Tour de France: Mollema wins from breakaway in Le Puy-en-Velay

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Bauke Mollema won his first Tour de France stage, soloing into Le-Puy-en-Valey after a turbulent stage. The Trek-Segafredo rider attacked the day's 28-rider breakaway on the descent with 29km to go, and held off a concerted four-man chase, led to the line by Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) ahead of Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal).

Chris Froome and Team Sky were in panic stations as the race leader was caught out by an attack from AG2R La Mondiale before the day's main climb with 40km to go and, to make matters worse, he then had to stop to swap a rear wheel with teammate Michal Kwiatkowski. As AG2R continued to drive the pace, Froome chased with Mikel Nieve and Sergio Henao, making contact just before the top of the climb with the help of Mikel Landa, who dropped back briefly from the group ahead.

Froome admitted after the stage that he wasn't sure he would ever make it back to the group. "AG2R rode their race and rode fast. Just before the climb, I had a problem with my back wheel, it was damaged. Kwiatkowski gave me his wheel because the team car was stuck behind. I gave it my maximum to get back up to the leaders.

"I've got to thanks my teammates yet again for helping me. Sergio Henao and Mikel Nieve gave their maximum. Landa too. He helped me a lot on the climb."

Despite late attack first from Simon Yates and then a successful move by Dan Martin, Froome keeps his lead of 18 seconds over Fabio Aru (Astana) by 18 seconds, with Romain Bardet (AG2R) still at 23 seconds. Martin gained 14 seconds to move into fifth overall, swapping places with Mikel Landa. Nairo Quintana showed more weakness and lost several more minutes after being dropped on the climb.

"It up to my rivals to attack me," Froome said. "They have to gain time before the time trial. For now, I'm just happy to have the jersey and to have a rest day tomorrow."

Mollema was all smiles after a heroic effort to hold off the chasers who, at one point, came within 10 seconds of catching him. "I'm so happy to finally win a stage of the Tour de France," he said.

"I've been close a few times but this year I really wanted to go for a stage. That was a big goal for me and yesterday I knew this was a chance. In the beginning of the stage, it was close because there was a strong breakaway with 10 guys and a lot of teams wanted to block the road so we couldn't pass and then the break took like one and a half minutes."

Mollema finally attacked on the climb and then made it across to the move with a large group. "That was the first goal. And finally, I felt so good, I just gave it a try in the last 30 kilometres. I think I never did so long riding alone and in the end, it was close.

"The Tour de France has always been the most important race for me, it's always been my dream performing here and I've finally won a stage. So I'm incredibly happy."

How it unfolded

It was another hot, sunny and busy day. Again, almost directly from the start in Laissac-Severac l'eglise, a group of 10 got away: Warren Barguil (Sunweb), Dylan Van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac), Robert Kiserlovski and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alepcin), Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain Merida), Damiano Caruso (BMC), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal) and Angel Luis Maté (Cofidis).

However, the first of the day's four climbs kicked up only 19km after the start, and the non-climbers were soon shed. Mate and the three Germans Martin, Sieberg and Burghardt dropped back, with the other six carrying on with 1:40 over the peloton. Three more fell back, with polka dot jersey holder Barguil, Pauwels and Caruso heading up the category 1 Montee de Naves d'Aubrac with more than two minutes over the field, but with chasers scattered down the climb.

The day's only abandon was Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal). He said that he suffered from a sun allergy in the hot weather, and refused to accept a TUE for treatment for the problem.

Barguil took the first mountain points out of the group of three, and on the short descent a handful of riders who had dropped from the lead group came across, followed by a large chasing group at just under two minutes, and the yellow jersey group at around three minutes.

Grmay and Van Baarle caught up again with the three leaders with 156km to go. The Sky-led peloton was happy to keep the gap at over three minutes, with a 23-rider group in between containing both yesterday's stage winner Michael Matthews (Sunweb) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).

The road soon went up again, to the category 3 Cote de Vieurals, with Barguil again taking the maximum points.

Having reached the top of the plateau, the 23-man group caught up with the five leaders with 130 km to go. The newcomers were: Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale), Alessandro De Marchi, Amael Moinard, and Nicolas Roche (BMC), Daniel Navarro and Luis Mate (Cofidis), Lilian Calmejane and Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Pierre-Luc Perichon and Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Maurits Lammertink, Robert Kiserlovski and Tony Martin (Katusha), Thomas De Gendt, Tiesj Benoot and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), Michael Matthews and Simon Geschke (Sunweb), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Diego Ulissi and Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates).

