Stage 16

The road

At the start

Into the Alps, four minutes clear

Froome won on the Ventoux and leads Mollema by 4:14, Contador by 4:25 and Kreuziger by 4:28; Quintana, second on the mountain, has climbed to sixth. After the rest day the race crosses into the Alps — a hundred and seventy kilometres from Vaison-la-Romaine to Gap, over the Col de Manse and down the descent where Joseba Beloki's career ended in 2003.

How it was won

1. 1170 km to go

   Attacks from the flag

   A hundred and seventy-nine riders start: Thibaut Pinot has gone home ill and nineteen-year-old Danny van Poppel has been pulled out by his team. Mori goes the moment Prudhomme drops the flag, and the first hour is a fight.

2. 2100 km to go

   Twenty-six find each other

   Thirty-two riders is too many to work with; Sagan and Hesjedal are among those who drift back out of it. Twenty-six settle into a double pace line and ride nearly a hundred kilometres together, Sky content behind them, the Alps rising ahead.

3. 334 km to go

   Too early, and then just right

   Marino and Kadri go with thirty-four kilometres left and are swallowed on the early slopes of the Col de Manse by Adam Hansen. The attacks blow the escape apart and show exactly who has legs.

4. 411 km to go

   Costa goes, Katusha explode the race

   Rui Costa passes Hansen and rides a time trial to the summit; Klöden, Riblon, Coppel and Jeannesson chase and make no impression. Behind, Katusha put two men on the front for Rodríguez and blow the peloton apart — Evans, Ten Dam, Dan Martin and Talansky all out the back — and near the top Contador has two big-ring digs at Froome, the second of which hurts.

5. 58 km to go

   The Beloki descent

   Contador tries again on the twisting road down towards Gap, on the corner that ended Joseba Beloki's career ten years ago — and pays for his own exuberance, sliding out just after a bend and forcing Froome off onto the grass. Both are up quickly, and Porte helps drag them back.

6. 6At the line

   Costa alone in Gap

   Rui Costa wins by a distance from Riblon and Jeannesson. Just before the line Contador gives Nairo Quintana a sarcastic thumbs-up, unimpressed that the Colombian attacked while he was on the ground. A transition stage has turned into a warning.

The result