With one final sprint stage left at this year's Tour de France coming in Nîmes on Tuesday, it was no surprise to see a cluster of fastmen battling to carry on in the race as the time cut loomed on the stage 15 summit finish at the Plateau de Beille.
Stage 5 winner Mark Cavendish was among the sprinters to complete the second half of the weekend's Pyrenean double-header in the nick of time, completing the 197.7km stage 1:47 ahead of the cut.
He finished the day – which took in five climbs, all first-category or above, and 5,000 metres of elevation – alongside three Astana Qazaqstan teammates, Cees Bol, Alexey Lutsenko, and Davide Ballerini, at 51:35 down on stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
The quartet, along with a host of other non-climbers, had been well out the back of the race from early on in the day, which began with a 6.9km climb to the Col de Peyresourde before tackling the Col de Menté, Col de Portet-d'Aspet, and Col d'Agnes.
Several long stretches of valley road will have offered those battling for survival the chance to make up time on the leaders, though it was still touch and go for the Astana riders and numerous others on the 15.8km Plateau de Beille.
While race leader Pogačar blew away Marco Pantani's climbing record on the closing climb, riders fought to make it home within the 53:22 limit.
Earlier in the day the time cut had been extended from 15% to 17% of the winner's time, making the limit several minutes more lenient than it would usually have been – around the 47-minute mark.
Cavendish, the 150th rider to finish, came in ahead of fellow sprinters Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud Démare, who both cut it even finer at 52:02 and 52:37.
Further back, the last man on the road, DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider Bram Welten, was out of luck. The Dutchman, who had earlier been part of the Cavendish group along with several teammates, crossed the line at 57:12 down on Pogačar, 3:50 outside the time cut.
Barring any rest day withdrawals on Monday, the Tour is set to continue with 152 riders for Tuesday's expected sprint 188.6km stage from Gruissan to Nîmes.
Cavendish, Gaviria, and Démare fight on to do battle once more with a host of other sprinters still in the race, including green jersey Biniam Girmay, fellow stage winners Jasper Philipsen and Dylan Groenewegen, and other contenders including Arnaud De Lie and Wout van Aert.
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🇫🇷 VIDEO: @LeTour Well, for us it was a day to survive and to bring our leader @MarkCavendish to the finish line atop Plateau de Beille inside the time cut. And we succeeded after a strong team effort! You are legends, guys!#TDF2024 #AstanaQazaqstanTeam pic.twitter.com/3esYQLTt61July 14, 2024
