Tour de France 2015: Stage 16

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January 1 - July 26, Bourg-de-Péage, France, Road - WorldTour

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Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the 102nd Tour de France. Stage 16 sees the riders travel 201km from Bourg-de-Péage to Gap with racing getting underway at 12:25 local time.

 

So, after leaving the Pyrenees on Friday, today we arrive at the foothills of the Alps. Stage 16 takes us from the Rhône Valley to Gap in what is the fourth and final transition stage of this year's Tour. The riders will be rolling out at 12:25 local time and racing proper will commence at kilometre zero about quarter of an hour later. 

It's a steadily rising uphill drag today but it's not entirely straight forward - there is scope for a shake-up on the Col de Manse. Going up the category 2 climb won't be too much of a challenge but the descent into Gap will be fast and furious. It's where Andy Schleck pretty much lost the 2011 Tour and where Alberto Contador crashed trying to put time into Chris Froome in 2013. It looks like it will be dry today but it's technical in parts and, with nerves high, some may be caught out. 

News has come in this morning that Greg Van Avermaet has withdrawn from the Tour to return home to his wife, who is about to give birth. The Belgian won stage 13 in Rodez and his BMC teammate Tejay van Garderen is currently third overall. 

As we await the start of stage 16, have a listen to the latest instalment of the Cyclingnews Tour de France podcast, sponsored by British Eurosport.

The riders are on their way and are currently rolling through the neutral zone

A reminder of the general classification shapes up after stage 15.

A reminder of how the general classification is shaping up after stage 15.

Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodriguez, and Chris Froome side by side as the riders pedal towards kilometre zero.

We have an intermediate sprint on the menu today after 86.5 kilometres. Will we see the bunch trying to keep things together until then? Here are how things are looking in the race for the green jersey:

And we're off! The flag has been dropped and the start has been given for stage 16.

We've got some early moves here and one attacker is Peter Sagan, looking to get himself in the break for a third day in a row. 

A large group of 29 riders, including Sagan, has formed ahead of the peloton with a lead of 25 seconds. We'll bring you the identities of those riders shortly. 

Tony Gallopin is one of the riders out front. He's ninth on GC at 8:24 minutes back, so the peloton may be reluctant to let this group off the leash. 

The escape group has split and there are now 12 riders out front. They are:

Behind the lead group there is a group of 16

That second group had about half a minute on the bunch, but Gallopin's presence can't have been welcome in the breaks this morning. The Frenchman is dropping back to the peloton. 

Jan Barta has also dropped back and the second group now contains 12 riders. 

One of the riders in the lead group has history with Gap. Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo won a Tour stage there in 2006.

166km remaining from 201km

The leading group has over six minutes now on the bunch and this is clearly the move of the day. The gap to the second group on the road, though, is falling under a minute and we may see them join forces soon. 

Things are starting to settle down in today's stage, but the polemic surrounding race leader Chris Froome is showing no sign of following suit. He's not happy about Laurent Jalabert's comments, and subsequent denial of them. Read the latest right here: 

British champion Peter Kennaugh has just abandoned the Tour de France. That's one less teammate now for Froome. 

Barta sits up and waits for the bunch. Two groups of 12 and a peloton now. 

Cyclingnews spoke to UCI President Brian Cookson at the stage start today in Bourg de Péage. He called for responsible behaviour over the controversies that have hit the race so far. Read the full story using the link below:

There's not a great deal of change in the situation. The leading group of 12 still has six minutes on the peloton, with the chasing group still 45 seconds or so behind. 

Greg Van Avermaet hoping to get back in time for the birth of his child

123km remaining from 201km

The leaders are a few kilometres away from the intermediate sprint at Die. It's a slightly uphill drag which suits Sagan, but he's obviously the red-hot favourite anyway to take maximum points. 

Sagan does indeed take maximum points and does so unopposed. He extends his lead in the green jersey standings by 20 points and is now 64 ahead of André Greipel. 

The peloton now roll through Die, five minutes 21 in arrears. The riders will now be back with a tailwind as the road turns south once more. 

Sagan strolling through the intermediate sprint in pole position.

Lots of issues and racing to dissect at the Tour de France at the moment. Why not head over to the Cyclingnews stage 16 forum to have your say?

It's yet another hot day out there. It's 30 degrees Celsius currently and riders, if not dousing themselves with the contents of their bidons, are sticking their hands up in the air in request of fresh ones. 

The peloton are well and truly cruising and the gap goes out to eight minutes. The breakaway riders will battle it out for stage honours today, it seems. Will we see the two groups of 12 link up? The gap is still just shy of a minute.

