Tour de France gallery: The KOM battle heats up on stage 16
Stage 16 of the 2020 Tour de France always looked like a day for the breakaway and so it turned out to be. After a frenetic start a large group got up the road and built a huge lead over a relaxed peloton.
Several hours later, Lennard Kämna took a comfortable solo stage win from the break. Nearly 17 minutes after that, the remnants of the peloton surged home with the GC riders at the fore.
Here’s how our photographers at the race saw stage 16 unfold.
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- Without looking up the race number, whose bike is this?
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- Benoit Cosnefroy started the day in polka dots but his days in the KOM lead seem to be numbered.
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- Lennard Kämna (left) and Julian Alaphilippe (right) were part of the day’s big breakaway.
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- So too Pierre Rolland (centre) who would snaffle a bunch of KOM points to end the day on equal standing with Cosnefroy. Expect to see him up on the road on stage 17 as well.
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- There have been some quality rock formations at this year’s Tour. The Pic de l’Oeillette is right up there.
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- Pavel Sivakov was in the break and eventually finished fourth on the day.
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- It was another day of Jumbo-Visma controlling the peloton.
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- Chaves finished more than 24 minutes down on the day.
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- Jérôme Cousin, meanwhile, finished outside the time cut.
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- At the top of the penultimate climb, with about 20 km to go, Kämna got away from the other remnants of the breakaway and set sail.
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- Richard Carapaz had attacked from the same group several times on the same climb but wasn’t able to distance Kämna. Once Kämna made his move, Carapaz was dropped.
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- After winning a stage of the Dauphine a few weeks back …
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- … Kämna went one better to win his debut Grand Tour stage.
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- The group of the GC favourites, meanwhile, took more than 16 minutes to get to the finish.
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- Roglic was in the mix …
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- … but it was Miguel Angel Lopez who ducked away at the last moment. The Colombian was given the same time as his rivals though.
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- It’s been a tough year for Sagan.
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- Ewan was one of the last riders to finish inside the time cut. He’ll be dreaming of the flatter stage 19 and, of course, Paris.
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- Roglic continues to lead the race.
