2017 Tour de France Stage 10 Results & Recap
Stage 10 of the 2017 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Marcel, again: Kittel makes it four, wins Stage 10 field sprint at Tour de France
by Evan Hartig
German Marcel Kittel (Quick Step Floors) sprinted to his fourth victory of the 2017 Tour de France on Stage 10. Compatriot John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) took second, with Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) in third.
The stage, concluding in Bergerac, was the first flat day after a rest day following a taxing mountainous weekend. Stage 10 marked Kittelâs fourth victory of the 2017 Tour and his 13th overall Tour stage win after his first in 2013, surpassing Erik Zabel with the record number of stage wins for a German rider.
âI think I had a good spot in the sprint, it was still relatively far, about 500m to go after the left corner,â Kittel said. âDan Mclay started his sprint early, and that was my leadout. I hit the front at exactly 220m to go. I think itâs no surprise to say I feel good at the moment.â
The day after the first rest day, Stage 10 was to be another for the sprinters after a strenuous weekend in the mountains. The course profile, virtually flat, would double as another rest day for the GC men.
âItâs nice after a rest day to not be so crazy, just tick another day off and regain a bit of energy before we hit the Pyrenees,â said GC leader Chris Froome (Team Sky), who finished safely in the bunch. âTomorrow should be another sprint day. Weather could play a role tomorrow. The time gaps are still very close, the race is still very open. Still a lot of racing to come.â
Among the fast men, however, the fight for the green jersey was heating up between Kittel and Michael Matthews (Sunweb), very different riders with very different skill sets. Matthews, an all-rounder with a solid kick, has the ability to make it places Kittel canât, as demonstrated by his Stage 8 intermediate points collection. Kittel, however, is the most powerful sprinter in the peloton, all but certain to beat Matthews in head-to-head sprints where theyâre both present.
âI think itâs pretty clear that Iâm not able to do what Michael can do,â Kittel said at the start today. âHeâs a very strong guy on the climbs but thatâs not a surprise, heâs shown it before. So I have to score my points on stages like today and in the intermediate sprints to get a really good advantage before we get into the harder stages.â
As he was on Stage 2, Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was again the first aggressor of the day, distancing himself from the peloton within the first two kilometers after the neural rollout. After Offredo rode alone for a few moments, Fortuneo-Oscaroâs Elie Gesbert made the bridge, and there were two out front. The peloton, content to let the two men go, fanned out across the road and allowed the duoâs gap to rise freely.
By 15 kilometers in, Gesbert and Offredoâs gap had dramatically risen to over five minutes. Marcel Kittelâs perpetually dedicated teammate Julien Vermote took the front to keep tabs on the advantage.
âWhat Julien Vermote does at the head of the peloton is absolutely incredible,â Kittel said. âIt shows how strong he is as a rider, physically and mentally. It looks simple but very few riders are able to be as disciplined as him to set the pace according to the speed of the breakaway.â
The daylong breakaway was just two men, both French, both from wildcard-invite teams: Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Oscaro).
As solo riders with a margin over the peloton, Gesbert and Offredo were able to collect maximum KOM and intermediate points on the roads from PĂŠrigueux to Bergerac. At 100 kilometers in, Gesbert led Offredo over the summit of the Cote de Domme, acquiring 1 KOM point. The duo was clearly more focused on maintaining their margin rather than sprinting for classification points, however, and at the intermediate sprint, Offredo took full points with zero contest. Again, on the second KOM of the day at Cote du Buisson-de-Cadouin, Gesbert led and received another single KOM point for his effort.
In the field, there was substantially more desperation to acquire the remaining intermediate sprint points at Saint-Cyprien. AndrĂŠ Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) won the sprint for third across the line, receiving 15 points. Sitting up at the line, Kittel drifted back to fourth, only taking 13 points but still buffering his lead in the green jersey competition. Matthews crossed the line in seventh position and fifth within the bunch, taking nine points.
Offredo and Gesbertâs lead dropped dramatically after Quick-Step, Cofidis, Lotto-Soudal and Katusha-Alpecin began efficiently coordinating the chase with 50 kilometers remaining. With 25 kilometers left, their gap had already dropped below 40 seconds. It was too early, though, and their pursuers took a brief respite, allowing the gap to rise back to around one minute.
The peloton, in pursuit of the two riders out front, made its way through fields of sunflowers on the way to Bergerac.
Greipelâs Lotto-Soudal train was in charge of the chase going into the final ten kilometers. Team Sky, always vigilant, was there also, as margins within the general classification were still tight enough that a small mistake or mechanical on a sprint stage could rearrange things.
