Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) made his presence felt from the breakaway for the first time at this year’s Tour de France, climbing impressively before fading on the final challenge of the day, though he did help teammate Valentin Madouas finish second in Foix.
The breakaway went with surprising ease, as a group of 29 riders went clear with Storer and two other Groupama-FDJ riders present.
The category 1 ascent of the Port de Lers (11.5km at 6.5%) was the first up and saw some skirmishing from the breakaway as the top climbers Storer, Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) went clear before being reeled in by a reduced breakaway by the top of the climb, with Simon Geschke (Cofidis) claiming the top points as first over the line to add to his lead in the mountains classification.
Eventual winner Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) jumped clear of the lead group to go solo at the head of the stage, hitting the final climb of the Mur de Péguère (9.4km at 7.6%) with a lead of a minute on the chasers from the initial breakaway.
He powered up the climb and impressively maintained his lead at the front of the race over a strong group of climbers that formed behind including Storer, Woods and Mateo Jorgenson (Trek-Segafredo), with Storer dropping away before the top of the climb with 28.4km to go.
Storer was able to salvage the stage from there, picking up Madouas at the peak of the ascent and driving hard, sacrificing his own chances to bring the Frenchman back in contact with Jorgenson and Woods, though that was aided by a fall for Jorgenson.
Madouas was able to repay Storer’s teamwork by sprinting to second, the win decided up the road as Houle won by over a minute.
“Very hard, especially the last climb,” said Storer of the stage. “Unfortunately, I ran out and couldn’t keep up with the other guys, but fortunately Valentin (Madouas) has a good sprint so I went with him on the descent and luckily we caught the other two.”
“The first one I enjoyed, the second one not so much.”
The Tour de France continues in the Pyrenees with another mountain stage for Stage 17. Watch from 9.05pm AEST on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker, with the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starting from 9.30pm AEST.
