Tour de France Power Rankings - Stage 14

A race in two parts - the breakaway finished the stage nearly twenty minutes before the peloton did! The second win for the breakaway in the race, and it likely won't be the last.

Stage 14, Tour de France 2018

Black and white on a background of green Source: Getty Images

It's often a tough task to tell at a glance which teams are doing well at the Tour de France, there are 22 of them going around France, each with their own objectives and strengths. 

So borrowing a tool from other sports, Cycling Central will run a Power Rankings during this Tour de France. It's a quick guide from stage to stage of which teams are excelling and which are unlucky or faring poorly.

1. Team Sky (no change)

Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome would have been ecstatic at the news that third-placed Tom Dumoulin was being distanced on the climb, but the Dutchman fought his way back and looked as strong as ever. 
You would think that the Team Sky duo would prefer a bit more of a buffer over him going into the penultimate stage's time trial. 

Best Results: 2nd - Team Time Trial, 1st (Stages 11,12), Yellow Jersey Geraint Thomas, 3rd (Stage 11) 2nd GC - Chris Froome

2. BORA-hansgrohe (no change)

Sagan has won the Green Jersey bar the singing, and now appears just to be having some fun. On Stage 14 he was part of the break and surprised himself by taking fourth on the steep climb into the finish. 

It probably shouldn't be too surprising for the Slovakian, we've seen him challenge the likes of Alberto Contador in the past on very steep ascents.

Best Results: 1st (Stages 2,5,13), 2nd (Stages 1,4,8), 3rd (Stage 7), 1 day in Yellow, Green Jersey - Peter Sagan.

3. Quick-Step Floors (no change)

Julian Alaphilippe again showed how strong he is on this stage, extending his lead in the KOM jersey and shooting his way up the final climb to finish second on the day.

The Pyrenees stages will see the decisive action for the polka dots jersey.

Philippe Gilbert gave an interesting interview after the stage, promising that the team would try to be in every move from now on. 

Best Results: 1st (Stages 1+4), 2nd (Stage 7), 1 day in Yellow - Fernando Gaviria, 1st (Stage 10), KOM jersey - Julian Alaphilippe, 3rd (Stage 5) - Philippe Gilbert , 3rd (Stage 9) - Yves Lampaert, 13th GC - Bob Jungels, 3rd Team Time Trial.

4. LottoNL-Jumbo (no change)

A nice little day for Primoz Roglic, grinding his way up the climb and holding off the surges of Dumoulin, Thomas and Froome to take eight seconds back off his rivals in the top three. 

He also extended his lead over all the other contenders and he's got a nice cushion of 43 seconds back to fifth-placed Romain Bardet.

Best Results: 1st (Stages 7+8) - Dylan Groenewegen, 4th GC - Primoz Roglic, 7th GC - Steven Kruijswijk

5. Team Sunweb (no change)

Dumulin was yo-yoing off the back of the GC group on the steep final ascent to Mende, but brought it back and looked strong as he put in an attack that dropped everyone except Froome and Thomas.

The Pyrenees loom large now, if Dumoulin can take 40-50 seconds off Thomas in those stages, he might be considered the favourite for yellow as he lines up for the Stage 20 time trial. 

Best Results: 2nd (Stage 11), 3rd GC - Tom Dumoulin 

6. BMC (no change)

Greg van Avermaet got himself in the breakaway along with teammate Damiano Caruso. Caruso finished fifth in the end on the stage, well behind the eventual winner and will be better suited to less explosive efforts on the harder mountains stages.

Best Results: 1st - Team Time Trial, 2nd (Stage 10), 8 days in Yellow Jersey - Greg van Avermaet

7. Movistar (no change)

Their three-pronged attacked is looking less and less impactful by the day. The virtue of having multiple strong riders is that there are too many to cover when they attack, but at this stage, Team Sky don't have to rush to follow any of the moves as they are all giving up a fair chunk of time to Thomas and Froome on GC.

Best Results: 3rd (Stage 6), 11th GC - Alejandro Valverde, 6th GC - Mikel Landa, 8th GC- Nairo Quintana 

8. UAE Team Emirates (no change)

It's time for Dan Martin to ditch his unlucky clover or whatever it is that is affecting him so badly. An ill-timed puncture was at fault this time as Martin was held up just before the final climb.
More time lost for the Irishman on a stage where he would have been fancied to gain a bit on his rivals. 