With seven kilometers left on the day, the duo out front was caught, and it was an open race. It was an odd mix of riders at the front of the field, with the wide roads seeing GC teams battling the sprinterâs lead-outs for control. Lotto-Jumbo was there as well, in addition to Direct Energie and Katusha-Alpecin.
Lotto-Soudal seemed most organized, however, and confidently led around a sweeping right-hander with five kilometers to go. Greipel sat at the rear of their train.
Kristoffâs Katusha-Alpecin was equally present going into four kilometers to go. The two red trains took control on opposite sides of the road, maneuvering back and forth in an attempt to take control. The pace was rising perpetually into three kmâs to go, with Lotto-Soudal still looking the strongest. Quick-Step was entirely absent from the leadout scrum but Kittel, positioned ten wheels back, looked calm and in his element.
Lotto-Soudal led into the final kilometer, their train still looking composed. Greipel looked to be perfectly positioned to take Stage 10.
But, in accordance with his style, Kittel waited for the dense chaos to clear at the front of the field and surfed wheels through the last 100 meters, only meeting the wind after heâd wound up his sprint behind the leaders. He fully opened up and his margin quickly grew, distancing runner-up John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) and third-place Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo).
Today marks Kittelâs fourth win at the 2017 Tour de France and his 13th overall victory, breaking Zabelâs German record for the most stage wins at the Tour de France.
âI canât really believe it, itâs number four, thatâs an incredible amount of Tour de France wins,â Kittel said. âI canât believe it, Iâm so happy. The team worked so hard, Iâm really, really happy. Iâve now won more than any German, I never expected this. I never dreamed to be at the Tour de France, I hoped to be a professional, I never dreamed to be at this level, to have all these wins. Itâs hard to imagine.â
Kittel now has a solid lead in the green jersey competition, with 275 points. Matthews retains second, over 100 points back from Kittel, with 173.
âIâm not thinking that Iâve won the green jersey yet,â Kittel said. âEven in Stage 20 something can go wrong. Arnaud DĂŠmare is the best example of how the good work done before can be destroyed quickly. Anything can happen at the Tour. But I think Iâm in the best shape Iâve ever had since my very first Tour de France.â
Link: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/07/marcel-kittel-makes-four-wins-stage-10-field-sprint-tour-de-france/\n_______________________________
Kittel elated, Matthews deflated â Is the battle for the Tourâs green jersey over?
by Matt de Neef
BERGERAC, France (CT) â When Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) was controversially expelled from the 2017 Tour de France, it seemed as if the battle for the points classification had been thrown wide open. Sagan had won green for each of the past five years, and was the unbackable favourite to do so again, but his expulsion on stage 4 meant other riders now had a realistic chance.
But six stages later, the battle for green appears to be a one-horse race once more.
On Tuesdayâs stage 10, Marcel Kittel (QuickStep Floors) galloped to his fourth stage win of the Tour so far, putting several bike lengths between himself and his rivals. It was another commanding performance from the big German, and one that further extended his lead in the fight for green.
Prior to stage 10, Kittel had sat 52 points clear of his nearest rival, Michael Matthews (Sunweb). After taking fourth in the stage 10 intermediate sprint, and winning the stage, Kittelâs lead is now 102 points. Despite his strong lead, the charismatic fastman is far from convinced heâs got the green jersey sewn up.
Speaking in his winnerâs press conference after stage 10, 29-year-old Kittel pointed to the example of Frenchman Arnaud Demare (FDJ) who won the now-infamous fourth stage but then missed the time cut and was eliminated on stage 9 after falling ill.
âBasically I look at the green jersey classification as by far not decided because one missed chance, getting sick âArnaud Demare is maybe the best example â can destroy everything that happened before,â Kittel said. âI think itâs very important to see it day by day and to focus on ⌠getting points at the intermediates and at the end of the sprint stages.
âEven on stage 20 something can go wrong, or on stage 21, and I personally prefer to act like I donât have the green jersey on my shoulders at the moment because we saw also two days ago for the GC guys the race can be very quickly over.â
Kittel identified Michael Matthews, Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) as his biggest rivals in the race for green. They sit second, third and fourth in that classification respectively, but none was able to challenge Kittel on todayâs stage â Kristoff was fourth, Greipel was 12th and Matthews was 13th.
Matthews yelled out in frustration when he crossed the line and later had his head bowed for several minutes at the team bus, prompting Nikias Arndt to come over and console his Australian teammate. Speaking to the press a short time later, Matthews described himself as âdevastatedâ and expressed his disappointment in the Sunweb lead-out train.
