Tour de France 2014: Stage 16

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January 1 - July 27, Carcassonne, France, Road - WorldTour

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Welcome to stage 16 of the Tour de France from Carcassonne to Bagnères-de-Luchon

I hope you're feeling rested after the second rest day of the Tour de France, because today is going to be a long one. Five classified climbs and 237.5 kilometres lies ahead of the riders today. We're just over 10 minutes away from the start in Caracassonne.

It's pretty cool at the start this morning, the sky is grey and the wind has picked up. We could see a few echelons at the start.

John Degenkolb will be looking to stay safe and keep himself ready for the sprint stages later in the week, this is what he had to say at the start.

The news this morning is that world champion Rui Costa has had to abandon the race with pneumonia. Costa had already been suffering with bronchitis and was sitting 13th in the general classification. You can read it all here.

And the riders have rolled out for the neutral start, which is 6.7km long. All things going well, the flag should drop for racing to start at 11am local time.

The other DNS this morning is Simon Yates. The 21-year-old has had a fantastic debut in the Tour de France, but his team decided to play it safe and send him home for the final week.

We're not too far off the real start this morning. It is the longest stage of the whole Tour de France, at 237.5. We've also got the second HC climb, the Porte de Bales. This is what the riders will face today.

237km remaining from 237km

With the Porte de Bales thrown into the mix at the end of today, it will be a stage for the general classification riders. The long descent off the hors categorie climb will give some dropped riders a chance to chase back on. It could also give Vincenzo Nibali a chance to take his fourth stage win of the race. Let us know what your predictions are on twitter at @Cyclingnewsfeed or @SadhbhOS

Oh dear, we've hardly got started and Ben King has crashed. We hope he's ok, will bring you news as soon as we have it.

It appears that the downed rider was not Ben King but IAM Cycling's Reto Hellenstein.

229km remaining from 237km

After coming down in the first three kilometres, Hollenstein is back on his bike.

We mentioned that today would be one for the general classification. Behind Nibali, things are finely balanced in the battle for the remaining podium placings. Here is how things look this morning.

225km remaining from 237km

The peloton clearly didn't like that collectino of riders, which included QuickStep's Michal Kwiatkowski and the eight men have been re-absorbed into the bunch.

Another rider back in the peloton is Hollenstein, after his opening kilometre crash.

Today could be key to Thibault Pinot's GC ambitions. There is very little in the way of flat roads after the descent off the Porte de Bales and he could lose some time. While he's not struggling as much on the descents as he did last year, the Frenchman was dropped by Romain Bardet on Saturday's stage. Can he hold on today?

210km remaining from 237km

Jurgen Van Den Broeck may be in for a rough ride today. The Belgian says that he has been feeling a little under the weather recently and hasn't been able to go full bore. Van Den Broeck is currently sitting 14 seconds outside the top 10 in 11th place.

MTN-Qhubeka missed out on a spot in the Tour de France this year, but they will be riding the Vuelta a Espana next month. The South African team has announced that they will be riding Cérvelo bikes next season. You can read the full article here.

After taking the single point at the top of the first climb, Majka has moved himself into the virtual lead of the mountains competition. There are many more points available today, but it could prove to be a vital point. He told the official Tour website that he would fight for the polka dot jersey this week.

Majka and Rodriguez began the day on the same points, but it was the spaniard who is wearing the jersey today. Here is how things stood at the start of the day.

There has been plenty of attacks this morning and we've got another one forming. We've got five men out front, with two chasers.

200km remaining from 237km

This isn't the first time that we've seen Adam Hansen trying to get into today's break. Hansen has been doing a lot of work for André Greipel ealier in the race, but is known for his attacks. This is Hansen's ninth consecutive Grand Tour.

195km remaining from 237km

The five riders have been trying to make this break work for 15 kilometres but it looks like the peloton are going to try and shut this down. We've been racing for almost an hour now.

More riders have joined this breakaway party, Michal Kwitkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) and Bernard Eisel) are now with the five and their advantage has gone back up to 20 seconds.

We also have four chasers, who trail the leaders by 10 seconds. They are Vasil Kiriyenka (Sky), Jon Izagirre (Movistar), Jose Serpa (Lampre) and Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling)

The peloton seems happy with this collection of riders. The four chasers have caught on and we now have 12 leaders with a gap of 1:35. Here is the full 12 riders:

Hopefully Michael Alabsini's day will go better than the Orica GreenEdge driver. The GreenEdge bus shot to fame last year after it got stuck under the finishing gantry on stage one. Today, it has taken out a stop sign. How long before we see another spoof account? (Picture from twitter user @JStadium)

If you're just joining us for today's stage, you can tweet us with your thoughts on the race and your predictions for the stage on @Cyclingnewsfeed or @SadhbhOS and we will post some of them here.