Best Results: 1st (Stage 6), 10th GC - Dan Martin, 2nd (Stage 13) - Alexander Kristoff

9. Trek-Segafredo (no change)

A gritty performance out the front of the race for Jasper Stuyven, getting himself over to the move of Gorka Izagirre, then dropping the Spaniard and TJ Slagter well before the finish.
He didn't have quite enough of a gap to finish it off for a win, but he won a lot of admirers for himself and the Trek-Segafredo team. 

Best Results: 1st (Stage 9) - John Degenkolb, 3rd (Stage 14) - Jasper Stuyven, 5 days in KOM jersey - Tom Skuijns

10. Astana (up three positions)

Great performance by Omar Fraile, taking on the might of Julian Alaphilippe and proving himself the best on the steep run into the finish. Fraile is beginning to rack up an impressive palmares, with the win coming after his Giro stage last year and his wins this season in Pais Vasco and Romandie.

A badly needed win for the team as well. Fuglsang has had a decent, but anonymous GC campaign and this puts the jersey on display properly.

Best Result: 1st (Stage 14) - Omar Fraile, 9th GC - Jakob Fuglsang 

11. AG2R-La Mondiale (down one position)

Some more time lost for Romain Bardet, he's going to have his work cut out making up the deficit to the riders in front of him to make the podium, let alone to take the win.

Best Results: 2nd (Stage 6) - Pierre Latour, 5th GC - Romain Bardet

12. Bahrain Merida (no change)

A solid attacking display from Gorka Izagirre, but the Spanish national champion found himself shelled from his own attack by a plucky Stuyven, or he would have gone into the final climb as the favourite to take the stage win.

Best Results: 2nd (Stages 2+5) - Sonny Colbrelli, 2nd (Stage 10) - Ion Izagirre

13. Mitchelton-Scott (down two positions)

They tried their luck with Daryl Impey and Michael Hepburn in the breakaway, but they were outmatched by the quality of the climbers who made the move.

Best Results: 5th - Team Time Trial, 14th GC - Mikel Nieve

14. Katusha-Alpecin (up one position)

Ilnur Zakarin is slowly clawing his way back up the General Classification. He's got Bob Jungels and Alejandro Valverde within his sight now and the Russian may be even try and get in a break in the Pyrenees at some stage to really attempt a raid on the Top 10 standings. 

Best Results: 3rd - Marcel Kittel - Stage 1, 13th GC Ilnur Zakarin

15. Direct Energie (down one position)

Lilan Calmejane was the man for the French squad today but didn't have the legs to quite match it with the top finishers. Still a creditable display for eighth, but not a result that they can really add to their small list of good placings.

Best Result: 3rd (Stage 10) - Rein Taaramae

16. Groupama- FDJ (no change)

No riders in the breakaway was a disappointing state of affairs from Groupama-FDJ and if there had been much of a challenge from the teams below there would have been some case for moving the French squad down. 

They've been one of the more visible teams on the flat stages however, not entirely absent from the high mountains either.

Best Result: 3rd (Stages 2,13) - Arnaud Demare

17. Cofidis (no change)

Nicholas Edet was a commendable seventh on the stage after the team swarmed into the early move with four riders present. They didn't use their numbers terribly effectively but it was good to see the team having a go.

Best Results: 5th (Stages 1+7) Christophe Laporte

18. Wanty-Groupe Gobert (no change)

Thomas Degand is supposed to be the team's rider for these intermediate stages, but he was outclassed here by the others in the breakaway.

Best Results: 3 days in KOM jersey - Dion Smith

19. Lotto Soudal (up one position)

Thomas de Gendt is always a welcome sight in the breakaway, and he tried his heart out again to finish tenth here.

Best Result: 3rd - Andre Greipel - Stage 4

20. Fortuneo-Samsic (down one position)

Didn't even make the thirty-two man move.

Best Result: 1 day in KOM jersey - Kevan Ledanois 

21. Dimension Data (no change)

Tom-Jelte Slagter made the three-man move with Stuyven, but was the first one left behind when the acceleration came. 

Serge Pauwels dropped further behind in the KOM hunt as Alaphillipe hoovered up some more points in the break.

Best Result: 5th (Stage 10) - Serge Pauwels

22. EF Education First-Drapac (no change)

It says a lot when the biggest story for the team at the Tour has been the performance of the lantern rouge. Full credit to Lawson Craddock, he's shown tremendous determination, but the rest of the squad wasn't built to perform outside of supporting Rigoberto Uran's GC push.

Best Result: N/A

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8 min read
Published 22 July 2018 11:17am
By Cycling Central
Source: Cycling Central


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