinters. Modolo took second place ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) while fourth placed Tiejs Benoot (Lotto-Soudal) claimed the white jersey of best young rider.
Stage 1 Results GBR 1 KENNAUGH, Peter (SKY) 3:06:51 ITA 2 MODOLO, Sacha (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 2 NOR 3 BOASSON HAGEN, Edvald (MTN – QHUBEKA) BEL 4 BENOOT, Tiesj (LOTTO SOUDAL) AUS 5 GERRANS, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) FRA 6 BOUHANNI, Nacer (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) AUS 7 MCCARTHY, Jay (TINKOFF – SAXO) ESP 8 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) FRA 9 DUMOULIN, Samuel (AG2R LA MONDIALE) FRA 10 GAUTIER, Cyril (EUROPCAR) NED 11 KELDERMAN, Wilco (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) FRA 12 MARTINEZ, Yannick (EUROPCAR) SWE 13 LUDVIGSSON, Tobias (GIANT – ALPECIN) COL 14 PANTANO, Jarlinson (IAM CYCLING) FRA 15 ALAPHILIPPE, Julian (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) GBR 16 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) FRA 17 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO SOUDAL) USA 18 CRADDOCK, Lawson (GIANT – ALPECIN) POR 19 PIMENTA COSTA MENDES, José Joao (BORA-ARGON 18) POR 20 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) LTU 21 NAVARDAUSKAS, Ramunas (CANNONDALE – GARMIN) ITA 22 SALERNO, Cristiano (BORA-ARGON 18) POL 23 POLJANSKI, Pawel (TINKOFF – SAXO) NZL 24 BENNETT, George (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) POR 25 PIRES, Bruno (TINKOFF – SAXO) RSA 26 JANSE VAN RENSBURG, Reinardt (MTN – QHUBEKA) FRA 27 SOUPE, Geoffrey (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) GER 28 MARTIN, Tony (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) NED 29 WESTRA, Lieuwe (ASTANA) SUI 30 FRANK, Mathias (IAM CYCLING) IRL 31 ROCHE, Nicolas (SKY) ESP 32 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) BEL 33 PAUWELS, Serge (MTN – QHUBEKA) CRO 34 KISERLOVSKI, Robert (TINKOFF – SAXO) FRA 35 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) GER 36 THURAU, Bjorn (BORA-ARGON 18) AUS 37 TANNER, David (IAM CYCLING) NED 38 TERPSTRA, Niki (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) NED 39 TANKINK, Bram (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) POR 40 SANTOS SIMOES OLIVEIRA, Nelson Filipe (LAMPRE – MERIDA)
General Classification after Stage 1 GBR 1 KENNAUGH, Peter (SKY) 3:06:41 ITA 2 MODOLO, Sacha (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 6 NOR 3 BOASSON HAGEN, Edvald (MTN – QHUBEKA) + 8 BEL 4 BENOOT, Tiesj (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 12 AUS 5 GERRANS, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) FRA 6 BOUHANNI, Nacer (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) AUS 7 MCCARTHY, Jay (TINKOFF – SAXO) ESP 8 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) FRA 9 DUMOULIN, Samuel (AG2R LA MONDIALE) FRA 10 GAUTIER, Cyril (EUROPCAR)
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