Omar Fraile claims Stage 14 victory as Team Sky's Geraint Thomas retains yellow jersey at Tour de France

Sport360 staff 21:13 21/07/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Astana's Omar Fraile savours victory.

    Team Sky‘s Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey as Omar Fraile won Stage 14 of the Tour de France from the breakaway.

    Astana’s Fraile overhauled fellow escapee Jasper Stuyven – who had been away solo for 33 kilometres – on the steep climb up to the Mende aerodrome, making the catch two kilometres from the end of the 188km stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux.

    Trek-Segafredo’s Stuyven did his best to chase back with the help of Quick-Step Floors’ Julian Alaphilippe but ended up third behind the Frenchman as the final survivors of a 32-man breakaway contested stage honours more than 18 minutes ahead of the General Classification hopefuls.

    The top three in the GC standings crossed the line together as Thomas followed home team-mate Chris Froome and Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin, with the trio eight seconds behind LottoNL-Jumbo’s Primoz Roglic.

    The Slovenian, fourth overall, attacked three kilometres from the finish to pick up a handful of seconds.

    But others struggled, most notably AG2R La Mondiale’s Romain Bardet and Movistar pair Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana.

    Quintana gave up 10 seconds to Thomas, while Bardet was 14 seconds back and Landa 29.

    There were further signs of the ill-feeling towards Team Sky and Froome in the finale, with several fans booing and gesturing towards the Sky riders, while Froome had what appeared to be a clear liquid thrown at him.

    Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey.

    Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey.

    UAE Team Emirates’ Dan Martin was not with the main group after suffering a puncture one kilometre before the climb while Adam Yates’ recent struggles continued as he was dropped as soon as the road went up.

    The provisionalGgeneral Classification showed Thomas retaining his lead of one minute 39 seconds over Froome, with Dumoulin a further 11 seconds back.

    Roglic is now two minutes 38 seconds down in fourth, with Bardet’s deficit to yellow growing to three minutes and 21 seconds.

    After going clear of the remnants of the breakaway 35km from home, Stuyven hit the final climb with over a minute and a half in hand, but could not hold off Fraile.

    When Alaphilippe also bridged over, the pair briefly combined to try to chase down Fraile, but the Spaniard was too far ahead and had plenty of time to enjoy his first career Tour stage win.

    Recommended