16 July, 2016, Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux(FRA)
It was another slow day in the saddle ending in a bunch sprint on stage 14 of the Tour de France which saw Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen safely delivered to the line by their teammates.
Strong winds made an already long stage even longer, with the peloton letting a four-man breakaway stay away until just three kilometers to go.
The sprinters’ teams worked hard to pull the breakaway back, as did BMC Racing Team’s riders at the front of the bunch to keep Porte and van Garderen out of trouble in the hectic finale.
Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) won the bunch sprint, edging out Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).
Tejay van Garderen remains in sixth place on the General Classification, and Richie Porte in eighth place, behind current leader Chris Froome (Team SKY). BMC Racing Team continues to lead the Team Classification, 2’30” ahead of Movistar Team.
Quotes from the Finish Line
Richie Porte:
“There were cross winds, head winds, the wind was just swirling everywhere. After such a hard time trial yesterday it was just a niggly sort of stage, tricky roads and quite a tricky final. It’s a nice one to get done to be honest. Michael Schär and Marcus Burghardt today in the last 20 kilometers pretty much dragged the whole peloton, and Rohan Dennis as well. It’s nice to get back into the mountains tomorrow and we’ll just see what happens. It’s a very hard stage so we’ll see how everyone is after today.”
Tejay van Garderen:
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it was the hardest stage of the race but there’s never an easy day at the Tour de France. It was hot with lots of head wind. I wouldn’t say it was the most nervous stage but it was long. I’m just glad to get through it. The team has been stellar the whole race. We definitely owe a lot to them and hopefully we can repay them with tomorrow and get through the third week.”
Amaël Moinard:
“There is no easy stage in the Tour de France. It is really hard for the positioning, getting Richie and Tejay in a good place at the finish. To be safe and in position is always a hard job. Tomorrow is also a really hard stage so we have two big stages ahead of us before the rest day.”
Race Profile
Tour de France
Stage 14 Montélimar ‘ Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux (208.5km)
Top 3: Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data), Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).
BMC Racing Team Top 3: 24. Michael Schär, 43. Richie Porte, 64. Amaël Moinard
BMC Racing Team Top 3 on GC: 6. Tejay van Garderen, 8. Richie Porte, 19. Damiano Caruso
