The 2016 Placement Vortex shows the placement of each rider in relation to Les Cuspides, Arnold Jeannesson and Jan Bárta, who finished at the center of the pack.
The heavier black lines denote riders who eventually abandoned the race, leaving 174 riders to finish, hence the slow narrowing of the field from left to right with their final placement on the right-hand side. Track the yellow line of Christopher Froome at top or the red lantern line of Sam Bennett at bottom.
Jan Bárta leads an escape group of eight on the Champs-Élysées during the final stage of the 2016 Tour de France. Bárta finished on the cusps of the Point d’Appui.
An abandon of the race by Tony Martin on the Champs-Élysées put the 2016 Tour de France back in les Cuspides for the finish, meaning that no Point d’Appui could be awarded this year.
On the cusps of the fulcrum were Arnold Jeannesson in 87th place and Jan Bárta in 88th place. Bárta held the Point d’Appui at the end of three stages and might rightly be considered the most deserving of the honor.
Jeannesson, a Cofidis rider, fell back during the last week to arrive a place ahead of Bárta, who rides for Bora-Argon 18.
Martin abandoned due to knee problems after getting to Paris, but with eyes toward healing in time to ride in the Olympics. His abandon probably affected the lead out, or lack thereof, for sprinter Marcel Kittel, who seemed absent in the final bunch sprint of the tour.
The entire in peloton stayed in the race through Stage 7, the first time that has happened, and it proved to be highest number of riders to finish the entire tour. It was also the longest run in the Tour de France before a fulcrum occurred, at least in modern history. Only seven riders held the Point d’Appui during the course of the race, a lower number than usual because of the repeated middle finishes by Peter Sagan and Bárta.
The stage-by-stage general classification:
Chris Froome, of course, won the Maillot Jaune, with Romain Bardet and Nairo Quintana in second and third, respectively. The Lanterne Rouge was Sam Bennett, who finished last overall but among the top ten riders at the end of the stage. Great to see he has mended after the early crash that set him low in the overall standings.
Jan Bárta
Jan Bárta, the Czech rider for Bora-Argon 18, retained the general classification Point d’Appui after Stage 20 of the 2016 Tour de France. He has held the Point d’Appui twice during the tour, on Stages 16 and 18, and was on the cusp after Stage 9.
The 31-year-old rider finished one place ahead of the fulcrum on the stage, maintaining his status as the rider at the middle of the stage. Barring unforeseen disaster, Bárta will ride onto the Champs-Élysées in Paris tomorrow as the heir-apparent to the fulcrum of the 2016 Tour de France.
The mountainous stage broke the peloton into splinters, and created an amazing fight for the stage win among four great climbers and downhill speedsters — Ion Izagirre of Movistar Team, Jarlinson Pantano of IAM Cycling, Vincenzo Nibali of Astana Pro Team and Julian Alaphilippe of Etixx – Quick-Step.
At times, each looked as though he might survive an attack on the last climb of the day up the Col de Joux Plane. Izagirre, Pantano and Nibali went over the top together, and then Izagirre screamed down the backside to win the stage.
The rest of the standings were not affected much. Chris Froome of Sky remains the leader of the tour, and Bárta’s teammate Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18 remains the Lanterne Rouge.
Mont Blanc in the distance, the final destination for Stage 19.
Another mountain stage and another shift in the Point d’Appui standings. Anthony Delaplace, the Fortuneo-Vital Concept rider who was on the cusp of the fulcrum after Stage 11, now holds the general classification Point d’Appui at the end of Stage 19.
Anthony Delaplace
Tom Dumoulin of Team Giant-Alpecin and Daniel Navarro of Cofidis had to abandon the race due to crashes. Dumoulin had a touch of wheels when the peloton slowed down and bunched up. He broke his wrist. Navarro came down with two other riders in a hard downhill turn after the rain had slickened the route.
They weren’t the only riders to meet the pavé on Stage 19, but the only two who had to abandon mid-stream.
Romain Bardet of AG2R La Mondiale took a flier on the final climb, catching up with Rui Costa, who had been in the escape group and escaped them. Bardet, though, had enough gas in the tank to continue past Costa and win on Mont Blanc.
Chris Froome, despite a fall on the same rainy descent that caught other riders, was able to stay with the lead group after teammate Geraint Thomas handed off his bicycle to Froome. Bauke Mollema was not so lucky, falling twice and losing enough time to drop him from second place overall to tenth.
