On the first day into the Pyrenees, Koen De Kort of Team Giant-Shimano has taken hold of the general Point d’Appui, finishing 85th among the 169 riders still in the 2014 Tour de France.

The Dutch De Kort is the ninth rider of the tour to wear the Maillot Gris. He has consistently finished in the middle ranks of the tour since Stage 2, dropping as low as 112th during the first week of the tour and climbing as high as 62nd after Stage 7.

He is 2 hours, 31 minutes and 7 seconds behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali, and 2 hours and 25 seconds ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Cheng Ji of Team Giant-Shimano.

On a day with lots of attacks, the winner of Stage 16 proved to be one of the first to successfully get away from the peloton and the most successful at attacking his fellow escapees on the final climb. The Point d’Appui on the stage was José Pimenta Costa Mendes of Team Netapp-Endura.

The young rider Simon Yates of Orica-GreenEdge and world champion Rui Costa of Lampre-Merida abandoned, due to earlier injuries and illness, respectively.