Tour de France: Patrick Konrad offers himself the 16th stage

Published on : 07/13/2021 – 17:36Modified : 07/13/2021 – 5:48 PM

Another failure for David Gaudu! After having animated the Andorra stage on Sunday, the Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ was still ahead on Tuesday July 13 to try to snatch a stage victory. However, Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) did not allow himself to be caught up, despite the efforts of the Breton, and won alone in Saint-Gaudens.

Arrived in a second group which included the French David Gaudu, Franck Bonnamour and Pierre-Luc Perichon, Sonny Colbrelli and Michael Matthews completed the podium.

At the back, the favorites and the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar, stayed warm in the peloton and did not fight each other. The general classification has therefore not had the opportunity to change.

Five days after the victory of the German Nils Politt, Konrad brought a second success to the Bora team, deprived since last week of its leader, Peter Sagan. This is the first for an Austrian runner since 2005.

A stage of adventurer

The stage (169 km) launched at full speed by the Dane Kasper Asgreen, alone in the lead during the first hour, took a turn towards the halfway point. After 79 kilometers, a trio (Bakelants, Doubey, Juul-Jensen) took the lead, chased by a group of ten runners including in particular road-sprinters (Matthews, Colbrelli, Aranburu) and climbers (Gaudu, Konrad, Bonnamour ).

Konrad then managed to make the junction in the Col de la Core, the only climb of the day classified in the first category. He broke away on the next climb, the Col du Portet-d’Aspet, 36 kilometers from the finish.

In this climb, David Gaudu outdistanced his companions with the exception of Colbrelli, sprinter transformed into a climber, who clung to his wheel on this second category pass (5.4 km at 7.1%). But without being able to come back to Konrad, launched at the front in a time trial.

Konrad, 29, won for the first time outside the borders of his country. Austrian champion twice – in 2019 and 2021 -, he obtained places of honor in the Giro, which he finished twice in the top ten (7th in 2018, 8th in 2020).

With AFP