cycling: Tour de France Stage #19: Bardet wins Fall Festival

Cycling: There were numerous falls on the 19th stage of the Tour de France today. In the heavy rain, the road became more and more slippery and pure chaos broke out before the final climb. Chris Froome (Sky) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafedo) also got it. In the end, Froome easily defended his lead, but Mollema lost more than four minutes. Meanwhile, Romain Bardet (Ag2r) took care of the first French day win at this year's Tour de France. He was also able to move up to second overall while Mollema dropped from second to tenth.

Rafal Majka wins the mountain jersey again

The 19th stage of the Tour de France took riders 146 km from Albertville to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc. In the first half of the race, there was a hill in each of the first and second category to be conquered, but it was to be really exciting in the second half. The Montée de Bisanne, a mountain of the highest category, was the first to be tackled there, before the final ascent of the first category was to go up to Le Bettex. As expected, a very large leading group formed, comprising around 20 men. Rafal Majka from Team Tinkoff, who collected enough mountain points today so that the jersey with the dots can no longer be taken from him, was there once again. Also pleasing from a German point of view: Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18), Marcus Burghardt (BMC) and Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) were in the escape group. Actually, the chances of success should have been good based on the profile, but Team Astana had something against it. The race should be made as difficult as possible for Fabio Aru. Accordingly, the escapees were recovered relatively early and it was clear that today's winner of the day will come from the group of favorites.

Rain, many falls & the slump of Bauke Mollema

Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, there were numerous falls today. It also caught Chris Froome (Sky), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). However, all three were able to continue. In contrast to Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) and two-time stage winner Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), who both had to retire. The last 20 km got extremely hectic. The field of favorites broke up before the final climb due to the aforementioned falls and numerous riders such as Bauke Mollema, Chris Froome and Richie Porte first had to catch up. At that moment, Astana slowed down a bit and Romain Bardet (Ag2r) attacked in the pouring rain. Only Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) was ahead, but he didn't stand a chance against the Frenchman, who secured the first and long-awaited French victory of the year. Behind him there were several attacks to which Chris Froome only reacted half-heartedly. He was badly marked by the fall and was bleeding from his back and shoulder. Richie Porte tried several times, but ended up having to tear it off. Bauke Mollema fared even worse, because the Dutchman did not return to the field of favorites after his fall. He lost his second place today and all chances for the podium.

Tour de France Stage #19 – The day's result

Tour de France Stage #19 – The General Classification