Sam Bennett remains the Lanterne Rouge.
Jan Barta
The Point d’Appui came back to Jan Bárta of Bora-Argon 18 on Stage 18 of the 2016 Tour de France. Bárta was in 89th place after Stage 17, one place ahead of the general classification Point d’Appui, and remained in 89th place after Stage 18, but two riders abandoned the race before the start, meaning the fulcrum moved one spot up to Barta.
Bárta held the Point d’Appui after Stage 16, too, and appears to be the odds-on favorite for Paris. We still have two mountainous stages to go, though, so Bárta is not a sure thing yet.
Fabian Cancellara of Trek-Segafredo bailed out of the Tour de France boat to concentrate his training on the upcoming Olympics. Shane Archbold of Bora-Argon 18 did not start after suffering a fractured pelvis during a crash on Stage 17. Somehow he rode home yesterday.
Stage 18 was an individual time trial, only 17 kilometers long, but most of it was a strong mountain climb, so it was not necessarily suited to the usual time trialist.
Nevertheless, Chris Froome of Sky made it look like the usual time trial. He easily edged out Tom Dumoulin of Team Giant, who up to that point looked as though he were the sure winner of the stage, ahead of the next rider by more than 10 seconds.
Froome remains the tour leader, and Sam Bennett, the first rider to attack the Stage 18 course, remains the Lantern Rouge.
Here’s a list of today’s stage finishes for some of the contenders this year and past overall winners, followed by their overall standing:
On the stage, Jan Bakelants of AG2R La Mondiale placed at the fulcrum position.
Don’t look back: The main group advances upon Peter Sagan on the climb up Col de la Forclaz the during Stage 17 of the Tour de France.
Peter Sagan got into the break on Stage 17 of the 2016 Tour de France to make sure he swept up the intermediate sprint points available to secure the sprinters’ Green Jersey. Then the race hit the first alpine mountain climb of the day, and Sagan wound up at the fulcrum of the general classification and now owns the Grey Jersey of the Point d’Appui for the second time during the race.
Sagan held the GC Point d’Appui after Stage 9, and has held the Yellow Jersey during three stages of the 2016 edition as well.
The 184-kilometer stage held four mountain climbs, two Category 3s, a Category 1 and a Beyond Category climb for the finish at Switzerland’s Finhaut-Emosson, a spectacular dam and man-made lake high in the Alps.
Several riders who have held the Point d’Appui this tour or have been on the cusps remain close to the middle of the peloton despite the turn into the mountains, including Anthony Delaplace, Jan Barta, Tony Gallopin and Michael Valgren among them. The riders on either side of Sagan’s time are only 6 and 7 seconds away from him, so a myriad of riders could still make it to the fulcrum before Paris.
The peloton is reduced to 179 riders. Two riders — Mark Cavendish of Dimension Data and Rohan Dennis of BMC Racing Team — abandoned ahead of the mountain stage to begin their preparations for the Olympics. Meanwhile, two more riders were unable to finish the stage after getting wrapped up in a crash during the first kilometer of the stage. Borut Bozic of Cofidis-Solutions Credits and Gorka Izaguirre of Movistar Team both went down hard. Izaguirre, one of the solid support riders for Nairo Quintana, has landed on the cusp of the fulcrum twice this race but this time landed on his collarbone, putting him out of action. Bozic regained his bicycle but took a second fall and had to abandon.
The winner of Stage 17 was Ilnur Zakarin of Team Katusha. Chris Froome of Sky remains the overall leader, and Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18 remains the Lanterne Rouge.
Jan Bárta
It didn’t take a photo finish to determine that Jan Bárta of Bora-Argon 18 is the new general classification Point d’Appui after stage 16 of the 2016 Tour de France. He goes into Tuesday’s rest day more than a minute behind Thomas Voekler of Direct Energie and just about a minute ahead of Alexey Lutsenko of Astana Pro Team.
Tony Gallopin, the GC leader after Stage 15, fell back 10 spots on the hot, fast 206 kilometer stage from Moirans-en-Montagne across the Swiss border to finish in Berne.
Bárta has won the Czech National Time Trial Championships the last four years and also picked up the Czech National Road Race Championship in 2012. This is his third time in the Tour de France. He finished 71st in 2014 and 25th in 2015.
