13 July, 2016, Montpellier (FRA)
Strong crosswinds and a blistering pace made for a stressful day of racing on stage 11 of the Tour de France, which saw Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen cross the line in the significantly-reduced peloton six seconds behind stage winner Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).
What was originally predicted to be a day for the sprinters turned into a day of crashes and echelons, after which Porte and van Garderen credited their teammates for protecting them throughout the stage.
BMC Racing Team’s riders spent the day at the front of the peloton to control the race in the ever-changing conditions and stay out of trouble.
A late attack from Sagan, teammate Maciej Bodnar, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas (Team SKY), in the last 15 kilometers saw the group successfully hold the peloton off.
Riders crossed the finish line in multiple groups which sees van Garderen move into ninth place in the General Classification.
BMC Racing Team continues to lead the Team Classification, 6’34” in front of Movistar Team.
Quotes of the Day
Richie Porte:
“It wasn’t just in the final, but the whole day [that the team looked after us]. It was so stressful and from kilometer 0 it was just shoulder to shoulder all day. The legs aren’t too bad. Obviously when Chris Froome and the other guys skipped off it was just carnage. But I felt good, comfortable, and I’m just really looking forward to the mountains again. I guess Team SKY are taking time wherever they can get it but tomorrow’s a different day and they may have to pay for their effort that they did there too.”
Tejay van Garderen:
“To be honest I don’t even really know what happened. The wind makes it crazy and stressful and I’m just glad to survive. It was an impressive ride by Chris Froome. But you don’t look back, you just look forward. I got tangled up a bit in one of the crashes but I didn’t go down thankfully. I had to chase back but Marcus Burghardt waited for me and I got back with no real issues. With 40 kilometer an hour winds we knew it was going to be a crazy day and I’m just glad to make it through.”
Michael Schär:
“These days with the wind are really the worst of the whole Tour de France. The first week you expect it to be nervous but then between the Pyrenees and the Alpes you think you have a sprinters’ stage but it’s anything else than that. We stayed up there and it was good. I didn’t stop once all day, we were up there fighting for position the whole time and at the end it was ok.”
Race Profile
Tour de France
Stage 11 Carcassonne > Montpellier (162.5k)
Top 3: Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Chris Froome (Team SKY), Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff)
BMC Racing Team Top 3: 21. Greg Van Avermaet, 24. Tejay van Garderen, 27. Richie Porte
BMC Racing Team Top 3 on GC: 9. Tejay van Garderen, 14. Richie Porte, 20. Damiano Caruso
