Stage 6 was to be the day the GC standings were blown apart. Alberto Contador danced up La Madone d’Utelle to take 3rd in the stage. An exceptional day for Alberto who, with strong support from his Tinkoff teammates, sees the race move into its final day second in the GC standings – with everything still to race for.
The Race to the Sun took on the mountains for the second day, with a 177km stage taking in seven categorised climbs – two of which were first category. It was a day where the climbers hoped to finally make their mark on the GC standings, with an uphill finish on the first category La Madone d’Utelle.
From the outset came the attacks, with a break leading for much of the first 100km of the route. As the race approached the final climb, Tinkoff riders took control of the pace and pushed to get their team leader in position. As the race leader, Michael Matthews, was dropped in Cote de Duranus, the peloton knew a shake up of the GC was coming.
At the 145km marker, Trofimov, Poljanski and Majka each took points at the top of the Cote de Levens, and minutes later, Contador surged to the front to take 2 points in the intermediate sprint in Levens. Tinkoff’s intentions were clear. With 10km to go, Majka and Contador went, and while a small group of fifteen held on, the gaps grew. It was on the Madone d’Utelle that the decisive move was to come in the GC contest. After an incredible effort by Majka, Contador went solo, taking two riders with him, 5km from the finish. Crossing the line a second after the stage winner, Ilnur Zakarin, Alberto could only wait and see how long the other GC contenders would take to cross the line.
Alberto knew the stage would be tough, and had hoped to put more time into his rivals. “We tried to make this stage as hard as possible since the start. We didn’t want to give even one minute of rest, so that our adversaries reached the last climb as tired as possible. I was feeling well but the climb wasn’t as tough as I would have liked. There was a bigger split than I expected but I knew it would be very difficult to make a big difference. I’m very happy with my form but not with the result. I would have, obviously, liked to be further ahead but we have another day ahead and we’ll see what we can do.”
Sport Director, Steven De Jongh, described today’s race. “Today was a really hard stage. The team was strong and they did well to make it really tough. There were still a lot of guys in front of Alberto on GC so we had to work hard to get rid of them, and this worked, and then Alberto did a strong ride on the climb. He just couldn’t get rid of Thomas at the end but all is still to play for tomorrow.”
The support of the Tinkoff riders for their team leader was exceptional. De Jongh continued. “We started working with Michael Valgren, then Matteo Tosatto then Robert Kiserlovski and the other guys – everyone did their share of the work, and the overall team performance was great.”
Ahead of the final stage, Alberto knew the challenges it would present. “It will be difficult. Sky has a strong squad and it will be complicated to upend the GC. We can’t rule out anything, of course, but with the summit finish that cancelled on stage 3, I knew my possibilities were restricted. Geraint Thomas is strong and it will hard to take his spot.”
The race’s final stage will see the winner crowned. Starting and finishing in Nice, the 134km route returns once more to the mountains with six categorised climbs, becoming progressively tougher as the day goes on, before a final descent into Nice. De Jongh was clear the race was far from over. “Second place overall is a good position heading into tomorrow which will still be a hard stage and we’re going to be going for it again so we will see what happens. It’s not over yet.”
Stage Result
1. Ilnur Zakarin (RUS) Team Katusha 04:45:11
2. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Team Sky +00:00:00
3. Alberto Contador (SPA) Tinkoff +00:00:01
4. Richie Porte (AUS) BMC +00:00:07
5. Sergio Henau (COL) Team Sky +00:00:10
30. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:06:03
44. Pawel Poljanski (POL) Tinkoff +00:12:04
50. Yuri Trofimov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:14:25
79. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO) Tinkoff +00:20:49
107. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff +00:25:35
117. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:35:58
