Tour de France: Konrad solos to victory on stage 16

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Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed the biggest win of his career on stage 16 of the Tour de France, celebrating a Pyrenean breakaway triumph after riding solo for 35 kilometres.

The Austrian champion was an aggressive presence in a break that only formed around the halfway mark, first bridging from a chase group to a leading trio on the Col de la Core before going solo on the Col de Portet d’Aspet.

David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) rode clear from the chase group on the Portet d’Aspet and were just 20 seconds in arrears at the summit. However, that doubled on the wet and treacherous descent, where Fabio Casartelli lost his life on the 1995 Tour but where there were thankfully no crashes on Tuesday.

Konrad still had plenty to do as the road flattened out in the final 20km, not least the Côte d’Aspret-Sarrat, the fourth climb of the day and a sting in the tail at 8.4 per cent over 800 metres.

Gaudu, who’d slotted back into a larger chase group, launched another acceleration there but it was in vain and Konrad safely negotiated the final few wet kilometres to raise his arms in Saint Gaudens.

Colbrelli got the better of Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) in the sprint for second place, neither taking top honours but both making inroads on green jersey Mark Cavendish in the points classification.

Despite a frantic and fluid first half of the stage, it turned into a quiet day for the general classification contenders, although it did spark back into life on that short final climb. As Simon Geschke looked to set up his Cofidis teammate Guillaume Martin, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) accelerated away and almost inadvertently split the bunch, taking 15 riders away with him.

All the overall contenders were present and correct, but still the Belgian champion, with Jonas Vingegaard tucked in the wheel, drove it all the way to the line, where the GC riders sprinted home for the minor placings more than 12 minutes after Konrad had arrived.

Even yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar, whose UAE Emirates teammates had overcome a tricky start to impose a relaxed tempo for most of the day, launched a full-spirited sprint alongside Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), despite enjoying an overall lead of more than five minutes.

“This is my first win in the WorldTour and it’s in the biggest race in the world. I’m really speechless,” Konrad said. “This victory is for my family, my friends, all my believers and also for Bora-Hansgrohe, who have always believed in me.  To win a stage in the champion’s jersey makes me really proud.

“I was already in three breakaways here and was waiting until the finale, which was always not the best decision. When Mohoric won, he went really early and when Mollema won, he went really early, so I said to myself ‘if I get in this situation again, I will be that guy’. I gave it a try and I’m happy it worked out.”

How it unfolded

The stage stopped before it started, with the riders negotiating a pause to proceedings at the end of the neutral zone in order to take off layers. The start village was positioned up the top of the mountain at 2,000 metres’ altitude and the neutralized roll-out was essentially a 19-kilometre descent, with all the riders wrapped up against the single-digit temperatures. Once they’d stopped and taken off their warmers, the stage was waved underway and road continued downhill.

It was another fast and frantic start, with the race not properly settling into a pattern until the intermediate sprint in Vic d’Oust at the half-way mark. Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was a solo early attacker, getting a gap and holding it all the way to the first of the day’s four climbs, the category-2 Col de Port – 11.4km at 5.1 per cent.

The front of the bunch had been fluid and active, with a couple of small groups enjoying brief stints off the front, but the attacks intensified on the climb. Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked and was joined by Asgreen’s teammate Mattia Cattaneo, and they made it across to form a leading trio 43m from the top.

Behind, the accelerations were non-stop, and Pogačar was active, even shutting some gaps himself. A nine-man chase group went clear on the upper slopes but their lead was wiped out over the top of the climb, as the peloton crested 35 seconds behind the lead trio and three minutes ahead of a gruppetto that contained Mark Cavendish and the other sprinters.

The subsequent descent was wet and treacherous, with Asgreen riding onto the grass verge and nearly crashing at one point. Chris Juul-Jensen (Teamm BikeExchange), who’d been in that nine-man attack, continued to push hard down the descent, and his efforts saw the leaders brought back and the bunch back together, although it was heavily strung out.

With 100km to go, they were spat out into the valley, where the strung out bunch began to split. Three of Pogačar’s teammates – Vegard Stake Laengen, Rafal Majka, and Mikkel Bjerg were caught out, along with Richie Porte and Dylan van Baarle from Ineos.