A shade under 100km to and the bunch are rolling along at comfortable pace. Contador is being brought back to the front after dropping back to the cars.

Quintana already near the front and at the back of the long Movistar train. Today may be a day for the white jersey to test Froome on the final climb and the descent into Gap.

But it's Team Sky who set the pace at this point as Mollema drops back to the Trek team car, the Dutch rider in 10th place on GC.

 Susan stepping in here for a short time. Will those first two groups come together? Will they stay away until the end, or will the peloton catch them again? Nothing but questions today....

The gap back to the peloton has now jumped to 9:21.

Sky is at the head of the field, leading the chase -- if you can call it a chase....

It is another very hot day today, so we can certainly understand why the field is willing to take it easy.

Slightly more than the first half of this stage has  been a slight but steady uphill. Soon however, they will start climbing the first ranked mountain of the day, the cat. 2 Col de Cabre, which peaks at km 130.

The two lead groups have now come together, giving us a huge group of 23, with a lead of more than 10 minutes. 

And here, courtesy of Letour, a list of the 23 leaders: Grivko (Astana), Riblon (AG2R), Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo), De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Geschke (Giant Alplecin), Haller (Katusha), Irizar and Jungels (Trek), Oliveira and Plaza Molina (Lampre), Navarro (Cofidis), Erviti (Movistar), Hansen (Lotto Soudal), Golas and Trentin (Etixx), Voeckler (Europcar), Mate (Cofidis), Pantano (Cannondale Garmin), Fedrigo and Perichon (Bretagne Séché), Boasson Hagen, Pauwels and Teklehaimanot (MTN).

More beautiful scenery, as always, and fascinating ruins. 

The peloton is now back at 10:31. Laurent Didier is dangling between the two groups, roughly halfway.

Lots of riders now have their jerseys fully unzipped and flapping around, hoping to catch as much breeze as possible. 

An AG2R rider has what looks like a bag of ice on top of his helmet. 

The gap just keeps climbing, now over 11 minutes.  Sagan is taking a turn at the front, but he is starting to look a little wilted.

Five km to the summit for the lead group!

Ryder Hesjedal does some fancy stretching exercises at the back of the field.

Rafal Majka is currently holding onto the medical car receiving treatment on his knee. He was off his bike at the back of the bunch, not looking too happy after bit of a tangle with a LottoNL-Jumbo rider. 

The breakaway riders take bottles and gels from team soigneurs as they crest the Col de Cabre. Serge Pauwels leads them onto the descent. 

Peter Sagan is in no mood to hang around. He immediately comes to the front on the descent and turns up the heat. 

Things come back together at the front and Matteo Trentin has words with Sagan. Something along the lines of "chill out" I imagine. 

A brief statement of intent from Sagan? There can't be many stronger descenders than him in this group, and the drop from the Col de Manse to the finish is where the stage will be won and lost. 

The road levels out again and Sagan continues to shake things up, going off the front again. Grivko joins him but the Slovak is ostensibly sizing up his breakaway companions. 

Team Sky lead the peloton over the top of the climb, 13:20 behind, and things begin to string out on the descent. 

The Col de Manse is famous for what it did to Joseba Beloki. The Basque rider was in the form of his life and sitting second to Lance Armstrong on GC in the 2003 Tour, but then crashed on the descent of the Col on stage 9. His wheels slid on the melting tarmac and he broke his femur, which ended his 2003 season. He has never been the same since and retired after a few years of trying to get his career back on track. 

Adam Hansen attacks off the front of the break. He clearly feels he can't leave it too late in the company of Sagan. 

Not long beforehand, Sagan had shut down small digs from Boasson-Hagen, Oliveira and Haller. Hansen, though, has opened up a gap and has a lead of half a minute already.

Marco Haller attacks from the break now, setting off in pursuit of Hansen.

Haller has caught Hansen but their lead is slightly less than 30 seconds. It's difficult to see them staying away. 

Hansen and Haller are stretching out their lead to nearly a minute. They'll soon be heading downhill towards gap, before looping round to take on the Col de Manse. They are going to need a bigger cushion to stay away on the climb. 

A few riders punctured on the descent of the Col de Cabre. MTN-Qhubeka Martijn Van Schaijk has just tweeted this image, suggesting that tacks were thrown on the road. 

There are troubling times for the Cult Energy team, who are set to fold in September unless they can find sponsorship. 

20km remaining from 201km

Sagan leads the chasers on the early slopes of the climb, but then Geschke goes off the front. 

Geschke has dragged Sagan, Riblon, Teklehaimanot and Plaza Molina with him and they're closing down on the leading duo now. 

