Landa fights back pain, finishes 5th in Alpe d’Huez
19 July 2018

Tour de France (st. 12)

Basque climber from Movistar Team - still suffering from his crash on Sunday - finishes with main GC group at legendary Alpine climb, sits in 7th overall after 2018 TDF's first mountain block.

In a terrifying last Alps stage in the 2018 Tour de France -175km from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to the top of L’Alpe d’Huez (HC), through the cols of la Madeleine (HC), Lacets de Montvernier (Cat-2) and Croix de Fer (HC)-, Mikel Landa and Movistar Team again gave it their all to show their courageous attitude, bring some alternatives to the race and turn things around. The Basque had again to combat his back pain after Sunday’s crash towards Roubaix, and completed a strong performance against the best stage racers in the world.

The Murgia native was supported through the foot of the last ascent by Andrey Amador -a prominent member of the early break-, Marc Soler -author of superb pacing job through the final part of the Croix de Fer- and even Alejandro Valverde, once again on the move at a breakaway broken into pieces by an amazing action from Steven Kruijswijk (TLJ). As Mikel stayed with the top contenders through the first half of the climb, Nairo Quintana attacked with 9km to go, spending some energies he would later miss as he dropped back from a main group which saw Landa jumping one kilometer after.

The significant selection created by Egan Bernal’s (SKY) pace left only riders in Kruijswijk’s pursuit, until a crash by Nibali (TBM) just under 4km from the finish split the group into two. The incident forced Mikel, dropped from the lead, to chase back multiple times and eventually bridge back for good with 1km to go. The Spaniard, who even tried a long sprint to the finish, took 5th in the stage -7″ behind day’s winner and race leader Gerint Thomas (SKY)- and sits in 7th overall, 3’13” behind the race lead and a minute and a half off the podium. Quintana, 9th in the day at 48″, also remains in ninth overall, one minute behind his team-mate.

The ‘Grande Boucle’ will leave the Alps behind on Friday, as it faces three very different stages to close its second week: a flat finish in Valence; a hilltop arrival at La Croix-Neuve / Mende (Sunday); and the Pic de Nore (Cat-1) just over 30km from Carcassonne’s finish on Sunday.

REACTIONS:

Mikel Landa:It was such a hard stage for me – my back hurt a lot. I was able to keep the pain away from my mind for a bit in the finale and try to get into contention, but the whole Alpe d’Huez climb was full of pain for me. Bernal set a really fast pace and I was always on the verge of dropping back. All in all, I think I can be satisfied with this performance. When I was able to bridge back I saw it wasn’t long until the finish, and told to myself: ‘It’s been to be caught while in the lead than staying at the back of the group and be distanced again.’ I suffered a lot, the back hurts like hell, I had a bad day to be honest. It’s a muscular injury, and as much as I want to forget it, I can’t leave that crash behind – it was a serious crash. Let’s continue day-by-day.

“Being the team leader or not isn’t really important to me – if you don’t believe me, look at Alejandro’s job today, while also being a leader of this team. The GC win will be really hard, that’s something we already knew before coming here, but we’re going to keep fighting, whether it’s a victory, a podium… whatever. I think we saw Sky doing a little bit worse than yesterday, even if they won again today. I feel like there could be some chances in the upcoming days. We tried to hurt their legs again to day, we had a strong will to shine, but that attack wasn’t to be. Thomas is showing excellent condition, but Froome has tremendous stamina: he’ll be the main reference at the final week. However, that’s not something I really care about too much, rather than my own situation”.

Nairo Quintana: “It was a really fast, difficult stage, and sadly, I didn’t have the energy I needed for the last climb. I was riding on full steam, I even tried to pick up the pace with that attack, but there was nothing left in my tank. I gave it my all and it’s now about how I recover and what I can do in the next mountain stages.”

Picture (c): BettiniPhoto.net