VILLARD-DE-LANS, France (AFP) – Primoz Roglic maintained the overall lead in the Tour de France on Tuesday with eyes now nervously turning to the high altitude showdown awaiting the elite on Wednesday’s high altitude Meribel climb.
Bora-hansgrohe’s German all-rounder Lennard Kamna won stage 16 after the Tour’s first large escape group was allowed to get away over some medium mountains.
Kamna came good on the 164-kilometer run through the Alps by defeating Ineos rider Richard Carapaz over the final stretch after the pair had been part of the escape group.
The victory was just reward for the 24-year-old who was pipped to the line on the Puy Mary volcano last week. It was his first Tour de France stage win, and Bora’s first this year.
“I saw Carapaz wasn’t feeling too good and I went all in and it worked out,” said Kamna, also a talented time-trialist who may have a big future.
”I was so disappointed on the Puy Mary, but this puts that behind me.”
Almost 17 minutes back, in a region dotted with ski resorts, the yellow jersey group ascended together with only Tadej Pogacar trying to upset Roglic and his Jumbo-Visma teammates.
Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez powered past them all over the final 200m but was followed closely over the line with no change at the top except for Nairo Quintana losing a little time.
Roglic leads Pogacar by 40 seconds with five stages remaining. Rigoberto Uran is third at 1min 34sec, while Lopez and Briton Adam Yates round out the top five.
Ineos sent two riders in the breakaway, Carapaz and Pavel Sivakov, the pair who had been supposed to help their leader on the summits, but both of whom fell on day one.
The British team’s captain Egan Bernal suffered a shocking meltdown on Sunday and fell out of contention.
