Tour de France: Stage 19
Costa gets his second stage win in this year's Tour de France as the GC top 5 remains unchanged going in to the penultimate day of racing.
With five climbs to conquer during Friday's 19th stage of the Tour de France it was set to be one of the hardest races of the competition as the riders cycle the mountainous terrain from Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Le Grand-Bornand.
The first three climbs were routine riding for team Sky as Geraint Thomas and the rest of the squad controlled the peloton as they made their way through the 19th stage of the Tour. For many other teams however, they were fighting in their own race. Movistar, Saxo-Tinkoff, AG2R and RadioShack were battling it out to take the lead of the team classification as Frenchman, P. Rolland of Europcar pushed himself to the limit in an attempt to take the King of the Mountain's jersey from leader Chris Froome.
After Sky had done most of the work up to midday, it was Saxo-Tinkoff's turn to control the Yellow Jersey group as they began their attempt at catching the AG2R riders who were extending their lead over the Danish team to over 6 minutes and challenging them for the team competition. As well as chasing AG2R the team that includes Alberto Contador were trying their best to push Chris Froome to the limits as they began to accelerate up the third climb of the day. With Geraint Thomas and Froome's right hand man, Richie Porte being left behind, Sky's nearest rivals were succeeding in their attempt to isolate Froome on one of the toughest parts of the course. But like he has done for the majority of the tour, Porte fought his way back with immense pace to rejoin his fellow team mate and to help him up the final two climbs.
With the sky's turning black with rain the potentially very fast decent towards the finish was being challenged as the heavens opened and left the riders to make their way down a dangerous slippery slope. Race leader, Pierre Rolland, who looked to have been inspired by the win of his fellow countryman, Christophe Riblon, in yesterdays stage, began to lose a lot of time as the rain poured on the tarmac. With 8km to go the Frenchman finally buckled under the strain of a very tough day on the Alps and Movistar rider, Costa's attack paid off as the Portuguese rider accelerated passed Rolland and on towards his second win of this year's Tour de France. Having crossed the line over 6 minutes after Costa, Rolland is still one point short of wearing the King of the Mountain's spotted jersey and he will have to give it everything tomorrow in the last mountain stage of the tour if he want's to take the title from the hands of Chris Froome.
The Yellow Jersey group, who finished over 8 and a half minutes after winner Costa, included the majority of the main General Classification riders and as they crossed the line together, the overall standings in the GC after stage 19 have not changed much at all and Froome was evidently relieved with this result -"I definitely had a sigh of relief after getting today out of the way - this was one of the stages I was most worried about. It had a lot of climbing and, with bad weather forecast, it had the potential to get out of hand. I was ready for anything after the way the Tour has gone so far. The guys did take it up and attack on the final climb and go pretty quickly down the other side, so I am relieved to get through it."
With only a 125km to go in tomorrow's final day in the Alps before heading in to Paris and towards the Champs Elyse, Chris Froome is looking in very good shape to bring a back to back win for team Sky in the Tour de France and only the second British rider to have ever worn the Yellow Jersey on the top of the podium. But Froome knows more than anyone that there is still a lot of racing to be done before he even thinks about the finishing line - "But I don't want to get complacent at this stage. Tomorrow's stage is only 125km but it is still one more day to get out of the way before relaxing and heading into Paris."
With Quintana only 21 seconds behind Alberto Contador, the young Colombian rider has it all to ride for tomorrow as he could find himself earning a second place podium finish in his first ever Tour de France. As there is only 47 seconds separating 2nd and fourth place in the GC there is most definitely still a race to be had in this, the 100th year of the Tour.
With five climbs to conquer during Friday's 19th stage of the Tour de France it was set to be one of the hardest races of the competition as the riders cycle the mountainous terrain from Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Le Grand-Bornand.
The first three climbs were routine riding for team Sky as Geraint Thomas and the rest of the squad controlled the peloton as they made their way through the 19th stage of the Tour. For many other teams however, they were fighting in their own race. Movistar, Saxo-Tinkoff, AG2R and RadioShack were battling it out to take the lead of the team classification as Frenchman, P. Rolland of Europcar pushed himself to the limit in an attempt to take the King of the Mountain's jersey from leader Chris Froome.
After Sky had done most of the work up to midday, it was Saxo-Tinkoff's turn to control the Yellow Jersey group as they began their attempt at catching the AG2R riders who were extending their lead over the Danish team to over 6 minutes and challenging them for the team competition. As well as chasing AG2R the team that includes Alberto Contador were trying their best to push Chris Froome to the limits as they began to accelerate up the third climb of the day. With Geraint Thomas and Froome's right hand man, Richie Porte being left behind, Sky's nearest rivals were succeeding in their attempt to isolate Froome on one of the toughest parts of the course. But like he has done for the majority of the tour, Porte fought his way back with immense pace to rejoin his fellow team mate and to help him up the final two climbs.
With the sky's turning black with rain the potentially very fast decent towards the finish was being challenged as the heavens opened and left the riders to make their way down a dangerous slippery slope. Race leader, Pierre Rolland, who looked to have been inspired by the win of his fellow countryman, Christophe Riblon, in yesterdays stage, began to lose a lot of time as the rain poured on the tarmac. With 8km to go the Frenchman finally buckled under the strain of a very tough day on the Alps and Movistar rider, Costa's attack paid off as the Portuguese rider accelerated passed Rolland and on towards his second win of this year's Tour de France. Having crossed the line over 6 minutes after Costa, Rolland is still one point short of wearing the King of the Mountain's spotted jersey and he will have to give it everything tomorrow in the last mountain stage of the tour if he want's to take the title from the hands of Chris Froome.
The Yellow Jersey group, who finished over 8 and a half minutes after winner Costa, included the majority of the main General Classification riders and as they crossed the line together, the overall standings in the GC after stage 19 have not changed much at all and Froome was evidently relieved with this result -"I definitely had a sigh of relief after getting today out of the way - this was one of the stages I was most worried about. It had a lot of climbing and, with bad weather forecast, it had the potential to get out of hand. I was ready for anything after the way the Tour has gone so far. The guys did take it up and attack on the final climb and go pretty quickly down the other side, so I am relieved to get through it."
With only a 125km to go in tomorrow's final day in the Alps before heading in to Paris and towards the Champs Elyse, Chris Froome is looking in very good shape to bring a back to back win for team Sky in the Tour de France and only the second British rider to have ever worn the Yellow Jersey on the top of the podium. But Froome knows more than anyone that there is still a lot of racing to be done before he even thinks about the finishing line - "But I don't want to get complacent at this stage. Tomorrow's stage is only 125km but it is still one more day to get out of the way before relaxing and heading into Paris."
With Quintana only 21 seconds behind Alberto Contador, the young Colombian rider has it all to ride for tomorrow as he could find himself earning a second place podium finish in his first ever Tour de France. As there is only 47 seconds separating 2nd and fourth place in the GC there is most definitely still a race to be had in this, the 100th year of the Tour.
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