I may have spoken too soon with the peloton being happy with these 12 riders. They have decided to pick up the pace and after going to 1:45, the gap has been brought down to 1:25.

It is Garmin-Sharp doing the work on the front. They missed out on the break and obviously watn to try and get a man up there. The pace has taken a couple of victims however, with Nieve, Chavanel and Greipel all being spat out the back.

Wow this drive by Garmin is really taking its toll. They've closed the gap to 50 seconds, but around 50 riders have been shelled out of the peloton. Peter Sagan and Joaquim Rodríguez, Richie Porte and Jurgen Van Den Broeck trail the peloton by 25 seconds.

Garmin are getting help from Belkin and Giant, butu the 12 escapees have managed to stem the tide for a moment and kept the gap at 48 seconds. The stragglers are now 30 seconds behind the main peloton.

Importantly for the mountains classification, Majka is still in the main peloton, unlike his rival Rodríguez. This will help him take hold of the polka dot jersey for at least one day.

It may have been a rest day for the riders yesterday, but it was a busy one for anit-doping . If reports are to believed, they visited all 22 teams in the race and had to bring in extra staff to facilitate this. Read this and more in our Tour shorts, here.

It's still all Garmin at the front. After stalling for a little while, the gap continues to come down. It now stands at 30 seconds. The question is, will they bring the leaders close enough to send someone to join them or will we have a compelte re-shuffle out front?

It looks like we're in for a total reshuffle of the leaders. All but Montaguti have been caught. He's now trying to go it alone.

163km remaining from 237km

Relief for Montaguti as he is joined by 14 other riders. They now have 28 seconds on the peloton. We'll bring you names when we can.

There are now six riders chasing the 15 men out front. A lot of riders want to get into the break today, it could be a chance for them to succeed and take a stage win.

The group of stragglers have finally made it back to the peloton and we have 21 men out front.

After all of that, Garmin managed to get one rider in the group, while much of the previous breakaway are still out front. Here are the 21 men up front:

153km remaining from 237km

Tony Gallopin is the only rider in the escape group to have won a stage of this year's Tour de France. He took an impressive solo victory on stage 11 to Oyonnax. The Frenchman also wore the yellow jersey for a day, much to the delight of the home crowds on Bastille day.

Michal Kwiatkowski is the best placed rider in the escape group. The Polish rider is currently sitting 16th, 19:24 behind Vincenzo Nibali. While he is no threat to the yellow jersey, if this break is successful, he can move himself much closer to the top 10.

The gap to these 21 men continues to grow. It is now 4:10 after 89km of racing. What do you think? Can they hold it until the finish? Let us know on twitter on @Cyclingnewsfeed or @SadhbhOS

Including Gallopin we have five Tour de France stage winners. The others are Thomas Voeckler, Michael Albasini (TTT), Jan Bakelants and Samuel Dumoulin. Vasil Kiriyenka, Bernard Eisel, Greg Van Avermaet and Michael Rogers all have stage victories in either the Vuelta or the Giro.

Reza has a mechanical problem in the front group and has to call for assistance. He is one of three Europcar riders in the break today.

Reza's teammate Thomas Voeckler is the most decorated rider in the escape group. The former French national champion has won four stages of the Tour de France, worn the yellow jersey for a total of 20 days and took home the mountains classification in 2012. His best finish was fourth at the 2011 edition of the race. His last victory came in Bagnères-de-Luchon where he finished 1:40 ahead of second places Chris Anker Sorensen.

If Voeckler can win in Bagnères-de-Luchon it will be the third time he's done it and the first rider to do so since Charly Gaul took his third victory in Grenoble in 1961. Two other riders have won three times in the same town, with François Faber winning in Lyon in 1907, '08 and '09, and Nicolas Frantz taking victories in Nice in 1926, '27 and '28. Thank you to Daniel Friebe for that little nugget of information.

As we near the intermediate sprint, the gap has gone up to 6:05 for the 21 leaders. With so many out front, there will be no points for the peloton behind. Not that this will worry Peter Sagan.

The riders have completed two climbs today, but there are three much trickier ones ahead, including the hors categorie Porte de Bales. The climb has made our list of 5 key climbs, you can see which other ascents have made our list here.

