Tour de France: Gallopin takes an impressive victory

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Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) added an impressive stage victory to his already successful Tour de France with a solo attack into Oyonnax at the end of Wednesday's stage 11.

Giant-Shimano's John Degenkolb sprinted to second place in the peloton, only a few metres behind Gallopin. Matteo Trentin rounded out the podium for Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

"I want to thank my family, my dad and Marion [Rousse] my fiancée. We came to train here and we did a recon of this stage. Thanks to the team who trusted me. This is an amazing win. The yellow jersey and now a stage. I never imagined this. It's incredible," Gallopin said.

Photo: Bettini

Gallopin's teammate Lars Bak explained further, telling Eurosport, "[Gallopin] did the last 50km in training before the Tour, so he knew the final. He was motivated, and it was a stage for him. He thought the breakaway would go to the finish, but it was too small. So today it was the favorites he had to battle for the win. He's a super good rider, and that's what he's capable of doing after such a hard race. It was a really hard final, and it's a really big win for him.

"You need to be intelligent to win a stage in the Tour, and he knew the parcours. That was an advantage. The last climb wasn't really on the profile, and he knew it was extra hard after the last mountain sprint."

Gallopin was helped by a stalemate in the chase behind by the sprinters who were vying for a stage victory, and green jersey holder Peter Sagan (Cannondale), who refused to close the gap to Gallopin.

"I was in a good position, I wanted to do well, but nobody wants to work with me, because they know if I come into the finish with them, it's hard to beat me in the sprint," Sagan said. He's going for his third green jersey in a row, but after winning three stages in his first Tour de France in 2012, he only won a single stage last year, and none so far in this edition. "I have to thank to my team, they did very good work pulling all day. I tried. Every day is harder because everybody knows me."

Vincenzo Nibali's yellow jersey was never in any danger. The Italian finished in 20th place. Richie Porte (Sky) is second overall at 2:23 and Movistar's Alejandro Valverde sits in third, 2:47 down on the Italian.

How it unfolded

After days of rain, the morning started with blue skies and bright sunshine in Besancon. In a stage where a breakaway was thought to have a chance to make it to the finish line, the race opened with a frantic pace of over 50 kilometres an hour for 45 minutes. Several riders tried to get away with Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Adam Hansen for Lotto-Belisol notably among them.

Eventually it was Swiss champion Martin Elmiger for IAM Cycling who made the decisive move. French riders Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Seché) and former polka dot jersey Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) joined him. The trio gained a considerable lead but the peloton never allowed them to get too far.

Although the breakaway was two-thirds French, the cameras shifted their attention away from the breakway to Garmin-Sharp rider Andrew Talansky mid-way through the day as the American was dropped ahead of the intermediate sprint in Charcier and faced a 100km chase to the finish.

Garmin-Sharp did the pace-making at the front of the bunch as their captain Talansky struggled just ahead of the broomwagon. The American got off his bike but team directeur sportif Robbie Hunter talked the Criterium du Dauphiné-winner back ontothe bike to continue his race. Talansky finished 32 minutes down on the winner but was within today's time cut.

"He's really struggling to get over the consequences of his accident. He's had an extremely tough day," said Garmin-Sharp's directeur Charly Wegelius as he waited for Talansky to finish. "We're a little bit concerned about him. He's a fighter, but even though he's in a very difficult situation, the way he's going on is really admirable."

At 50 kilometres from the finish, the first of the four rated climbs of the day, the Côte de Rogna, saw Jan Bakelants attack for Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Tinkoff-Saxo's Nicholas Roche and Garmin-Sharp's Tom-Jelte Slagter followed him, the Garmin team's aim clearly shifting towards stage wins.

As the team's pace-making made Talansky's chase more difficult, Tom-Jelte Slagter had to let go of Roche and Bakelants soon after they attacked. From the original breakaway, only Elmiger remained up front and with Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Jesus Herrada (Movistar) bridging there were five leaders.

They never got more than 30 seconds as Tony Martin brought back his Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates, Michal Kwiatkowski and Matteo Trentin to the front. Peter Sagan was also present after all the work his Cannondale team had done all day, as were all the main GC contender bar Lampre-Merida's Rui Costa.

Sagan really wanted this stage because after seven top five finishes in the Tour, the Slovakian rider still is missing a stage win. But nobody wanted to take Sagan to the finish.

After the last of the four rated climbs, there was one more climb to tackle before a fast descent into Oyonnax. Tony Gallopin used that climb to attack the group.

Michael Rogers, Peter Sagan and Michal Kwiatkowski caught him back. At 2,5 kilometres from the line, Gallopin, who wore the yellow jersey on Monday, tried again on a small descent. Rogers, Kwiatkowski and Sagan looked at each other which enabled Gallopin to create a little a gap.

Giant-Shimano's Tom Dumoulin brought Degenkolb and the rest of the first group back to the front but Gallopin was gone. The 26-year-old Frenchman got to celebrate his first Tour de France stage victory.

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