âNormally weâve been going quite well. Today was really one of the days where we needed to nail it, and we didnât,â Matthews said. âI donât know if there was a miscommunication with the lead-out train today, but we werenât where we said we wanted to be in the [pre-race team] meeting and it left me a long sprint to try and even get into the top 15 to even [get] into the points.â
The result comes as a blow to Matthews and his Sunweb team, who had been working towards dual ambitions of winning a stage and fighting for the points classification. While a stage win has eluded the 26-year-old Australian thus far, heâs posted some strong results â four top 10s in 10 stages, including second on stage 3, and third on stage 7.
Heâs also raced hard to contest the intermediate sprints â a clear signal of his intent to fight for green â most significantly on stage 9. On that day Matthews fought his way into the dayâs big breakaway, dragged himself over two big mountains, and then won the intermediate sprint. Itâs a strategy that Sagan has used to great effect in recent years and one Kittel admits heâs wary of when it comes to Matthews.
âHe survived two hors categorie climbs and won the sprint afterwards â there is nothing I can do against it,â Kittel said with a chuckle. âI think itâs not a surprise that he, for example, is that strong and can do it but for me I have to do my work now in the flat stages and get the points here and hope that itâs enough.â
Kittel isnât yet out of opportunities to extend his lead. Stage 11 and 21 will almost certainly end in a bunch kick, and stage 16 and stage 19 could be decided that way as well. Matthews, meanwhile, will be one of the riders to beat on stage 14, a stage which has a short uphill finish (570m at 9.6%) that should suit the Australian. He was second on a similar finish to stage 3, behind the now-departed Peter Sagan.
But after todayâs disappointing result, Matthews admits itâs time to consider whether his tilt at the points classification is over.
âI think thatâs something weâll have to discuss tonight, whether we keep going for it or give it a miss and stop going for the intermediates and just focus on stages,â he said. âI think if you want to go for that jersey you need to be up there every single day. Until now Iâve been pretty consistent but with this finish, itâs a bit disappointing.â
Kittel, meanwhile, is enjoying the sort of confidence that only comes after winning four stages of the Tour de France. Itâs the third time Kittel has achieved that feat (after 2013 and 2014), but this year is different.
âI think I can say Iâm the strongest Marcel at the moment,â he said. âIâve never felt better.
âI think Iâm in a very good condition and thatâs something that is for me also a big achievement, something that ⌠it gives me confidence to know that I did everything in a good way, that the planning worked out, that I came fresh into the race and thatâs also the difference to the year before, maybe.â
In his press conference after winning stage 2, Kittel was asked whether he thought he could win the green jersey at this yearâs Tour de France. He answered, somewhat prophetically, âThe only way you can win the jersey, I think, is by Peter Sagan getting sick or having to leave the race because of another reason.â
With Sagan gone, and Kittel clearly the strongest of the sprinters, itâs hard to see the German losing the green jersey from here. Then again, if thereâs one thing weâve been reminded of at this yearâs Tour de France, itâs that the unpredictable can and will happen, particularly when it comes to the big names.
Link: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/07/kittel-elated-matthews-deflated-battle-tours-green-jersey/\n_____________________
Commentary: When it comes to equipment, itâs time to bid adieu to âgentlemanâs rulesâ in stage racing
by James Huang
Road racing is a sport steeped in tradition, and nowhere is that more evident than at the Tour de France, with its plethora of rules â written and otherwise.
Cycling fans worldwide saw the unwritten variety being violated once again on the slopes of Mont du Chat in Stage 9, when Fabio Aru (Astana) attacked Chris Froome (Team Sky), just as the race leader had put his hand up to signal that he had a mechanical issue.
âI had a bit of a problem,â Froome said after the finish. âThe gears stopped working and I had to change bikes. Richie [Porte] was instrumental in slowing that group down. I think this is not the moment to attack the leader of the race, so I want to say thanks to Richie.â
Many were outraged at what they perceived as an unsportsmanlike move, but there were many others who saw no wrongdoing on Aruâs part. After all, the leaders were just starting the final climb of Mont du Chat, on what many regarded as the hardest stage of the Tour â and, as a result, one of the best opportunities for GC contenders to regain time on Froome.
Plus, there was the core issue at hand â the Tour de France is a race after all, and many viewers simply want to see the top riders go at it full-tilt rather than engaging in seemingly anachronistic games of etiquette.
In fairness to tradition, cycling is supposed to be a contest of rider vs. rider, and no one wants to see a top contenderâs chances evaporate due to a broken bicycle or an untimely crash. But there are no hard and fast guidelines as far as when these unwritten rules are applied, and thereâs a frustrating abundance of gray area.
As CyclingTips editor Neal Rogers put it, âWhen the race is on, all is fair game.â But who, if anyone, decides when the race is âon,â and why are those rules always skewed in the favor of whoever is currently leading in the general classification? Is that fair?
Whether those unwritten rules applied to Froome and Aru is a debate that isnât likely to be resolved soon, if ever. But it does pose the question of how exactly equipment selection, preparation, and operation should factor in competition.
