Konrad wins Tour de France’s stage 16, Pogacar retains lead
Konrad finished 42 seconds ahead of a group of five chasers on the second day of racing in the Pyrenees. Team Emirates’ Pogacar finished 13 minutes, 49 seconds ater the stage winner and maintained his general classification lead of more than five minutes over Uran and Vingegaard
Austrian rider Patrick Konrad won the Tour de France’s hilly 16th stage on an otherwise unevenful day Tuesday as race leader Tadej Pogacar remained on course for his second overall victory.
Konrad made his decisive break with 36 kilometers (22.5 miles) to go, four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the summit of Col de Portetd’aspet and maintained the lead for his first Tour stage win.
The 29-year-old Konrad finished 42 seconds ahead of a group of five chasers - Sonny Colbrelli, Michael Mathews, Pierre Luc Perichon, Franck Bonnamour and Alex Aranburu Deba - on the second day of racing in the Pyrenees.
Pogacar, the defending champion, finished 13 minutes, 49 seconds ater Konrad and maintained his general classification lead of more than five minutes over Rigoberto Uran and Jonas Vingegaard.
Pogacar remained in the peloton with his GC rivals as his UAE Team Emirates team enjoyed a comfortable ride in the 169-kilometer (105-mile) trek from the tiny mountain-locked nation of Andorra.
Ater the tour’s second rest day on Monday, Tuesday’s stage began in at the ski resort of Pas de la Casa at 2,080 meters altitude. It was tour’s highest-ever stage start and it gave riders a long confidence-boosting downhill ride before the day’s first climb at Col de Port.
Amund Groendahl Jansen, who had been struggling since the opening stage crash, dropped out Tuesday morning, while Vincenzo Nibali also didn’t start. The Italian had already said he would pull out ater stage 15 to focus on the Olympics.
It meant more than 20% of the Grand Depart starters were no longer competing. The 145-rider peloton had not been reduced so much before the second rest day since 2012.
SAGAN TO SKIP TOKYO GAMES: Three-time world champion Peter Sagan will miss the Tokyo Olympics ater he had surgery to treat an infection in his right knee that occurred following a crash at the Tour de France.
The Slovak Olympic Commitee and the Slovak Cycling Federation said Sagan won’t be able to fully recover in time for the Tokyo Games.
They announced the news on Tuesday, a day ater the surgery near Sagan’s home in Monaco.
Sagan tangled with Caleb Ewan on the third stage of the Tour and went down hard at high speed. The knee was hit by the chainring on his bike, leaving a deep gash that his Bora-hansgrohe team treated with antibiotic ointment for the past 10 days. But eventually the infection became too serious for Sagan to continue with the race.
The 31-year-old Sagan was expected to compete alongside older brother Juraj Sagan for Slovakia in the Olympic road race in 11 days.
The Slovak Olympic Commitee said Lukas
Kubis will replace Sagan in Tokyo.
Sagan, one of the most accomplished cyclists of the past decade, skipped the road race at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and, instead, competed in mountain biking. But a punctured tire early in the race ruined his medal chances.
He was 34th in the road race at the 2012 London Olympics.x
Also withdrawing from the Olympic road race Tuesday was Jack Haig, who is recovering from a broken collarbone that he suffered during the same stage of the Tour.
The Australian had been holding out hope he could recover quickly enough for Tokyo.
“Unfortunately my fracture was much worse than first expected. The surgery was long and more invasive than normal, making the recovery period longer,” Haig wrote on Instagram. “I should hopefully be outside on the bike by the end of this week. Unfortunately, this means I will be missing out on the Olympics.”
The Australian team has been unsetled for weeks. Cameron Meyer withdrew to spend time with his ill father and was replaced by Lucas Hamilton, whose own spot is in doubt ater he hurt his right shoulder during a crash at the Tour.
The only sure things at this point are Olympic veterans Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis on the four-man Australian squad.
Another nation that has struggled to put together its Olympic squad for the road race is France, which hoped versatile world champion Julian Alaphilippe and Romain Bardet would be in the mix.