The descent off the Porte de Bales is a long one and could prove the making or breaking of Thibault Pinot. The Frenchman is currently sitting in 4th position, 16 seconds off his compatriot Romain Bardet. However, Pinot denies that the battle is with Bardet and says that he is more worried about Movistar's Alejandro Valverde. You can read what he had to say on the matter here.

The leaders have just passed the halfway point in this stage but there is still some 117 kilometres to the finish. The intermediate sprint comes up in 4 kilometres.

It has been pointed out to me, of course, the Mark Cavendish, has won in Paris on four occasions, the only rider to have done so. Cavendish is actually the only rider to have won in consectutive years on the Champs-Elysees, although that could change this year.

Kluge leads the escapees through the intermediate sprint and takes full points.

A full breakdown of the results at the intermediate sprint as the gap to the escapees baloons to 7:07.

Want to see what the pros are riding at this year's Tour, check out BMC's personalised bikes. Each rider has his nation's flag on the top tube. See the full gallery here.

A third of today's break are French. The home nation is enjoying a much better Tour de France than in recent years. Heading into the final week, they have four riders in the top 10: Bardet, Pinot, Péraud and Rolland. They've also had two stage wins from Kadri and Gallopin, who also wore the yellow jersey for the day.

97km remaining from 237km

Omega Pharma-QuickStep have two riders in the breakaway today. Their Tour de France plans changed when they lost their leader Mark Cavendish on day one. Since then, they've been on the hunt for stage victories. They've taken two with Matteo Trentin and Tony Martin. Cavendish paid a trip to see his teammates yesterday, as he continues to recover from his crash. Here is what he had to say.

Cavendishhas decided to stay on at the race and is following in the team car today. No doubt, he gave the team a rousing talk this morning.

Astana are all on the front of the peloton at the moment, with race leader Vincenzo Nibali sitting right at the end of the train. They don't seem too bothered about the men out front and the gap continues to grow. It's not at 9:09.

It was the descent of the Portet d'Aspet where where the Olympic champion Fabio Casartelli crashed in 1995. The Italian rider hit his head as he came off and died on the way to hospital. Three days later, his teammate Lance Armstrong won and dedicated the victory to his fallen comrade. There is a memorial to Casartelli on the climb.

84km remaining from 237km

The riders are about to hit the top of the Portet d'Aspet. Here is a quick reminder of who is in the group.

The man who almost won on Sunday, Jack Bauer is struggling off the back of the peloton. Unlike a lot of the peloton, Bauer won't be heading straight home after the Tour. He still has the Commonwealth Games to ride next week.

Coeckler gives a little kick at the top of the climb and takes the full points, followed by Rogers.

It looks like Rogers is wearing a skin suit today. Is he planning a solo break down the Porte de Bales? Cast your mind back to May, Rogers took his first Grand Tour victory at the Giro d'Italia when he struck out solo en route to Savona. The three-times world time trial champion was able to utilise his skills against the clock to hold off the chasing pack.

The results at the top of the Portet d'Aspet:

9km remaining from 237km

 The gap is now over 10 minutes, as the leaders swoop down the descent the peloton is still climbing.

Astana seem very content in letting this breakaway go well up the road. The gap is almost at 11 minutes now. Should everything go well today and Nibali stays in yellow it will be the 50th leader's jersey for the Italian and he'll be hoping to add another few before the finish in Paris. 

Sky has two riders in the lead group, with Kiriyenka and Eisel making it into the break today. Kiriyenka could also be a serious challenger on this stage and Sky will be very keen to make something of this Tour de France.

59km remaining from 237km

A punture for Jose Joaquin Rojas on the penultimate climb and the Spaniard is getting paced back by Imanol Erviti. The Movistar sprinter gets back to the peloton, but he's unlikely to stay there for too much longer.

A few different picks coming through on twitter. Michael Rogers seems the be the overwhelming favourite. Do you think it will be the Aussie or someone else? Keep your predictions coming through to @Cyclingnewsfeed and @SadhbhOS

51km remaining from 237km

Shots of Mark Cavendish sitting in the front of the Omega Pharma-QuickStep car. He is set next to Davide Bramati, who will be calling the shots for the two OPQS riders out front.

With the gap now grouwing to a huge 12:11, Kwiatkowski continues to move up the general classification. The Polish rider began the day in 19th, 19:24 behind the yellow jersey. He is now in virtual 7th place, just 7:13 behind Nibali.

