Tour de France Stage 12: Astana’s Bilbao takes second place after breakaway effort
Bilbao was part of a big breakaway, as 42 riders took off after a hardstart. The two climbs of the 1stcategory in the second half of the stagestrongly reduced the group, until Simon Yates attacked and started to lead therace together with Gregor Mühlberger. Pello Bilbao closed the gap as heattacked from the chasing group. The three leaders of the race made it all theway to the finish, where they sprinted for the stage win. Yates was thefastest, outsprinting Bilbao and Mühlberger.
«I was happy with theopportunity to fight for a stage win today. I think I didn’t make any mistakesin the final, I was perfectly positioned for the final sprint, but I just cametoo short for the sprint of Simon Yates because I had not enough energy left. Ihad to do a big effort for trying to bridge the gap to Yates and GregorMühlberger on the final climb, there I felt already that they were strongerthan me today. This was maybe the final opportunity for me in this Tour, as wewill now focus on the GC of Jakob Fuglsang. I really believe that if we workhard with the whole team, we can get Jakob back in contention for the podium,» said PelloBilbao.
«Our plan for todayworked out for 99%, a stage win would’ve made it a perfect day. But PelloBilbao gave everything he had, it was a very strong race of him and he dideverything to go for the stage win. Of course, we hoped he could finish it inthe sprint, but Simon Yates was just the strongest rider out there today. We’reproud of the performance of Pello. From tomorrow the focus will be on the GCagain, as we’re ready to fight with the team for a good result with Jakob Fuglsang,» said sportsdirector Dmitriy Fofonov.
No changes in the overall classification today, with Jakob Fuglsang finishingin the peloton and Julian Alaphilippe still leading the GC. Tomorrow the ridersface an Individual Time Trial of 27,2 kilometers with start and finish in thecenter of Pau.
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