The 29-year-old bridged across to the lead trio of of Chris Juul-Jensen (Team BikeExchange), Jan Bakelants (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) and Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies) on the category 2 climb before launching off the front to win his team’s second stage of the race after Nils Politt’s stage 12 victory.
Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) sprinted to second ahead of Australian Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) in third as the two try to make up as many points as possible on green jersey leader Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) who finished with the peloton today.
[tdf widget="stagewinners" stage="16"]
“It’s my first WorldTour win at the biggest cycling race in the world, so I’m really speechless,” Konrad said after the stage.
“This victory is for my family, friends, all my believers and of course BORA-Hansgrohe. They always told me ‘fight for this, you have the legs and the talent for it.’
“To win a stage here makes me really proud. I’m super happy and I can enjoy this moment now.”
There were no changes in the battle for Tadej Pogačar's (UAE Team Emirates) yellow jersey, while Matthews and Colbrelli made up some ground on Cavendish and Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) remained in the polka dots.
[tdf widget="tourleaders" stage="16"]
A blistering start to the 169 kilometre stage saw Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) attack almost immediately, charging out to a 1 minute and 35 second solo lead on the rest of the race at 42 kilometres in.
Efforts to catch the Dane were unsuccessful until teammate Mattia Cattaneo and Michael Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) broke off the front of the peloton with the gap at 45 seconds, joining Asgreen 3.5 kilometres from the summit of the Col de Port.
The trio crested the climb with Cattaneo taking the top prize of five mountains classification points, beginning the descent together before the peloton caught them on the wet downhill, led by Chris Juul-Jensen (Team BikeExchange).
Five kilometres before the intermediate sprint, a trio of Juul-Jensen, Jan Bakelants (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) and Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies) attacked off the front as Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Cofidis) gave chase.
The leading group passed the intermediate sprint with Bakelants taking the maximum 20 points, Doubey 17 and Juul-Jensen 15 as Matthews beat a fast-finishing Colbrelli in the sprint for 13 points and 4th place, the Italian forced to settle for 11.
Bakelants, Doubey and Juul-Jensen began the ascent of the Col de la Core with a 25 second gap to a chase group of 11 riders as Perichon, Cosnefroy, Colbrelli and Matthews were joined by Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Patrick Konrad (BORA-Hansgrohe), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Alex Aranburu (Astana), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels).
That gap went out to as much as 45 seconds with eight kilometres to ride to the summit before Konrad attacked with a huge effort to latch on to the back of the group with 3.6 kilometres to the top.
With UAE again at the helm, the peloton were content to let the break take the gap out to seven minutes as Gaudu surged to the front of the chase group, setting a furious pace as they caught a dropped Juul-Jensen 1.4 kilometres before the top of Col de la Core.
Konrad crested the climb first for the 10 points followed by Bakelants and Doubey, the peloton still seven minutes back and the green jersey group with Mark Cavendish (Decenuninck-QuickStep) over nine minutes back, main rivals Colbrelli and Matthews in good stead in the chase group.
The three leaders kept the gap to 30 seconds on the descent of Col de la Core through to the start of the ascent of Col de Portet-d’Aspet on the ten chasers of Gaudu, Bonnamour, Colbrelli, Rota, Aranburu, Skujins, Matthews, Perichon, Wright and Juul-Jensen, the gap to the peloton now 8 and a half minutes 40 kilometres from the finish.
Konrad embarked on a solo attack 4 kilometres from the summit as his companions failed to follow, stretching his gap to the chase group to 50 seconds 2 kilometres from the top as Daubey was caught.
Gaudu made his move behind as gaps formed in the chase, Matthews among those distanced as only Colbrelli could last with the Frenchman as they passed Bakelants with 1 kilometre to the summit, the gap to Konrad back down to 30 seconds.
23 seconds separated Konrad from Gaudu and Colbrelli as he crested the Col de Portet-d’Aspet and begun the tricky descent, the GC group taking it easy way back with the gap now 11 minutes to the break.
Gaudu called on Colbrelli to help as the duo pushed to catch Konrad whilst navigating the rain-soaked downhill, the Italian taking over at the front as they passed the 25 kilometre mark with the gap at 40 seconds.
Konrad extended his lead to 50 seconds on the flat section before the Cote d’Aspret-Sarrat as two became nine in the chase, Bonnamour, Bakelants, Rota, Aranburu, Skujins, Matthews and Perichon bridging across to Colbrelli and Gaudu with 15 kilometres left.
The lead became a minute and 10 seconds as Konrad kept a steady pace into the 800 metre ascent of the final climb as Gaudu attacked again from behind.
The group responded and brought him back quickly as Colbrelli led them into the descent, Matthews taking the front at the three-kilometre mark as the duo sized each other up for a sprint battle at the finish in Saint-Gaudens.
Konrad finished solo to take the biggest win of his career, a late attack by Perichon foiled just before the line as Colbrelli took second with Matthews close behind in third.
Cofidis tried to make a move from the peloton on the final climb for GC contender Guillaume Martin, but to no avail as Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) led all the favourites into the finish together for no time changes on the day.
Stage 17 of the Tour de France looms as another huge test for the riders with two category 1 climbs before a brutal summit finish atop the Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet. Coverage starts from 7:45pm AEST on the SKODA Tour Tracker and 8:30pm AEST on SBS and SBS On Demand.
