Omar Fraile powered to victory with a late burst in the last climb of the 14th stage of the Tour de France, a 188-km ride from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, on Saturday.
The Astana rider caught Jasper Stuyven near the top of the Cote de Croix Neuve, a 3-km ascent at an average gradient of 10.2 percent and did not look back as he crossed the line.
Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) was the fastest in the climb but he made his move slightly too late and finished six seconds behind, just ahead of Stuyven.
“It’s an amazing day,” said Fraile after the finish. “I’ve been dreaming about this victory. In the end we picked up this phenomenal win and it’s absolutely amazing. It’s easily the best day of my career so far.”
“We had a headwind [on the climb] and it was really tricky, but I just tried to climb it at the best rate I could, and in the end I did have the legs. I knew the climb today very well indeed.”
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) retained the race leader’s yellow jersey after crossing the line with teammate Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) just over 18 minutes in arrears.
The hilly 188-kilometer route from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux in southern France passed through the Ardeche gorges, home to cave paintings dating back some 36,000 years.
Stage 15 on Sunday from Millau to Carcassonne is another hilly leg before the race’s second rest day on Monday. Then come the Pyrenees and a possibly decisive individual time trial in the penultimate stage before the traditional finish in Paris next weekend.
Tour de France 2018 – stage 14 results (Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux – Mende):
| 1 | Omar Fraile (Astana) | 4:41:57 |
| 2 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | +06” |
| 3 | Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 4 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | +12” |
| 5 | Damiano Caruso (BMC) | +17” |
| 6 | Simon Geschke (Team Sunweb) | +19” |
| 7 | Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 8 | Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) | +23” |
| 9 | Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) | +30” |
| 10 | Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) | +37” |
| 11 | Pierre Rolland (EF Education First – Drapac) | +51” |
| 12 | Daniel Martinez (EF Education First – Drapac) | +01’06” |
| 13 | Anthony Perez (Cofidis) | +01’18” |
| 14 | Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain – Merida) | +01’26” |
| 15 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’46” |
| 16 | Thomas Degand (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 17 | Stefan Kung (BMC) | +02’07” |
| 18 | Andrey Amador (Movistar) | ,, |
| 19 | Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data) | +02’25” |
| 20 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | ,, |
General classification after stage 14:
| 1 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | 58:10:44 |
| 2 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | +01’39” |
| 3 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +01’50” |
| 4 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +02’38” |
| 5 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | +03’21” |
| 6 | Mikel Landa (Movistar) | +03’42” |
| 7 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +03’57” |
| 8 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +04’23” |
| 9 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +06’14” |
| 10 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +06’54” |
| 11 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +09’36” |
| 12 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +09’53” |
| 13 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +10’01” |
| 14 | Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton – Scott) | +16’22” |
| 15 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | +17’28” |
| 16 | Guillaume Martin (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | +19’55” |
| 17 | Damiano Caruso (BMC) | +21’26” |
| 18 | Tanel Kangert (Astana) | +21’36” |
| 19 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | +23’44” |
| 20 | Warren Barguil (Fortuneo – Samsic) | +25’45” |
