July 24, 2017

Arndt Wins 2017 Tour Point d’Appui

Bicycle racers in the Tour de France rounding a curve.

Nikias Arndt, winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2017 Tour de France, rides in protection of Warren Barguil, the holder of the polka dot jersey.

After a tour in which the Point d’Appui changed hands 16 times, Nikias Arndt of Team Sunweb grabbed the fulcrum on Saturday’s individual time trial and held onto it Sunday, despite some last minute changes in the standings swirling around him.

Arndt was one of the riders leading out the eventual winner of the points classification, Michael Matthews, but also riding in support of Sunweb’s eventual winner of the King of the Mountains, Warren Barguil, who was also named the most-combative rider overall. So Sunweb takes home four of the top seven honors available in the Tour: the green jersey, the polka dot, the red jersey number and the gray jersey of the Point d’Appui.

Arndt won minor tours early in his career, including the Tour of Alanya and the Tour of Berlin, more recently winning the points classification in the Tour of Bulgaria and best young rider of the Arctic Race of Norway. He won the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race earlier this year. He has ridden in the Vuelta a Españas three times, finishing as the Lanterne Rouge in the 2016 edition, and twice in the Giro d’Italia, winning stage 21 of the 2016 Giro.

This was Arndt’s first Tour de France. He finished 11th on Stage 1 of the Tour, the individual time trial, with the same time as fellow German Marcel Kittel of the Quick-Step Floors team and Edvald Boasson Hagen of the Dimension Data team. He rose to 10th place on Stage 2 and held that spot until Stage 5, slowly settling back to the middle of the peloton. In the final time trial of the Tour, Stage 20, Arndt finished at 7th place on the stage, showing he still had legs under him. Sunweb, which signed him for the 2017 season, announced the next day that it would extend his contract.

The winner of the Tour, of course, was Christopher Froome of Team Sky, and his teammate Luke Rowe finished as the Lanterne Rouge, 4 hours, 35 minutes and 52 seconds adrift. The median time of the race also went to a Team Sky cyclist, Michal Kwiatkowski, who had a time of 2 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds.

On the stage, Dylan Groenewegen of Team LottoNl-Jumbo won the sprint on the Champs-Élysées, and Daniel Martin of the Quick-Step Floors team, was the fulcrum finisher for the day.

The general classification fulcrum placement by stage:

Stage 1: No fulcrum.
Stage 2: Jay McCarthy of Bora-Hansgrohe.
Stage 3: Janez Brajkovič of Bahrain-Merida.
Stage 4: No fulcrum.
Stage 5: Vegard Stake Laengen of UAE Team Emirates.
Stage 6: Yoann Offredo of the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team.
Stage 7: Yukiya Arashiro of the Bahrain-Merida team.
Stage 8: Mike Teunissen of Team Sunweb.
Stage 9: Nils Politt of the Katusha-Alpecin team.
Stage 10: No fulcrum.
Stage 11: Michael Albasini of the Orica-Scott team.
Stage 12: Paul Martens of Team LottoNl-Jumbo.
Stage 13: Michael Schär of BMC Racing Team.
Stage 14: No fulcrum.
Stage 15: Andrey Amador of Movistar Team.
Stage 16: Jay McCarthy of the Bora-Hansgrohe team.
Stage 17: Danilo Wyss of BMC Racing Team.
Stage 18: Andrey Amador of Movistar Team.
Stage 19: Danilo Wyss of BMC Racing Team. Wyss finished on the cusps of the 2013 Vuelta.
Stage 20: Nikias Arndt of Team Sunweb.
Stage 21: Nikias Arndt of Team Sunweb.

July 6, 2017

Offredo Gets Fulcrum as Laengen Slips Following Ride in Break

Yohann Offredo

Yoann Offredo of the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team took over the general classification Point d’Appui on Stage 6 of the 2017 Tour de France after the fulcrum holder on Stage 5, Vegard Stake Laengen, got into the break during Stage 6, slipped in the standings after the break was caught and was awarded Most Combative Rider for Stage 6.

Offredo won the most-combative jersey on Stage 2 as one of two riders who pulled away from a four-person break but who were nevertheless caught by the peloton with 1 kilometer left in the race.

Offredo finished 14th in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this year and is riding in his first grand tour. While on a training ride with two friends during April, he was assaulted by thugs who apparently did not like bicyclists, but he took no time off from racing despite his injuries.

Laengen got into a break within the first kilometer with Perrig Quemeneur of the Direct Energie team and Frederik Backaert of Wanty-Groupe Gobert. The worked well together through 198 kilometers before the peloton swallowed them up, and the sprinters’ teams set up for the finish.

Christopher Froome of Team Sky remains the leader of the tour, and Olivier Le Gac of the FDJ team continues to hold the Lanterne Rouge.

On the stage, Marcel Kittel of the Quick-Step Floors team finished first for his second stage win of the 2017 Tour, and Bauke Mollema of the Trek-Segafredo team wound up at the fulcrum position.

A quick review of past contenders for the Point d’Appui shows that:

Vasili Kiriyenka of Team Sky, winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2012 Tour de France, is just two spots behind Offredo.
Lars Bak of the Lotto Soudal team and Perrig Quemeneur of Direct Energie, who finished on the cusps of the 2014 Tour de France, are both slightly ahead of the Point d’Appui.
Markel Irizar, winner of the 2011 Point d’Appui in the Tour, is more than a dozen spots behind Offredo.
Andriy Grivko of Astana Pro Team and Fabio Sabatini of the Quick-Step Floors team, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2010 and 2012 Giros, respectively, are currently at 128th and 129th places, respectively. Sabatini, of course, provided a perfect lead-out for stage winner Kittell.
Daniel Navarro of the Cofidis, Solutions Credits team, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Giro, is ahead of the curve at 79th place.
Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing Team, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2008 Vuelta a España, is in 70th place.

July 6, 2017

New UAE Team Rider Finds Way to Fulcrum

Vegard Stake Laengen

With the abandonment of Mark Cavendish and the elimination of Peter Sagan, the field of the 2017 Tour de France was reduced to 193 riders for Stage 5, the first mountain-top finish. Vegard Stake Laengen of UAE Team Emirates finished at the fulcrum position of 96th place to become the general classification Point d’Appui.

Although Laengen is more of a time trial specialist and strong in the Classics, he did well enough on the final mountain of Stage 5 to climb from 119th place to the fulcrum position. He has been racing since 2009 and won the Tour of Alsace in 2015. He competed in both the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España in 2016, finishing 83rd and 81st respectively. He also finished 6th overall during the Tour of California earlier this year. This is his first Tour de France.

The yellow jersey changed hands on the slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles, with Christopher Froome of Sky taking the general classification lead from teammate Geraint Thomas, who remains in second place on the tour. Olivier Le Gac of the FDJ team remains the Lanterne Rouge, 11 minutes behind the next closest competitor.

Fabio Aru of Astana Pro Team, racing in his first Tour de France, won the stage and gained enough time on competitors to hold 3rd place in the general classification. Daniel Navarro of the Cofidis, Solutions Credits team was the Point d’Appui for the stage.