One man who will be delighted with these 21 men staying out front is Rafal Majka. The TInkoff-Saxo rider began the day on the same points in the mountains classification as Joaquim Rodríguez, but took the points at the top of the first climb. Provided the peloton don't suddenly catch the leaders, he will start tomorrow in the polka dot jersey.

This final climb will be a tough one for Samuel Dumoulin, however, if he can come back on the descent then the Frenchman has the turn of speed to beat the others. It is a long-shot for the AG2R rider with so many strong riders in this group.

43km remaining from 237km

40km remaining from 237km

Kevin Reza now on the front, is he lining up Voeckler for an attack on the ascent?

36km remaining from 237km

Slagter safely back in the group as Eisel now drifts off the back. He's unlikely to feature again.

Voeckler sitting on the front of this lead group, bouncing around like he's riding a bouncy castle. The Frenchman eyes up Izagirre, who could be a huge threat on this climb.

Eisel makes it back to the group, he's now leading the 21 men up to the top.The gap is still 12:09 with 35km to go.

Roy attacks

Roy is the first rider to stretch his legs off the front. The FDJ rider won the overall most combative rider at the 2011 Tour de France, but he has never won a stage.

33km remaining from 237km

Sporza has given Jan Bakelants a little incentive for today, not that he needs it. The Dutch sports channel say that they'll give him a gin and tonic if he takes the victory today after he apeared on their late night show Vive le velo yesterday.

30km remaining from 237km

Slagter looks like he's the next victim of Kiriyenka's pace. Behind him the peloton are closing too and the gap has come down to 11:17.

It is still Astana at the front of the peloton, but BMC are moving up too. THey've got Greg Van Avermaet in the break but he won't be able to match guys like Kiriyenka, Voeckler, Rogers and Izagirre on this climb.

Sky is in need of a bit of luck at this year's Tour de France. Their team manager Dave Brailsford says that the 2014 edition has been a big learning experience for the British team.

Now Movistar has moved to the front in the form of Giovanni Visconti. They're not looking to catch the escapee, but ensure that they're in control of the other GC men in the peloton.

Slagter still within touching distance of the leaders, but he's been hanging off the back. Kwiatkowski is also struggling at the back. It doesn't mean that things are all over though, with such a long descent towards the finish.

27km remaining from 237km

Voeckler attacks

Voeckler is caught and Kiriyenka catchs and passes the group.

There are now seven riders in the group. They are: Serpa, Rogers, Van Avermaet, Kiriyenka, Voeckler and Gautier.

Voeckler goes again and he makes a good gap on the other leaders.

Voeckler's attack gets rid of Kiriyenka and Van Avermaet. We are down to five riders out front.

Now it is Gautier who attacks. Europcar is the only team with two riders in this front group.

25km remaining from 237km

Back in the peloton, Visconti's pace setting has destroyed the peloton and even Rodríguez has gone off the back. It's possible that Izagirre has dropped back to help his team leader. They are 10:17 behind the leaders.

Jurgen Van Den Broeck is off the back of the group of favourites which has around 20 riders in it.

24km remaining from 237km

It's now Intxausti on the front of the group of favourites. It looks like all of the top 10 riders in the GC are still in that group.

Gautier's attack looks like it's finished him off and he's slowly being dropped from the front group. It's coming down to a three-horse race, but we've still got the descent to come.

Serpa leads the trio up the Porte des Bales with less than a kilometre to go to the top.

23km remaining from 237km

Van Garderen has been dropped

Intxausti still powering up this climb and his efforts are really putting the hurt on the other riders. He's got Nibali in his wheel with Valverde just behind the Italian.

Intxausti pulls off and Gadret now taking it up. Valverde needs to make time on the men behind him, with Bardet posing a big threat to his second place.

Pinot attacks and Bardet is dropped

22km remaining from 237km

Kiriyenka is making his way back to Gautier, who is still trying to make it back onto the front group. We have no time checks yet.

Bardet has lost a good bit of ground on the Pinot group. Pinot started the day 16 seconds behind Bardet in the white jersey competition so he needs to make some time. However, Pinot is a nervous descender and may struggle to keep this small advantage.

20km remaining from 237km

19km remaining from 237km

Pinot has now caught up with Roy, who was in the leading group earlier on. Roy is a very good descender and will be a huge help to Pinot here.

Bardet looks like he's in a world of pain. He's still got a good old way to the top and will have a lot to make up on the descent.

