Tour de France: Mollema escapes breakaway to win stage 14

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Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) claimed the second Tour de France stage win of his career on Saturday, celebrating in Quillan after a 40-kilometre solo.

The victory bore resemblance to the Dutchman’s other stage success from the 2017 Tour as he made the breakaway on a medium mountain day before going clear from range on a descent and proving impossible to claw back.

Four climbs had been ticked off by the time Mollema made his move on the sinuous roads through the Gorges de Saint George, and he bolstered a one-minute advantage on the final one, the category-2 Col de Saint Louis.

From there, it was largely downhill, and he made no mistake in holding off a select chase group of Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Sergio Higuita (EF Education-Nippo).

Konrad won the sprint for second place, pipping Higuita 1:10 after Mollema had crossed the line.

“It’s amazing. I’m super happy,” said Mollema. “I was feeling good so I thought let’s go from far.

“I had the confidence I could ride alone and keep going for a long time. Normally I can pace myself really well. When I got to the top of the last climb with 50 seconds I knew I could make it.”

There was little direct GC hostility as the breakaway – which took nearly 100km to form – had its day en route to the Pyrenees – but there was significant movement as Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) slipped into the breakaway and vaulted up to second overall.  

The Frenchman started the day ninth overall at 9:29 but finished in the second main breakaway group, 1:25 behind Mollema but more than five minutes ahead of the reduced peloton. With the exception of a brief effort from Rigoberto Urán’s (EF Education-Nippo), who had a rider in the break, none of the GC contenders teams’ showed any real desire to chase, with race leader Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates casually leading the bunch over the line.

In the overall standings, Pogačar is still streets ahead but, in scenes similar to Ben O’Connor’s leap in the Alps last week, his closest challenger has changed again. Martin had already gained some time from the break in that very stage to Tignes but here he took a huge chunk to reduce Pogačar’s lead to 4:04.

Urán drops to third overall at 5:18, with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) third at 5:32.

How it unfolded

The peloton rolled out of Carcassone two riders light as Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) and Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM) decided not to start due to injuries sustained in the stage 13 crash that had already taken out three other riders.

There was always going to be interest in the breakaway on a moderately hilly day ahead of the Pyrenees, and it proved worth fighting for, even if it was an almighty fight.

There were constant attacks – too many to list – on the draggy roads in the opening hour, with Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) a particularly active presence. He was away in a trio but was brought back and spent the rest of the day towards the back of the bunch.

After 25km, there was a breakaway of sorts, as Kristian Sbaragli (Alpecin-Fenix) went up the road, followed by Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Maxime Chevalier (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), and then by Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Fenix).

Those riders eventually joined forces to make a group of five, but despite a brief respite, the attacks started to rain down again from the peloton. They took a lead of 30 seconds over the first climb, the category-3 Col du Bac – 3.1km at 5.3 per cent – but it was pretty much back together at the intermediate sprint 25km later.

Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck-QuickStep) jumped to take second place behind Rickaert and sweep some points away from Mark Cavendish’s green jersey rivals, and the pair continued on together for a couple of kilometres before the bunch reformed.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) were active on the drag towards the category-2 Col de Montségur – 4.2km at 8.7 per cent – but it was only on the climb, after almost 90km that the first decisive attacks were made.

Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) was the first to jump, going clear with Cattaneo before Woods countered and bridged across. Esteban Chaves (Team BikeExchange) launched the next move and formed a group with Martin, Higuita, Konrad, Omar Fraile (Astana-PremierTech), and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert). Mollema was a bit of a latecomer but set about making it across to that chase group by the top, where Poels and Woods dropped Cattaneo in sprinting for the mountains points.

Cattaneo caught back on the descent and there was a further swelling when the chase group made contact soon after. The third climb was the second-category Col de la Croix des Morts – 6.8km at 5.7 per cent – where there were yet more attacks from the bunch. With the gap at two minutes, the B&B Hotels duo of Pierre Rolland and Quentin Pacher attacked together and were soon joined by Elie Gesbert (Arkéa-Samsic) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ). The four Frenchmen managed to cross the gap and make it 14 in the break on the subsequent plateau.

At the top of the fourth climb, the category-3 Côte de Galinagues – 2.2km at 9.3 per cent – Woods and Poels once again fought for the mountains points. Poels got there first, but Woods’ one point moved him ahead of Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) into the virtual polka-dot jersey.

Woods’ stage then took a turn for the worse as he slipped out on a left-hand bend on the descent through the gorge, although he was able to regain contact after chasing for several kilometres.

With just over 40km remaining, Mollema made his move, ripping clear with a big acceleration and going all-in for the stage win. He quickly opened a handsome gap and, even when the riders behind started cooperating well, he managed to consolidate his advantage, taking a lead of 1:15 onto the final climb of the day, the Col de Saint-Louis – 4.7km at 7.4 per cent.

Head bobbing, body moving, the Dutchman climbed strongly and started to look good for the stage. Cattaneo applied pressure behind, splitting the rest of the break to four, with Higuita, Konrad, and Woods, but Mollema still had just under a minute by the time he crested.

From there, the 17 largely downhill kilometres were not fertile terrain for a chase, and Mollema had no problem in maintaining and even extending his advantage. The second chase group nearly came back to the first in the closing kilometres but could quite make it, although Martin will have been delighted by his time gains either way.