Tour de France: Cummings soars to victory in Mende

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Steven Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) made history on stage 14 of the Tour de France picking up his team’s first ever stage in the Tour de France on Mandela Day.

The British rider was part of an early break which survived the clutches of the peloton all the way to the finish in Mende.

Cummings suffered on the early slopes of the final climb of the Côte de la Croix Neuve as Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) moved clear of the main escape but he fought back and by the summit had almost made contact. Hesitation from the French pair gifted Cummings the opportunity he needed and as the road levelled and then descended to the line, he forged clear.

The gap he created was no more than a few meters but it was enough, despite a frantic chase from the French pair, to seal the win with Pinot second and Bardet third.

"I wasn't the strongest, I knew there were better climbers. I knew it would be really difficult to win," Cummings said. "I was always waiting in the last 10km for an opportunity, but it was clear that FDJ were going to try and control it for Pinot, so I took advantage of that and waited and waited.

"It's the Tour de France, and there were a lot of guys, everyone goes bananas at the bottom of the climb. I kept my calm and just time trialed up it. In the downhill bit at the end, I could manage to have a little carrot and chase them back. I saw Pinot was behind me, and he's cautious in the corners so I threw caution to the wind. I got a little gap, and I'm pretty confident with those climbers that a gap on the flat or downhill it's difficult to catch me."

Van Garderen slips to third

In the battle for the maillot jaune Chris Froome (Team Sky) move a step closer to overall victory with a dogged display on the final ascent. Despite being isolated and facing several attacks from his principal rival Nairo Quintana (Movistar) the Team Sky leader held on, slowing but surely dragging the Colombian back after each of his attacks. The rest of the GC contenders all fell by the wayside with Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) all conceding time.

Froome and Quintana crested the Côte de la Croix in tandem but the British rider had enough in the tank to outsprint Quintana and add another second to his overall advantage. Froome leads the race with Quintana at 3:10. Van Garderen, who started the stage in second, dropped a place and is now 3:32 in arrears. Alejandro Valverde remains in fourth at 4:02 while Alberto Contador moved up a place overall into fifth over Geraint Thomas (Sky), but is now 4:23 down on Froome.

While the overall contenders duked it out on the climb the race belonged to Cummings who took the biggest win of his career and first Tour stage win. The British rider has ridden for a string of WorldTour teams in his long career but his move to the Pro Continental ranks has paid off at MTN-Qhubeka who were wearing specially dectorated helmets in order to honour Mandela Day.

For an African team riding their first ever Tour de France, their maiden win could not have come on better day. Not only did the victory honour the South African leader, but provided a soothing balm for the race after a week where its leader has been dogged by leaked data and doping questions. Today’s result was a reminder of how sport can deliver moments of joy and surprise.

How it unfolded

An early crash in the first five kilometres was hardly the start the peloton were hoping for when they rolled out of Rodez and towards Mende. On the menu were a number of categorized climbs with the final ascent to of the Côte de la Croix Neuve where Laurent Jalabert had threatened to end Miguel Indurain’s Tour reign in 1995

This time around there were no early heroics from the GC contenders, such has been the ferocity of the racing so far, but Peter Sagan was presented and accounted for when the day’s escape moved clear.

Like Jalabert in 1995, Sagan was in the Green Jersey and he was joined by Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), Damiano Caruso (BMC), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) and Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon 18). Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Bob Jungels (Trek) bridged across, and soon many more came as well, bringing the breakaway to 24 riders.

Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep), Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) and Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) attacked the breakaway, and Sagan, Jungels and Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) made it across, but then Talansky punctured and was out, leaving seven up front.

Cummings was in a chasing group together with Jan Bakelants (AG2R), Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar), Michal Golas (Etixx-Quickstep) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar), with a number of riders still chasing behind.

There was a distinct lack of cohesion after the move formed but parity was finally reached with Sagan eventually picking up his daily quota of points at the intermediate sprint, and then 20 riders came together after the sprint.

FDJ had the most riders in the breakaway, with Thibaut Pinot, Matthieu Ladagnous and Jérémy Roy, and the rest being Cummings, Sagan, Castroviejo, Gautier, Plaza, Jungels, Pantano, Bakelants, Uran and Golas, Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Greg van Avermaet (BMC), Koen de Kort (Giant-Alpecin), Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), and Kristjian Koren (Cannondale-Garmin).

With 74 km to go and the gap was at 7:14 as the race meandered alongside the river Tarn with Ian Stannard applying the pressure on the front of the peloton on behalf of Team Sky. The British athlete singlehandedly reduced the lead to 6’04 within 20 kilometres.

On the slopes of the Côte de Sauveterre and with the gap 6:17 Pinot put his two teammates to work. Stannard’s tour of duty was now over with Richie Porte’s only just beginning. By the time the peloton crested the climb the gap measured at 5:23 with the break certain to decide the stage win.

On the descent FDJ and then Golas, on behalf of Uran, attempted to soften up the escape. The Polish rider’s attack was full of pep and verve, quickly establishing a 25 second advantage over the rest of the escape.

Koren was the next rider to solo clear with 15km to go and the Cannondale rider quickly bridged up to the Etixx rider on the penultimate ascent.

The pair’s advantage held until the lower slopes of the drag towards Mende but Bardet’s spirited acceleration brought the leaders back and quickly put a number of the break on the back foot.

The AG2R leader was reeled in by Simon Yates and a select group but Bardet’s second attack snapped the elastic. At this point Cummings was one of the riders slipping backwards, but his measured approach to the climb paid off and even when Bardet was joined by Pinot the MTN man was closing.

Further back the GC contenders began their ascent. Froome was quickly isolated and Nairo Quintana looked to take advantage. He zipped clear with Vincenzo Nibali the first to give chase.

One by one the top ten contenders began to fall back before Froome was left with only Contador and Valverde in his proximity. With Nibali cracking and losing ground and van Garderen unable to make the accelerations Froome dialled in on Quintana.

Contador soon faded with Quintana and Froome soon forming a dangerous pair. However the Columbian was in no mood to work with the race leader but despite another attack Froome had enough in reserves to defend his position.

Full Results