Peter Sagan of Tinkoff won his third stage of this year’s Tour de France, nipping Alexander Kristoff by just a few millimeters. Chris Froome of Team Sky remains the GC leader of the race, and Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18 holding the Lanterne Rouge.
Tony Gallopin
Tony Gallopin of Lotto Soudal is the new GC Point d’Appui after Stage 15 of the 2016 Tour de France. The peloton is reduced to 183 riders, and Gallopin finished 92nd, one place ahead of Peter Sagan, who held the Point d’Appui earlier in the race.
Also close to the fulcrum are Alexey Lutsenko, Anthony Delaplace and Michael Valgren, each of whom has been on the cusp at the end of earlier stages.
It is Gallopin’s first time in the grey jersey. He held the 2014 tour’s yellow jersey briefly during the 2014 race and also won Stage 11 that year. This is his sixth Tour de France. He has placed as low as 78th in 2011 and as high as 29th in 2014. He has been riding in support of sprinter André Greipel, but the Lotto Soudal team has suffered misfortune, the latest being the abandon of Jens Debusschere, who suffered a crash on Stage 14, limped to the finish but wasn’t able to start Stage 15.
Jesus Herrada of Movistar Team had to abandon Stage 15 during the race due to fever and stomach illness.
A grand Colombian, Jarlinson Pantano of IAM Cycling, won Stage 15 after twice climbing over the heights of the Grand Colombier.
The race leader remains Christopher Froome of Sky, who came home with most of the GC contenders. The only GC rider who fell back was Tejay Van Garderen, coming in 1 minute 28 seconds behind the other leaders. His teammate Richie Porte is now in the lead for BMC. Sam Bennett remains the Lanterne Rouge, now 3 hours, 26 minutes and 14 seconds behind the leader.
Kristijan Đurasek
Stage 14 of the 2016 Tour de France saw Kristijan Đurasek of Lampre-Merida slip into the Point d’Appui in general classification.
Đurasek won both the Croatian National Road Race Championships and Time Trial Championships back in 2011. He also won the 2015 Tour of Turkey. This is his third Tour de France. He finished 46th and 76th in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Two riders abandoned on Stage 14: Matti Breschel of Cannondale-Drapac and Mathias Frank of IAM Cycling. Breschel abandoned after a crashing into a vehicle and suffering a severe cut on the leg. Frank, the leader of IAM-Cycling, apparently abandoned after it became clear he would not be a top-ten finisher. He was ranked 31st after the individual time trials of Stage 13 and two teammates were ranked higher at that point.
The tour leader is still Christopher Froome, and the Lanterne Rouge remains Sam Bennett.
Mark Cavendish won his fourth stage of this year’s tour with a perfectly timed charge to the finish. At this point, the tour might be his best training for the upcoming Olympics.
Arthur Vichot during the 3rd stage of the Tour de Romandie 2010. Photo by Fanny Schertzer.
During the individual time trials of Stage 13 of the 2016 Tour de France, Arthur Vichot of FDJ did well enough to land in the fulcrum position. He was 94th of the 187 riders still in the tour and becomes the third rider of this year’s tour to hold the Point d’Appui.
Vichot, who won the French National Road Championship earlier this year, has raced in the Tour de France four previous times, finishing as high as 66th in the general classification and as low as 103rd. He had to withdraw from the race in 2014. He has also twice won the Tour du Haut Var, a two-day race in the early season run through the region in which the tour is currently passing.
Alexey Lutsenko, who has been on the cusp during the last two stages moved up one place above Vichot and remains in strong contention for the fulcrum.
Three riders abandoned the race Friday. Neither Thibaut Pinot of FDJ nor Simon Gerrans of Orica-BikeExchange started the stage, and Edward Theuns of Trek-Segafredo was unable to finish the 37-kilometer time trial.
Mikel Nieve of Team Sky finished as the Point d’Appui of the time trial. Teammate Wouter Poels was just a second behind him.
Tom Dumoulin of Team Giant-Alpecin won the stage by more than a minute over the second-place rider on the day, Christopher Froome of Sky. Froome looks unbeatable for the overall yellow jersey this year, excelling in the mountains, on the flats and now in the time trial.
Froome remains the overall leader and gained almost a minute over his top rivals. Meanwhile, Sam Bennett still retains the Lanterne Rouge, but finished 160th on the stage, showing that he is on the mend.
Point d'Appui 