Bilbao, chapeau… Basque
June 9 th 2018 - 15:10
Basque rider Pello Bilbao of Astana was the last survivor of the early breakaway and fended off the GC contenders who fought till the end in the short but very competitive stage to La Rosière on the course of stage 11 of the coming Tour de France. Second again, Geraint Thomas extended his lead while Adam Yates and Romain Bardet moved up to the top 3 overall.
138 riders started stage 6 at Frontenex. One non-starter: Odd Christian Eiking (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) initiated a breakaway at km 12. Seven riders reacted and a group of 27 was formed at km 20 in the hors-category Montée de Bisanne: Pello Bilbao, Dario Cataldo, Bakthyar Kozhatayev and Hugo Houle (Astana), Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates), Axel Domont and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe),Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Hector Carretero (Movistar), Pieter Serry (Quick Step), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Ian Boswell and Pavel Kotchekov (Katusha-Alpecin), Robert Power and Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott), Barguil, Romain Hardy and Amaël Moinard (Fortuneo-Samsic), Lawson Craddock (EF), Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo), Tsgabu Grmay (Trek-Segafredo) and Arnaud Courteille (Vital Concept). The first rider dropped from that group was Gougeard while Team Sky set a steady pace at the head of the peloton in the first climb of the day, two minutes adrift. Cataldo extended his lead in the KOM competition as he crested the Montée de Bisanne in first position, 3’05’’ before the peloton.
AG2R-La Mondiale very active
Cataldo made a hat trick by winning all three hors-category climbs of the 70th Critérium du Dauphiné (after the Mont Noir on stage 4) as he also crested the col du Pré in first position while the front group was reduced to ten riders: Bilbao and Cataldo, Conti, Carretero, Molard, Boswell, Power, Barguil, Pauwels and Grmay. In the yellow-blue jersey group, several big names were dropped: Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Michal Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon (Sky)… AG2R-La Mondiale upped the tempo before Pierre Latour attacked at km 68. Four riders took the command in the ascent to Cormet de Roselend: Boswell, Bilbao, Barguil and Grmay. Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) attacked in the downhill to Bourg-Saint-Maurice but was reeled in before the 20km to go mark. Nine riders including Latour started the final ascent to La Rosière with an advantage of 30 seconds over the yellow-blue jersey group.
Bilbao goes solo
Latour attacked with 10km to go and Boswell counter-attacked. Bilbao passed them one by one to take the lead by himself with 7km to go. Stage 5 winner Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) attacked again and brought Thomas and Bardet with him on the hunt for the Basque rider. Adam Yates rejoined the chasing trio with 4km to go but they didn’t manage to reel him in. Thomas powered to second like the day before. It’s a well-deserved victory for Bilbao who recently finished sixth overall in the Giro d’Italia after winning stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps.