Stage 16

The road

At the start

Out of Andorra, into the Couserans

The second rest day is over and the standings look much as they did before Andorra: Pogačar in yellow, Urán at 5:18, Vingegaard and Carapaz within fifteen seconds of him. Nacer Bouhanni has gone home. Today drops out of the principality over the Col de Port — a pass from the Tour's first venture into the mountains in 1910 — the Core and the Portet d'Aspet.

How it was won

1. 169 km to go

   Konrad bridges alone

   Impatient with the pace, the Austrian champion attacks out of the chase and crosses to the leading trio 3.5km from the summit, then keeps pushing hard enough to shed Juul-Jensen.

2. 233 km to go

   Alone on the Portet d'Aspet

   A kilometre into the last major climb Konrad decides the pace is not good enough and simply rides away from it. His lead reaches a minute before Gaudu is forced to respond, and only Bonnamour and Colbrelli can hold the Frenchman's wheel.

3. 323 km to go

   The Casartelli descent, in the rain

   Down the road where Fabio Casartelli lost his life in 1995, slick with rain, Colbrelli is dropped by Gaudu and both lose more ground. Konrad has forty seconds as it flattens.

4. 48 km to go

   The sting in the tail

   Konrad grinds up the last 800-metre wall in the big ring with 1:13 in hand and gives away only thirteen seconds of it. Behind, the chase is reduced to squabbling over the places.

5. 5At the line

   Saint-Gaudens

   Konrad wins alone after 35 kilometres out on his own. In the bunch Van Aert launches a wildly opportunistic move on the final kicker and is visibly astonished to find he has split the peloton — with every GC rider alert enough to be in it.

The result