Tour de France 2017: Stage 14

Tour de France 2017: Stage 14

by Katie Haskins

Stage type: Road Race – hilly with uphill sprint

Length: 181.5 km/112.8 miles

Route: Blagnac to Rodez

The day started with a five rider breakaway at the start of the race. There were two Category 3 climbs in the stage but the terrain was rolling with a steady increase in elevation. On the 2^nd climb of the day, the breakaway dropped two of the riders, Thomas De Gent and Thomas Voeckler, and by the top, there were only two with a gap of about 1:30 ahead of the peloton. De Gent then attacks and is on his own before finally being caught at 12.6 km/7.8 miles to the finish.

At about 11.5 km/7 miles, four rider attack from the front of the peloton, including a teammate of one of the favorites to win the race. His job is to make sure the breakaway does not succeed. This breakaway gets caught with 3 km/1.8 miles to go. At this point Fabio Aru, the current leader, is at the back of the small peloton. The last few kilometers of the race has lots of corners and the last 500 meters is a 10% uphill drag. The riders are going hard, and three men manage to break from the front with Michael Matthews winning easily in 4:21:56. There are gaps on today’s stage and the yellow jersey passes back to Chris Froome.

There are minor shakeups in the leader board.