Michael Rogers takes first Tour de France win on stage 16

Michael Rogers wins stage sixteen of the 2014 Tour de France

(Image credit: Graham Watson)

published 22 July 2014

Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo) chose the longest stage of this year’s Tour de France to claim his first ever win in the race. Behind him, there was a battle royale for the podium places

On the longest stage of the Tour, taking the riders into the Pyrenees and into a headwind, none of the riders battling for the general classification were too keen to put in more effort than they needed to. There were tougher days ahead so there was no need to expend any more energy than was absolutely necessary.

The roll call of honour of riders who had worked hard to made it into the break of the day then: Bernhard Eisel and Vasil Kiriyenka (Sky), Jon Izagirre (Movistar), Michael Rogers (Tinkoff), Jan Bakelants and Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS), Samuel Dumoulin and Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin), José Serpa (Lampre), Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Greg van Avermaet (BMC), Cyril Gautier, Kévin Reza and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Michael Albasini and Jens Keukeleire (Orica), Roger Kluge (IAM), Anthony Delaplace and Florian Vachon (Bretagne) made it into the break of the day.

For the first time in the Tour, a breakaway had been let off the leash. Over the climbs of the Pamiers, Portet d’Aspet and Ares, the gap grew and held steady and, with 40km to go, the 21-rider break still had 12-39 of a lead. Although the hors categorie 11.7km Port de Bales stood between the break and the bunch, one of them was going to win. There would be an acceleration from the Astana-led bunch, but after the 1,750 metre summit of the Bales, it was downhill to the line in Bagneres de Luchon.

No sooner had the break hit the lower slopes of the Bales than the attacks began and solidarity began to crumble. Roy (FDJ.fr) had a go, Kluge was first out the back and Reza chased Roy down for Voeckler. It was a revealing little skirmish. Kiryienka went to the front – force of habit perhaps – and sent half a dozen riders out the back with a steady, brutal pace. At the same time, Astana and Movistar picked up the pace at the head of the peloton lower down the climb, starting a cruel shake-out of the hitherto slumbering bunch.

At the front, Michael Rogers put in an effort, then Voeckler attacked, countered by Serpa, but all this meant was that there were six riders left with 27km – though Kiryienka made it back up to the front (as Porte was dropped from the peloton) and promptly attacked with 5km to the summit. Voeckler had another go, again chased down by Serpa, with Lampre’s Colombian clearly reckoning that Gurning Tommy was the man to follow.

The multiple attacks and accelerations left Voeckler and his team mate Gautier in the company of Rogers and Serpa and the Europcar duo made a real effort to break clear before the summit with Gautier exhibiting disturbing signs of Voeckler-esque gurning. With 2.5km to the top of the climb, there were three left, as Gautier was dropped and Rogers kept the tempo ticking over, mindful, perhaps, of the rapid Van Avermaet not too far off the back.

Behind in the dozen riders that constituted all that was left of the peloton, Movistar’s (and Benat Intxausti in particular) fierce tempo managed to isolate Nibali but, more importantly for Valverde’s podium aspirations, put van Garderen out the back. Inspired or emboldened, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr) attacked, drawing Nibali, Valverde and Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) with him, but dropping his French rival for the maillot blanc of best young rider, Romain Bardet. The Pinot-Valverde group was joined by John Gadret of Movistar and Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ.fr).

Eight minutes and thirty-four seconds later, the yellow jersey group was led over the line by Jeremy Roy, but the headline news of the day was that both Bardet (who lost 1-50) and van Garderen (who lost 4-26) cracked, setting back their podium ambitions. For today at least, because there were still two more hard days in the Pyrenees to go. Nibali, looking as solid as ever in yellow. The other podium places? Still wide open!

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Michael Rogers takes first Tour de France win on stage 16

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