Plaza attacks! The Spaniard opens up a gap immediately and this group has well and truly broken up. Behind him is a chasing quartet of Sagan, Geschke, Riblon, and Teklehaimanot. 

Voeckler leads the dropped riders back to the primary chasing quartet and on that note Riblon puts in a brief attack. 

14km remaining from 201km

14km remaining from 201km

Plaza has almost a minute here. This is dangerous. Are the others all just riding against Sagan? 

Team Sky lead the peloton onto the climb behind. 

There are a few small digs here in the chasing pack but they're all refusing to drag Sagan. It's uncoordinated and that will only play into the hands of Plaza, who has crested the Col de Manse and is descending with a gap of just over a minute. 

8km remaining from 201km

Pantano has bridged across to Sagan, who is going all out and misjudges a right hand bend. A couple more seconds go begging. How's Plaza's descending?

5km remaining from 201km

Sagan is a nutter. An absolute nutter. It's brilliant to watch though! 35 seconds. 

2km remaining from 201km

1km remaining from 201km

Plaza is on the home straight and clenches his fist - he knows he's won it. 

Plaza crosses the line, victorious on stage 16

Sagan beats his heart and shakes his head as he crosses the line in second place. Pontoon comes home third. 

Sagan beats his heart and shakes his head as he crosses the line in second place. Pantano comes home third. 

The remaining breakaway riders come across the line but attention now turns to the peloton and the general classification contenders. They're still climbing and we're set to see more drama on the descent of the Col de Manse. 

Warren Barguil attacks, but is chased down by Contador, then Nibali goes clear. The Italian has opened a gap here and is a strong descender. 

Nibali crests the climb with 15 seconds advantage. Sky are on the front but they're not that worried. 

Valverde attacks but fails to get away. Froome now down to one man on the front. 

This select yellow jersey group contains Froome, Contador, Quintana, van Garderen, Barguil, Bardet. 

Crash! Thomas has smashed his head into a telegraph pole on the verge. Barguil misjudged a bend and shouldered into Thomas, who could do nothing to avoid the collision. That looked nasty. 

Nibali has 16 seconds on the chasing group here with 5km to go. 

Thomas is out of the running. Let's just hope he's ok. 

Gallopin is not in this select group. He's three minutes behind. 

There's always something on this descent, isn't there? Thomas is said to be back on his bike. 

Meanwhile Nibali comes under the flame rouge with a 22-second lead. Froome has had no real issues in the group behind. 

Nibali crosses the line, Contador sprints but they all finish on the same time. 

Thomas comes into sight now, being paced to the line by Poels. That's a remarkable escape from what looked like a potential horror crash. He's barely even lost much time. 

The rest of the riders filter in. Not much change at the top of the GC, but a dramatic conclusion to the stage nonetheless. 

Top 10 on stage 16

General classification after stage 16

Tony Gallopin is the big loser today. He drops out of the top-10 overall. 

And here's what Plaza had to say after the stage:

Here's what Geraint Thomas had to say about his crash:

We already have a stage report up with photos, and plenty more to come. 

Geraint Thomas's sense of humour was clearly not affected by that crash. 

This picture speaks volumes. That's 10 top-fives now for Sagan in this Tour and we've only had 14 road stages. It is the 16th time he's finished second in the Tour. 

Tinkoff-Saxo owner Oleg Tinkov was open in his criticism of Sagan earlier in the year but he has taken to Twitter in the aftermath of this stage to show his support for his rider. 

Alberto Contador put in a brief dig on the Col de Manse but gained no time today. Here's his assessment of his bid for the yellow jersey so far:

The debate surrounding the current yellow jersey Chris Froome is roaring on. Today Cyclingnews spoke to Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford about power data and more. Here's the latest:

The debate surrounding the current yellow jersey Chris Froome is roaring on. Today Cyclingnews spoke to Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford about power data and more. Here's the latest:

We also have a quotes story from some of the main protagonists of today's stage. Hear the reaction of Geraint Thomas, Ruben Plaza, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, and Lampre-Merida DS Philippe Mauduit:

Former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond has waded into the murky waters of the debate surrounding Chris Froome and his power data. 

And that's about it for stage 16 of the Tour de France. Our team out in Gap will be brining you all the latest from the race, not to mention a new podcast episode, so make sure you keep an eye on Cyclingnews.com over the next few hours. 

Thanks for joining everyone. A rest day tomorrow but we'll be back with live coverage from the Alps on Wednesday. I'll leave you with this picture - he may not have won but there was beauty in Sagan's ride today. 

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