Tour de France: Geschke claims first Grand Tour stage win at Pra-Loup

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Just like in the Pyrnees last week, the Tour de France entered the Alps with a bang and Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) took the biggest win of his career with a solo escape to Pra Loup.

The German attacked from a large but uncoordinated breakaway just before the foot of the category 1 Col d’Allos, before holding his lead down the mountain and up the short final climb to Pra Loup. Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) gave chase but it was ultimately in vain, while Rigoberto Urán came home third.

“It took me two or three minutes to figure out what I had done," Geschke said. "It was important going into the break and then we had to figure out what to do after that. It was a very good group to be in, a lot of guys were hanging on. I had to try something. I went into a break on the long climb and I had to take my chances to win. It was beautiful. When I had so much of an advantage, I knew there was a chance. It was incredible.

“This is my third victory as a professional, to be at the Tour is… I was waiting for 15 years for this moment.”

There was plenty of action in the yellow jersey group and while Chris Froome defended his lead over Nairo Quintana, third-placed Tejay van Garderen abandoned the race early on through illness and Alberto Contador lost over two minutes after crashing on the descent of Allos, and dropped to fifth overall behind Geraint Thomas (Sky).

Pra Loup is symbolic for being the scene of the downfall of the great Eddy Merckx. In the 1975 Tour, the five-time Tour de France winner was in yellow and in the lead on the descent of the Col d’Allos but was overhauled on the final climb to Pra Loup by Bernard Thévenet, who took yellow and went onto to win the race. Merckx wouldn’t wear yellow or win a Grand Tour again and Thévenet wrote himself into cycling folklore as the Tombeur de Merckx – the man who brought Merckx down.

The yellow jersey didn’t change hands today but one man was brought down nonetheless and that was Tejay van Garderen, who had started the stage third on GC and harbouring podium ambitions for Paris. In an aggressive start to the race he was dropped on the first climb of the day, the category 3 Col des Lèques, suffering with illness. While he did regain contact, the pace picked up again on the Col de la Colle Saint-Michel, the third climb of the day, and soon the BMC team car ground to a halt and van Garderen unclipped, climbed off, and stooped with head down and the arm of his DS around his shoulder.

Contador might still be in the race but his general classification ambitions were dealt an equally fatal blow. The Spaniard, part of a select group than included Froome, Quintana, Nibali, and Valverde, crashed on the descent of the Col d’Allos and finished 2:17 down on Froome. He is now 6:40 back on GC and his already faint hopes of pulling off the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double have all but disappeared from sight.

Mathias Frank (IAM), who was in the day’s breakaway and was one of the riders to set off in pursuit of Geschke, finished fifth on the stage and jumped from 13th to eighth for his efforts. Talansky, for his part, took a step towards getting his Tour back on track by moving from 17th to 12th.

How it unfolded

In a fast and furious start to the day, there was a spate of attacks but the peloton was reluctant to let any go. When Quintana had a brief dig and van Garderen found himself in trouble, it was clear that the action would be on from start to finish.

Riders were getting shelled out of the back on the climb of the Col des Lèques, and a move off the front finally found success on the descent. It was made up of Tanel Kangert (Astana), Jan Bakelants and Mikaël Chérel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thibaut Pinot and Benoît Vaugrenard (FDJ), Richie Porte and Nicolas Roche (Sky), Rafal Majka and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Jonathan Castroviejo, José Herrada and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), John Degenkolb and Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), Alberto Losada (Katusha), Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick Step), Perrig Quémeneur (Europcar), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Kristjian Durasek and Rafael Valls (Lampre-Merida), Andrew Talansky and Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), Merhawi Kudus, Serge Pauwels and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka).

After Lieuwe Westra crashed, the peloton eased slightly on the approach to the Col de la Colle Saint-Michel but things were brought to the boil again when Contador attacked with Mick Rogers. Movistar shut down Contador but Rogers then went away on his own, joined by Adriano Malori (Movistar). Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Valverde also tried to break free but Sky were having none of it.

Rogers and Malori were then joined by Brice Feillu (Bretagne), Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18) and Romain Sicard (Europcar) in a five-man chasing group that was 3:30 behind the leaders. Part-way through what was already punishing day, world champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) and Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) abandoned the race and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) was dropped and would fall from 11th to 16th on GC.

The lead group's gap was extending over the peloton but they weren't collaborating smoothly and Benoît Vaugrenard dished out some retribution to John Degenkolb and Peter Sagan by challenging them, and beating them, at the intermediate sprint with 50km remaining. Simon Geschke noticed the lack of cooperation and rolled the dice and behind him the breakaway group blew itself to pieces on the Col d'Allos.

Frank was keen to push on and was joined after a while by Pinot, Yates, Talansky, and later Urán. Pinot attacked a few kilometres shy of the summit and crested just over a minute behind Geschke, who picked up the Souvenir Henri Desgrange for being the first rider over the highest point in this year's Tour. But the Frenchman, who has had confidence issues with descending in the past, had a minor fall on an early left-hand bend and slipped back.

In the yellow jersey group behind, Leopold König was working for Froome but it was Trek and Astana doing the bulk of the pace making. The group, as expected, thinned down to an elite 10, but then became five when Astana set Nibali up for a stinging attack. Only Froome, Contador, Valverde and Quintana could follow, and it was the Colombian who was next to attack. Froome sat second wheel all the way down the descent, astutely following Nibali and Valverde in turn, while Contador ran into trouble behind.

Up the road, Talansky gained time on the 6.2km category 2 climb to Pra Loup but Geschke was still fresh enough to hold on for the win, with Pinot coming back for fourth behind Urán. The rest of the breakaway then filtered in while Quintana tried to put some late pressure on Froome. The two of them rode away from Nibali and Valverde in the final kilometre but crossed the line together. No time was clawed back by the Colombian, but he'll hope the exertions of the day have done enough to soften Froome for what's to come.

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