Stage 19: Maubourguet Pays du Val d'Adour to Bergerac, 208.5km. Flat.
Ramunas Navardauskas, the man with the best sounding name in cycling, has ended the Garmin-Sharp teams miserable Tour by picking up a stage victory just three days from Paris. Things went south for Garmin when their team-leader on whom they had pinned all their hopes to the point that veteran team-member David Miller was not selected, abandoned the tour injured on stage 12. Attention turned to stage wins and no doubt the wish that Miller was present, but it was the man who was selected in his place, a potential domestique to Talansky, that came through and grabbed the win.
It was a miserable day all round. It should have been a day for bright faces and tired but happy bodies with the mountains now behind them for good, but the rain came hard and relentless to serve them a reminder as to the conditions they faced earlier in the race.
The tricky conditions as a result put everyone on high alert, nobody wanting to make a mistake now so close to completing the event. At first glance it appeared a stage made for the sprinters but the conditions offered hope to change that and there was also the caveat of a small category four climb close to the finish with which to hurt the already exhausted big sprinters.
That's where the pressure went on and quickly Marcel Kittel, the favorite to win had things all stayed together, lost contact. Peter Sagan immediately came to mind, but no matter what he has tried to do in this tour he's always fallen a little short. Today that happened again...though this time it was a literal fall about 3km from the finish that ended his hopes and now leaves the Slovak looking to a guaranteed pure sprinters day in Paris to come away with that illustrious stage win of this Tour to go with his green jersey.
The run-in to the finish and Navardauskas made his move, jumping off the front. He never gained a serious gap but his time-trialing ability was enough to throw the peloton into a panic and it didn't help them that many of the pure sprinters were no longer there. Leadout men had suddenly become the days stage contenders and the hesitation may have proven enough for Navardauskas to hold them off. One kilometre to go it remained touch and go but who wasn't willing him to hold on? And hold on he did...by seven good seconds.
Garmin, Tinkoff-Saxo and Sky all lost their main GC rider early in this Tour and all three eventually found themselves looking for stage wins to salvage something from it. Tinkoff came through in style in the mountains with three victories and today Garmin have got one for themselves. It's hard to see now, with just a time-trial and the sprint into Paris to come, where Sky are going to get that result.
Result:
1. Navardauskas (GRS) in 4h43'41"
2. Degenklob (GIA) +7"
3. Kristoff (KAT)
4. Renshaw (OPQ)
5. Bennati (TIN)
6. Petacchi (OPQ) all s.t.
Overall: No change.
