2019 Tour de France, Daily News Digest, Features, News, wout van aert - July 20, 2019

Pinot wins atop Tourmalet as Alaphilippe extends Tour lead: Daily News Digest

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Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:

Thibaut Pinot wins stage 14 of the Tour de France as Julian Alaphilippe stuns with a runner-up ride to solidify his GC lead, Geraint Thomas among big names losing time, van Aert faces a two-month recovery after his stage 13 crash. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.

Story of the Day: Thibaut Pinot wins the Tour’s 14th stage ahead of Julian Alaphilippe

The home crowd had plenty to celebrate on stage 14 of the Tour de France. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) soared to the stage victory atop the Tourmalet, while his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe finished second and added to his overall lead ahead of rivals like Geraint Thomas (Ineos).

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) nabbed third on the day, while Thomas lost 36 seconds on the day. With that, Alaphilippe now enjoys a GC lead ahead of Thomas of just over two minutes.

The challenging mountain stage was a battle of attrition over the 111-kilometer journey from Tarbes to the Tourmalet summit finish. The early break, which included big names like Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), was only given enough breathing room to hunt mountain points and intermediate sprints. A high pace in the peloton proved too much for Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) on the Col du Soulour midway through the day. Shortly thereafter, Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was also dropped on the first-category climb, caught back on, and was then dropped for good.

The last remnants of the break were reeled in on the final climb, putting the stage win in play for the GC group. Groupama-FDJ joined Jumbo-Visma and Movistar on the slopes of the Tourmalet in setting a high tempo. Several big names were dropped before the finale, including Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Dan Martin (UAE-Team Emirates), and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), with Thomas and Rigoberto Urán losing touch late on the climb.

Only a handful of riders remained at the front by the time the yellow jersey group rolled under the flamme rouge, but the group stayed more or less together until the final 300 meters, when Pinot made a surge at the front and started to pull away. He held on take the stage victory six seconds ahead of Alaphilippe, with Kruijswijk in third..

Two seconds later, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Emanuel Buchmann crossed the line in fourth on the same time as fifth-placed Egan Bernal, whose Ineos teammate Thomas was 36 seconds down on the day. Porte finished over two minutes behind Pinot with Quintana 3:24 back. Yates and Dan Martin (UAE-Team Emirates) finished further back, seeing their GC hopes evaporate, while Bardet fared even worse, coming home 20 minutes down.

Moving Pictures

EF Education First’s latest Gone Racing video from the Tour de France is a chance to get to know New Zealand’s Tom Scully, and also to take a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s frustrating day in the crosswinds on stage 10.

Race Radio

Van Aert facing two-month recovery

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is expected to be recovering for the next two months after his bad crash on stage 13 of the Tour de France, according to Sporza.

Van Aert suffered a deep gash to his right leg when he crashed into a barrier late in the Pau time trial. The injury required an operation at a nearby hospital.

Jumbo-Visma’s Nico Verhoeven told Sporza that van Aert’s road season is over—but also said that van Aert himself may have other plans.

“The surgeon talked about two-month rehabilitation period in which he would not be allowed to cycle. But Wout saw it differently,” Verhoeven said. “A cyclist normally recovers faster.”

Schachmann out of Tour after breaking bones in hand

Bora-Hansgrohe’s Max Schachmann was having a great Tour de France heading into Friday’s stage 13 time trial, but he is out of the race after fracturing his hand in a crash.

According to his team, Schachmann sustained breaks to the third, fourth, and fifth metacarpals of his left hand.

“I pushed to my limit and I took a right corner too fast. It was a misjudgment on my part, I thought I could take it tightly because it was opening up,” he said in a team statement. “Unfortunately, it did open up but later than I thought. I was already sliding and there wasn’t much I could do. The road was slippery there, my front wheel was sliding and I hit the ground.”

Sitting fifth overall at the start of the TT, Schachmann has now abandoned the Tour.

Coming Up at the Tour

The Tour’s 15th stage will be another test for the yellow jersey hopefuls.

The 185-kilometer trek from Limoux to Foix covers four categorized climbs, with three back-to-back-to-back category ones in the finale. The challenging parcours is sure to spark fireworks with the Tour’s second rest day to follow.