Peter Stetina has dropped back to help his teammate Van Garderen. The American is around 2 minutes behind the Nibali group.

Up front, Voeckler is trying to put some distance between himself and the others on the descent but Rogers is wise to is and brings him back. They's got 15km still to run.

John Gadret has caught up to the yellow jersey group, giving Valverde a teammate if he needs him.

Pinot attacks again near the top of the climb, only Nibali and Peraud can go with him. Valverde can't keep up.

12km remaining from 237km

Pinot digs again and heads over the top of the Port de Bales with Nibali. Peraud has also been shelled.

Surprisingly Pinot has actually dropped Nibali on the descent.

As Nibali heads down the descent, he gets caught behind a car which looks like it could be a VIP car rather than a team car.

10km remaining from 237km

Dumoulin has dropped back and is now helping Bardet down the descent as the Frenchman tries to save is white jersey.

Pinot has been caught on the descent. He now has Nibali, Valverde, Peraud, Roy and Gadret with him.

6km remaining from 237km

Gautier has attacked  and has been caught by Rogers who flies right passed him.

3km remaining from 237km

2km remaining from 237km

1km remaining from 237km

Kiriyenka can see Rogers up the road but it looks like the Australian might be able to hold it as he goes under the flamme rouge.

700 metres to go for Rogers

Rogers keeps looking behind him but with 300 metres to go he knows that he has it.

Rogers starts celebrating with 200 to go and takes a bow as he crosses the line.

Voeckler takes second with Kiriyenka in third.

Rogers is in tears as he hugs his boss Oleg Tinkov. Until this year, Rogers had never won a Grand Tour stage, now he has added a Tour stage to the two Giro one's he took a couple of months ago.

As the remains of the break trickle over the line, we wait for the GC contenders to come to the finish.

Here is the top 5 for the stage

Valverde continues to try and shed his rivals but they keep catching him. The Movistar rider still has Gadret with him, who finished third in the 2011 Giro d'Italia.

The GC group has 2.7km to go and the hit the flat

While we wait for them to finish, here is the top 10 for today's stage

Valverde attacks again and Nibali goes with him.

Pinot catches him and FDJ now drive the pace. Seconds matter here and they're all going for it with 1km to go.

Leopold Konig has now caught up with the yellow jersey group. That's a great ride from him and that will move him up the GC.

Jeannesson leads the yellow jersey group across the line, 8:32 behind the winner Rogers. Now we wait for Bardet, how much time has he lost?

Ten Dam crosses the line, he's lost around a 1:10 on the yellow jersey.

Bardet in the finishing straight

Lead by Dumoulin, who's ridden a great ride down that descent, the Frenchman has lost about 1:50 on Pinot.

A bad day in the mountains for Rolland who finishes about 2:30 on Nibali. Mollema also loses a hatful of time. He finishes nearly 3 minutes down with Jurgen van Den Broeck and Frank Schleck.

Another big loser, probably the biggest, is Tejay van Garderen. He hits the line around 3:40 back ont he yellow jersey.

Today has really given the GC a big shake and we wait for the official results to see where all the cards have landed.

Rogers was very emotional at the finish and here is what he had to say afterwards.

That's the second stage win for Tinkoff-Saxo in the least few days. They've not done too badly since they lost Contador almost a week ago.

And here is the GC, it looks almost unrecognisable to the one we had this morning.

Pinot has moved into control of the white jersey competiton and onto the podium. He looks like he's got over his descending fear and could be set for a podium placing. What a great result that would be for the French.

Kwiatowski has moved himself back into the top 10 after going on the attack. It's going to be tough for him to hold it against some very strong riders behind him.

Double joy for Tinkoff-Saxo today as Rogers' teammate Majka takes control of the polka dot jersey too.

You can find full report, results and gallery right here and it will continue to be updated over the next few hours.

We've also got our reporters Daniel Benson, Barry Ryan and Ellis Bacon out at the race. They're going to try and grab all the key players at the finish, so hang around on Cyclingnews.com for all the reaction from today's stage.

Remember you can also find all of our Tour de France videos and more right here and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss one.

 Today was a big one for the GC, but tomorrow's stage to Sant-Lary will be even bigger and we could see things change yet again for the riders. Tomorrow's stage is 124km and takes in three first category climbs and finishes off with the HC Pla d'Adet. Make sure you tune into Cyclingnews tomorrow to follow all the action.

That's it from us today. See you tomorrow for stage 17. 

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