Barguil wins on Bastille Day

alight with the win.

“It’s incredible,” the rider for the Sunweb team said. “I said before the start it would be good if a Frenchman won. It’s exceptional.”

Because of its brevity, the stage was raced at relentless pace, with riders attacking from the first meters to the last. Barguil covered the distance in 2 hours, half the time of some of the Tour’s longer stages with twice as much road to cover.

Quintana zoomed over the line in second place, failing to catch Barguil with his final sprint, with Contador third. By finishing in that leading pack well ahead of the likes of Aru and Froome, Landa clawed back valuable time in the overall standings, giving Sky an intriguing card to play in coming stages.

From seventh overall at the start of the stage, Landa is fifth, just 1:09 behind Aru. That means the Italian will have to watch both Sky riders, not just Froome, like a hawk in the last week of racing before the July 23 finish in Paris. If either Landa or Froome tries zooming off ahead of him, Aru will have to chase them both or risk losing his yellow jersey.

“It’s perfect for us,” Froome said. “Maybe we can play the same way in the coming days.”

Aru stuck to Froome like glue on the stage, showing a cool head and strong legs as he rode much of the way without any teammates, who couldn’t stay with the pace of his group that included Froome and the other top riders.

However, Aru lost fellow Astana rider Jakob Fuglsang, who abandoned the race due to injuries suffered in a crash this week.