2018 Tour de France Stage 16 Results & Recap
Stage 16 of the 2018 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
Alaphilippe makes it two\nBy Clara Beard
Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) stormed to victory today on the first mountain stage of the Pyreenees, his second win of the Tour de France. The Frenchman padded his lead in the King of the Mountains standings after finishing in Bagnères-de-Luchon while Geraint Thomas finished with the GC favorites almost nine minutes back.
“I feel an enormous joy,” Alaphilippe said. “It leaves me speechless. It’s been a hard day of suffering. It took a lot of time for the breakaway to go. Eventually it was a big group at the front. Honestly, everyone was at the limit. Today I felt all the effort I produced since the beginning. I wasn’t at 100% but luckily I wasn’t the only one who was tired, otherwise I wouldn’t have won. I came here for a training camp so I knew the finale with the tricky downhill. Adam Yates crashed. I feel sorry for him. I waited a bit to see if he was OK. I also took some risks and it paid off. I’m super happy to win. It was my goal to win a stage and now I’ve got two.”
Thomas leads the overall competition by 1:39 ahead of his teammate, Chris Froome. Tom Dumoulin is a further 1:50 with the hardest day of the Tour de France coming up tomorrow.
“It wasn’t easy but it was a good day,” Thomas said after the stage. “Fuglsang and Zakarin had a go, we brought them back pretty well. Landa tried also but the descent was good. There were quite tricky descents today. Luckily the weather was good. Many riders were thinking about tomorrow. It’s going to be very tough. At least I’ll have a good starting position on the grit. I must not get too carried away in the first climb. I must not go too deep too early. That final climb is arguably the hardest of the Tour. It’s 16-km long. It’s steep all the way. Hopefully I won’t be at threshold too much. It’s going to be interesting. Every day in yellow has been a bonus and tomorrow is a decisive day. I’m looking forward to getting it done.”
It was a dramatic day out of Carcassonne. The first part of the race was made up of attacks, none of which were successful. A farmer protest neutralized the race for about 20 minutes, pepper spray from the police drifting into the eyes of riders.
After 100 kilometres, a break of 47 made it up the road: Simon Clarke (EF Education First), Silvan Dillier, Matthias Fränk and Pierre Latour (AG2R-La Mondiale), Simon Geschke, Soren Kragh and Edward Theuns (Team Sunweb), Warren Barguil, Maxime Bouet, Romain Hardy, Amäel Moinard and Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo-Samsic), Gorka Izagirre, Ion Izagirre and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida), Adam Yates and Matthew Hayman (Mitchelton-Scott), Andrey Amador, Daniele Bennati and Marc Soler (Movistar Team), Damiano Caruso, Greg van Avermaet and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates), Julian Alaphilippe and Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors), Marcus Burghardt and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Magnus Cort and Michael Valgren (Astana), Edvald Boasson Hagen, Tom-Jelte Slagter and Julien Vermote (Team Dimension Data), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Soudal), Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie), Bauke Mollema, Julien Bernand, Koek de Kort and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Christophe Laporte, Nicolas Edet and Dani Navarro (Cofidis), Marco Minaard and Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
Philippe Gilbert as the first to attack on the Portet d’Aspet, but had a frightening crash on the descent. He appeared to be okay, however and rode the rest of the race with the peloton.
The final climb was the decider and with three kilometres to go, Adam Yates attacked for the stage win. Alaphilippe set off in pursuit, and passed the Michelton Scott rider after he crashed on the descent off col du Portillon. Despite quickly getting on his bike, he couldn’t catch Alaphilippe who claimed his Quick Step Floors team fourth win of the Tour de France.
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