2019 Tour de France, Daily News Digest, Features, Nairo Quintana, News - July 25, 2019

Quintana wins Tour stage 18 as Alaphilippe keeps yellow: Daily News Digest

Supported by

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

Nairo Quintana attacks out of the breakaway on the Galibier and holds on to win stage 18 of the Tour de France, Egan Bernal surges into second overall but Julian Alaphilippe remains in yellow, Tony Martin and Luke Rowe out of the Tour despite joint appeal. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.

Story of the Day: Quintana wins Tour de France stage 18 as Alaphilippe holds onto yellow

Nairo Quintana soloed out of the breakaway to win Thursday’s stage 18 of the Tour de France in Valloire. The Colombian delivered a powerful attack to leave a small group of surviving escapees behind on the slopes of the Galibier, and held on to take the victory, with Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) taking second on the day and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) nabbing third.

“This a reflection of all the hard work we’ve done,” Quintana said. “Things haven’t gone the way we’d hoped, but we kept at it. We didn’t let ourselves stop pushing.”

Colombian fans were also treated to some GC action several minutes behind, as Egan Bernal (Ineos) attacked the yellow jersey group a few kilometers from the top of the Galibier and stayed clear to the finish to pick up 32 seconds on his GC rivals and move into second overall. Julian Alaphilippe, however, remains in yellow.

The Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider was distanced near the top of the Galibier but rejoined the main GC group on the descent and finished with Geraint Thomas (Ineos) and the rest of the top contenders.

More to come…

Moving Pictures

The latest EF Gone Racing video goes into the team cars to provide an inside look at the work of the squad’s sports directors …

Race Radio

Disqualification stands for Rowe and Martin

Although Ineos and Jumbo-Visma linked up to appeal the Tour de France expulsions of Luke Rowe and Tony Martin to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the disqualifications stood as of start time on stage 18. Both riders are officially out of the race, despite the best efforts of the riders and teams to make nice.

A joint interview with @LukeRowe1990 and @JumboVismaRoad's @tonymartin85 about today's disqualification from #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/MPEqwWi7yv

— Team INEOS (@TeamINEOS) July 24, 2019

Unable to appeal the UCI’s decision, the teams contacted CAS, but Wielerflits reports that there was no resolution of the case by the time the race left Embrun on Thursday morning. Therefore, the expulsions stood.

George Bennett finishes stage 18 despite two bad crashes

29-year-old New Zealander George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) made it to the finish despite crashing on two separate occasions during stage 18.

Bennett hit the deck hard on the descent off the Col de Vars midway through the stage, but was able to remount and ultimately rejoin the peloton. After putting in a strong ride in support of team leader Steven Kruijswijk on the final climb of the Galibier, he crashed on the descent. Nevertheless, he rolled across the finish line in 27th.

Jumbo-Visma riders undergo anti-doping tests less than an hour before stage 18

Anti-doping officials tested several riders on Thursday morning prior to the start of Tour stage 18, with multiple Jumbo-Visma riders undergoing controls just 45 minutes before the stage.

According to TuttoBiciWeb, race leader Julian Alaphilippe and others from Deceuninck-Quick-Step were tested at 6:30 a.m. Then officials went to the Ineos hotel to complete more tests, and then headed to Jumbo-Visma’s hotel to find that they were too late, and that the team had already departed.

As such, they went to the start village and conducted tests on Steven Kruijswijk, Laurens De Plus, and George Bennett on the team bus, less than an hour before the stage start.

“This is my 23rd Tour and I have never experienced this before,” said Jumbo-Visma manager Frans Maassen, according to Sporza. “Deceuninck-Quick Step has had a check-up early this morning. It is also not nice if you wake up riders at 6:30 am but this is the other extreme.”

Coming Up at the Tour

The Alpine action continues on stage 19 of the Tour de France.

The 126.5-kilometer stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes traverses five categorized climbs, including the Col de l’Iseran, the highest climb of this year’s Tour. The stage finishes shortly after the first-category Montée de Tignes.