I can think of no other sporting discipline that involves man (or woman) and machine where an equipment failure results in a wholesale pause in action.
A driver can spend years preparing for the 24 Hours of LeMans, for example, but the other teams donât just stop and wait if the leaderâs engine blows. Eli Tomac â the son of mountain biking legend John Tomac â arguably lost the Supercross championship last season due to a crash and a subsequent broken front brake. No one waited for him. Likewise for Formula 1, NASCAR, or any other form of motorsports.
Mind you, that sort of situation doesnât just apply to motorsports where the machine plays a bigger role in the final outcome â it applies to most forms of bicycle racing.
If the race leader in cyclocross or cross-country mountain bike race flats far from the pits, the rest of the competitors donât pull over while the stricken rider limps their broken machine home; certainly no one paid Peter Sagan that courtesy at the Olympics last year.
Similarly, a downhill racer with the fastest split times of the day doesnât get a re-do if they have a mechanical at the end of a winning run.
Even at Paris-Roubaix, the race-day favorite can be left on the side of the road waiting ages for a spare wheel but no one cries foul if a breakaway simply carries on. Sorry, folks, but thatâs just racing.
Stewards of the sport can pine all they want for a pure rider vs. rider contest where the bike has no influence on the outcome, but thereâs simply no way to wholly separate the two in modern racing.
Much as people like to surmise that the bike doesnât matter, basic physics dictates otherwise. All else being equal, a lighter bike will ascend faster than a heavier one; a more aerodynamic bike will go faster than a less aerodynamic bike; and tires that generate less rolling resistance will help a rider save more energy than ones that sap more power.
Yes, the UCI has rules governing bicycles and bicycle equipment, but itâs become the mission of teams, riders, and equipment sponsors to stretch those rules as far as possible in order to provide even the smallest of advantages. Parts get lighter, but perhaps less durable; bikes get stiffer, but often sketchier through bumpy corners; tires with lower rolling resistance roll faster, but at the expense of puncture resistance.
So when it comes to that equipment, where is the line drawn between chance and inadequate preparation or incorrect choices? Is it just bad luck when someone gets a puncture, or should that rider have been running a more durable tire? Is it bad luck when someoneâs drivetrain starts acting up, or was there a mistake further upstream in design, engineering, or installation?
I appreciate seeing how far the envelope of equipment technology can be pushed, but part of the strategy of every other sport that directly links an athlete and a piece of equipment is figuring out the fine balancing act between performance and durability â yet itâs only in stage racing where an equipment failure can be used as an excuse to call a temporary truce between competitors.
Trek has provided its riders in years past with either non-replaceable derailleur hangers or replaceable ones made of steel instead of aluminum â partially to improve shift performance, but also in the aims of preventing a small crash from disabling a bike completely. Likewise, several teams have long been rumored to inject a few milliliters of latex sealant in their tires, willingly adding a few grams of rotating weight in trade for the promise of seal-sealing punctures (Bora-Hansgrohe and Orange Seal even made their partnership official this year).
In both of those cases, there was a conscious decision made to prioritize durability over other performance metrics.
Toward the end of Stage 9, Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) found himself in a decidedly disadvantaged position. He narrowly avoided the crash that took out Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) on the tricky descent into town, but contact with Martinâs foot â and a subsequent quick fix by the Mavic neutral service mechanic â left Uran stuck in the 11-tooth cog.
With the stage finish in ChambĂŠry fast approaching, the race was most definitely âon,â and it was clear that no one else was going to sit around and wait for him while he got a replacement machine.
Uran easily could have accepted his bad luck, threw in the towel, and limped home, rightfully blaming his crippled machine for a less-than-ideal finish. But he didnât let an equipment failure dictate the result, nor did he request that the rest of the race pause to accommodate him. Instead, he merely gritted his teeth, made do with the hand he was dealt, and won the stage anyway â and the show was better off because of it.
Cycling fans deserve to be treated to a proper race, and itâs the responsibility of everyone involved with the race to ensure that the ridersâ equipment doesnât impact the performance of the racers â in a positive or negative way. Exceptions will always be made for extenuating circumstances, but the days of riders being sidelined for hours due to a broken bike are long over.
Race etiquette is of course subjective, and when it comes to the unwritten rules of stage racing, Iâll leave matters like crashes and potty breaks to others to debate. But as much as weâd like to pretend that equipment doesnât influence the outcome of a race, thereâs no escaping the fact that it plays a significant part. Perhaps itâs time that we stop pretending and just let the equipment pendulum swing in both directions.
Link: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/07/commentary-comes-equipment-time-bid-adieu-gentlemans-rules-stage-racing/
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