Teuns soars to Tour stage 6 win from the break: Daily News Digest
Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:
Dylan Teuns wins stage 6 of the Tour de France from the breakaway, Giulio Ciccone takes over yellow, Patrick Bevin pulls out of the race, Marianne Vos nabs her third stage victory of the 2019 Giro Rosa. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.
Story of the Day: Dylan Teuns wins Tour’s sixth stage from the break
Bahrain-Merida’s Dylan Teuns rode to a huge victory atop La Planche des Belles Filles on the sixth stage of the Tour de France. The 27-year-old Belgian topped fellow escapee Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) by 11 seconds on the steep finishing climb.
“It was really a man-to-man fight,” said Teuns, who hardly had the energy for a celebration by the time he hit the line. “I was so getting tired it was even difficult to put your hands in the air.”
Ciccone may have settled for runner-up honors, but he finished the day with a prize of his own—the Italian will start Friday’s stage 7 wearing the coveted yellow jersey.
Breakaway rider Xandro Meurisse (Wanty-Gobert) took third on the day over a minute down and then it was Geraint Thomas (Ineos) hitting the line as the first of a string of GC contenders. Despite losing the maillot jaune to Ciccone, overnight leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) finished strong in sixth.
Geraint Thomas was the first of the Tour’s GC favorites to cross the line atop La Planche des Belles Filles. Photo: Gregory van Gansen/Cor Vos © 2019
None of the GC favorites gained too much time on the field, but several riders lost out, including Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale), and Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First).
The first bona fide mountain stage of the 2019 Tour de France set out from Mulhouse and covered 160.5 up-and-down kilometers before the mountaintop finish line. The undulating profile was a good one for the day’s main breakaway, which got away early on in the stage. The move had plenty of firepower, with some big names like Tim Wellens and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) in the mix with Teuns, Ciccone, and Meurisse.
The gap hovered between seven and eight minutes for much of the stage, and even when the pack began to reel in the escapees it was a gradual process, giving the break plenty of breathing room to fight for the stage victory.
De Gendt soloed away from a whittled down break group with just under 40 kilometers to gom but he was caught by the surviving quartet of Wellens, Ciccone, Meurisse, and Teuns with 20 kilometers to race. Ciccone and Teuns powered away on the slopes of the final climb to make it a two-rider battle. In the dwindling peloton behind, Movistar and then Ineos set a hard tempo that saw Bardet and others drift to the back of the group, ultimately losing touch.
Ciccone and Teuns battled into the final gravel kilometer, while Mikel Landa (Movistar) attacked the GC group. Teuns finally distanced Ciccone as the duo neared the finish line, taking the impressive mountaintop win with an 11-second margin over Ciccone.
After Landa was caught, Alaphilippe put in a dig off the front of the remaining GC riders, but he faded near the line as Thomas surged past, and the gap to Ciccone was just enough for the Giro d’Italia’s king of the mountains to take over the race lead.
Giulio Ciccone is in yellow after stage 6 of the Tour de France. Photo: NV/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
Stage 6 results
1 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 4:29:03
2 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:11
3 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Gobert 0:01:05
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos 0:01:44
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:46
6 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
7 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar 0:01:51
8 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana 0:01:53
10 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar
GC
1 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 23:14:55
2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:06
3 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:32
4 George Bennett (NZl) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:47
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos 0:00:49
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos 0:00:53
7 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:58
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:01:04
9 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First 0:01:13
10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First 0:01:15
Moving Pictures
If the landscapes of France don’t offer enough escapism for you this July, join former World MTB Champion Paul van der Ploeg on an action-packed two-wheeled adventure across the roads, MTB tracks, and rail trails of Victoria’s High Country.
Speaking of off-road riding, this is impressive.
And then there’s Peter Sagan’s latest starring appearance in an ad for Specialized. It’s uniquely Sagan, to say the least.