There was an extended stretch in the valley ahead of the intermediate sprint, which drew out Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious). They briefly sparked a six-man move, before joining in another counter-attack once another lead group had form. That lead group was a trio of Juul-Jensen, Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies), and Jan Bakelants (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) and they reached the intermediate sprint with a lead of several seconds as Bakelants claimed maximum points ahead of Doubey and Juul-Jensen.

Half a minute later, Matthews outsprinted Colbrelli to take the next best haul, crossing the line in a group with Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels). That chase group soon swelled to 11 after Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), and Alex Aranburu (Astana) escaped the bunch ahead of the sprint.

The peloton itself eased on the run-in to that sprint, allowed the group of riders dropped in the split to rejoin, as the gap to the leaders grew out.

With 81km to go, the second climb of the day began, the Col de la Core – 13.1km at 6.6 per cent. The leading trio established an advantage of 45 seconds before Konrad decided to take matters into his own hands by attacking solo and bridging across 3.5km from the top. The Austrian champion set about pushing on, causing Juul-Jensen to be dropped 2km from the summit. Further down the road, Gaudu took responsibility and his pace split the group, with Bonnamour, Colbrelli, and Skujins the ones able to follow at first, before Périchon, Aranburu, Rota, and Matthews came back.

Back in the bunch, UAE had numbers again and set Stake Laengen to work as they finally imposed control on proceedings and the gap grew to seven minutes,. However, about half-way up, EF Education-Nippo took over, riding for second-placed Urán.

At the summit, Konrad led the new leading trio over the top, ahead of Bakelants and Doubey, with the leading chasers at just 10 seconds. The peloton followed at 6:50, and the gruppetto, which had regained contact ahead of the climb before falling away again, at 9:20.

On the descent, the chase group reformed, with the exception of Cosnefroy, and chased the leading trio through the valley at 35 seconds. With 39km to go, the front three hit the last major climb, the category-2 Col de Portet d’Aspet (5.4km at 7.1 per cent) with a lead of 25 seconds, while the peloton had slipped to 9:15.

After a kilometre or so, Konrad appeared unhappy with the pace and decided to attack, quickly moving clear. Bakelants dug in as Doubey drifted back to the chase group, where Juul-Jensen was dropped. When Konrad’s lead reached the minute-mark, Gaudu had no choice but to hit out and raise the tempo. Only Bonnamour and Colbrelli were able to follow the Frenchman as they eased past Bakelants, but then Bonnamour lost contact. Colbrelli clung to Gaudu’s wheel as his green jersey rival Matthews tried to limit the damage behind.

Konrad crested the Ported d’Aspet alone, but his lead had been slashed as Gaudu and Colbrelli followed at 25 seconds. Another 20 seconds behind was a chase group with Matthews, Skujins, Bonnamour, Bakelants, and Rota. Back in the peloton, UAE led the way with a relaxed tempo as the gap grew to 12 minutes by the summit, where Wout van Aert appeared to lead Jonas Vingegaard downhill.

The subsequent descent, where Fabio Casartelli lost his life during the 1995 Tour, was made even more treacherous by the rain, and Colbrelli was distanced by Gaudu, although both lose ground to Konrad. As the road flattened out with 23km to go, the Austrian had 40 seconds in hand, with Colbrelli and Gaudu not far in front of the chase group that had swelled to seven after Périchon and Aranburu rejoined on the descent. Those groups came together with 15km to go, by which point Konrad had a one-minute lead.

With 7.5km to go, Konrad hit the Côte d’Aspret-Sarrat, the final climb of the day and a sting in the tail at 8.4 per cent over 800 metres. He had a lead of 1:13 and only lost 13 seconds as he grinded up in the big ring while Gaudu attacked from behind. Skujins tried to drive it over the top but the chase group reformed for the run-in, where it soon became apparent they’d be scrapping for the minor placings.

As Konrad ticked off the wet final few kilometres, Périchon jumped from the chase group but was swamped on the line and was just pipped for the podium places by Colbrelli and Matthews.

When the bunch hit the final kicker, it suddenly came to life, with Simon Geschke setting up Cofidis teammate Guillaume Martin before Van Aert came up with an ostentatious move that took him clear of the rest. He almost couldn’t believe it, but when he looked around it turned out he’d forced a split. There were 16 riders in the move, but none of the riders in the top 10 on GC missed it. Still, Van Aert, with Vingegaard in the wheel, drove it all the way to the line, even if the real battles will come with the major two summit finishes on Wednesday and Thursday.