The gap back to the Sky-led peloton had grown to 4:20. Green jersey Marcel Kittel (QuickStep Floors), who had dropped back early on the previous day, was easily staying with the group on this day.

Sky was happy with this group and took things down a step allowing the gap to yawn to six minutes, since Caruso, the highest placed rider in the attack, was over 11 minutes behind in the standings.

Read more on this article

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• Tour de France: Bardet, AG2R La Mondiale make a statement of intent in Massif Central
  
• Dan Martin: Every second counts at the Tour de France
  
• Froome survives attacks and mechanical in the Massif Central

With the race now taking place on the long rolling plateau, the next excitement didn't come until the intermediate sprint. With three riders in the lead group, Sunweb had no problem setting things up for Matthews to claim the points and move closer to his goal of the green jersey.

Tony Martin launched an audacious attack from the breakaway before the drop from the plateau with just over 64km to go. He slowly built up a lead and then getting into full time trial mode, pushed the gap up to a minute. Meanwhile, the gap to the peloton was stretching towards the eight-minute mark.

Behind Martin, the large group sensed the danger of letting the world time trial champion get away. The group split and then came back together as the chase picked up speed. The speed also increased the gap to the peloton to nine minutes.

Panic for Froome on Col de Payra Taillade

The next hurdle soon appeared, the category 1 Col de Peyra Taillade. Martin took a lead of a minute and a half with him as he started up.

AG2R La Mondiale came to the front on the narrow, twisting roads through Bardet's home training roads, and set a blistering pace in the peloton, splitting the field ahead of Froome, who had only Nieve with him. The yellow jersey was already on the defensive, having had to close the gap alone when he had a problem with his rear wheel. There was no question of the field waiting for him. He got a spare from a Kwiatkowski, and Henao and Nieve had to drive the pace furiously with nearly a minute to make up.

Seeing a chance of moving Bardet into the race lead, AG2R put its full team at the front of their group, to drop the yellow jersey group, who were working their way up through groups of dropped riders on the climb, one of which was Quintana. The Movistar rider would lose nearly four minutes by the day's end.

Froome soon dropped his only helper, Nieve, and continued on with Cannondale-Drapac's Alberto Bettiol before hooking up again with Landa, and together they caught on to the end of the Bardet-Aru group.

Up ahead, the climb proved too much for Tony Martin, who fell and was replaced by Barguil at the head of the race, followed by Pauwels. The Frenchman showed why he was wearing the polka dot jersey, as he stayed away to easily take the maximum number of points. He then waited for a handful of riders to join him.

Bardet realized he was losing his chance, with Froome having come back, and took off on the ascent. Uran went with him, but Froome caught up with them, bringing the small group with him that included Aru, Contador, Yates and Dan Martin.

Mollema makes his move

Mollema was the next to attack out of the leading group as they headed into a long, gradual descent. The gap to the yellow jersey group was 6:31 with 29km to go, and Quintana another minute down.

With 17 km, and yet another climb coming, Mollema had 38 seconds on the Barguil group, with the yellow jersey at 6.36.

The final climb of the day was the category 4 Cote de Saint-Vidal, only 1.9 km long. Roglic gave chase as the summit neared, followed by Barguil, eager to grab as many points as possible. Ulissi and Gallopin joined Barguil and Roglic on the descent.

With 10km to go, Mollema had only 20 seconds on the four chasers, who were not united in giving chase.

The 30-year old Dutchman stayed away to win by 20 seconds ahead of Ulissi, Gallopin, Roglic and Barguil, as attacks continued in the yellow jersey group behind.

Best young rider Simon Yates tried to get away on the short climb, but Landa moved to the front of the group and caught the Orica-Scott rider. Dan Martin was the next to go and found more success.

Martin soon caught up with various riders from the early breakaway, riding furiously at the front of a small group that ended the stage 12 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey.

Froome sprinted to the finish, crossing the line with an unsatisfied look on his face, with most of the other top riders finishing together with him at 6:25 from the stage winner. Quintana ended the day 10:19 in arrears, tumbling out of the top 10 overall behind Caruso.

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