Race Radio
Vos takes her third stage victory of 2019 Giro Rosa
Marianne Vos won her third stage of the 2019 Giro Rosa on Thursday, showing off her explosiveness on the punchy stage 7 finish.
Marianne Vos wins stage 7 of the Giro Rosa. Photo: Anton Vos/Cor Vos © 2019
The CCC-Liv rider topped Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) at the top of the Fara Vicentino finishing climb. Annemiek van leuten (Mitchelton-Scott) crossed the line in fourth and maintained her overall race lead.
The 128.3-kilometer stage from Cornedo Vicentino to San Giorgio di Perlena featured a number of punchy climbs that inspired multiple attacks and regroupings throughout the day. Things were back together for a small group by the finale, however, putting the stage victory in play for a selection of big names on the climb to the line.
Van der Breggen launched early, but Vos closed her down in the final hundred meters and surged past to take a clear victory, her third win of the race after her victories in stages 2 and 3. Van der Breggen’s efforts may not have earned her the stage victory, but they were enough to propel the Dutchwoman into second overall, with Kasia Niewiadoma (Boels-Dolmans) dropping to third on the general classification.
The Giro Rosa continues Friday with a 133.3-kilometer stage 8 from Vittorio Veneto to Maniago.
Stage 7 results
1 Marianne Vos (Ned) CCC-Liv 3:19:33
2 Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmans
3 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:03
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott
5 Demi Vollering (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:00:09
6 Soraya Paladin (Ita) Ale Cipollini
7 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
8 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) CCC-Liv
9 Ane Santesteban Gonzalez (Spa) WNT-Rotor
10 Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:12
GC
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott 15:01:51
2 Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmans 0:04:08
3 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM 0:04:23
4 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Sunweb 0:05:26
5 Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:05:30
6 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:43
7 Katharine Hall (USA) Boels-Dolmans 0:06:20
8 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) CCC-Liv 0:06:39
9 Juliette Labous (Fra) Sunweb
10 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) WNT-Rotor 0:06:46
Names of Operación Puerto athletes will not be released
Names will not be released when WADA finishes DNA and blood analysis to identify athletes involved in the Operación Puerto scandal, insidethegames reports.
WADA is nearing completion of an identification process on samples recovered from the 2006 raid of the clinic of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, but athletes will not be publicly named or sanctioned due to the statute of limitations. WADA is instead exploring other options of what to do with the names, including sharing them confidentially with their respective federations and national organizations.
Operación Puerto involved professional cyclists as well as individuals in other sports disciplines, but only some of those athletes – including Alejandro Valverde, Jan Ullrich, and Jörg Jaksche – were initially named or sanctioned. Other samples spent years tied up by the Spanish courts.
“We will not be able to publish the names of those athletes because the eight-year statute of limitation passed on this case in 2014,” WADA told insidethegames.
“This is due to the very significant time taken by the Spanish justice system to provide WADA and other anti-doping organizations involved with samples taken from the blood bags.”
Bevin abandons Tour de France with broken ribs
Patrick Bevin (CCC) is out of the 2019 Tour de France. The 28-year-old New Zealander was the first rider to abandon the race, pulling out before the start of Thursday’s stage 6.
Bevin crashed on both stages 3 and 4, and sustained fractured ribs in the latter incident.
Patrick Bevin at the Tour de France. Photo: Peter de Voecht/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
“I fell on my left side and caught a wheel to the chest,” Bevin said via a CCC statement.
“I thought I had got away with it at the time and I didn’t have any trouble when I got back into the race, no skin off or anything like that.
“I thought it wasn’t too bad but as the stage wore on, it got worse.”
Rider and team decided it would be best for Bevin to pull out of the race after X-rays showed two fractured ribs.
Coming Up at the Tour
On the heels of a mountain stage comes a very long, mostly flat stage 7 at the Tour de France.
230 kilometers from Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône, it looks like a good day for the sprinters.
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Feature Image: Dylan Teuns wins stage 6 of the Tour de France. Photo Peter De Voecht/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
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