Luis Leon Sanchez found the strength to launch the winning attack after 180 kilometers of hard climbing and chasing, to win Stage 14 of the 2012 Tour de France for Rabobank after more than half the team was wiped out by accidents.
Sanchez joined a group of eight riders which chased down the first thee attackers who managed to escape: Peter Sagan, on his second attempt, got away on the descent from the day’s first climb. The Liquigas rider, with Sergio Paulinho (Saxo Bank) and Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) managed to open gap after 35 km of racing.
Sanchez and seven others: Eduard Vorganov (Katusha,) Sandy Casar (FDJ,) Philippe Gilbert (BMC,) Cyril Gautier (Europcar,) Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel,) Sebastien Minard (Ag2R) and Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) caught the three leaders with 132 km left in the stage.
This group fractured on the final Cat 1 climb, the Mur de Peguere (9.7 km at 8 percent with 18 percent ramps,) with Sanchez, Casar, Izagirre, and Gilbert surging ahead, and Vorganov, Kruijswijk, and Sagan struggling.
Sagan surprised everyone by fighting his way back to the front just before the top of the climb. On the descent, Casar took the lead, with Sagan and Izagirre in tow. Sagan predictably moved into the lead but couldn’t drop the other two. Gilbert and Sanchez rode steadily to recatch this leading trio, managing with 14 km left in the stage.
Sanchez should have been exhausted by the chase, but the Rabobank rider realized that Sagan could beat them all if it came to a sprint, so with 11.5 km to go, Sanchez launched an attack of his own. He rode so powerfully he opened a gap of 25 second in five kilometers, and cruised home with the stage win.
After losing five of his eight Tour teammates to injuries, and after trying hard to win Stage 13 only to get shut down by Bradley Wiggins, who wanted the win for his teammate Edvald Boasson-Hagen, the victory in Stage 14 was a huge morale boost for Sanchez and his team.
Steven Kruijswijk, also recovering from a crash, finished tenth, giving Rabobank just that much more to be happy about.
Sanchez himself was injured in the Stage Six mass crash, and rode the first week with a cast on his wrist. To come back and score a stage win (his fourth,) after he and his team had all been hurt, motivated the Rabobank rider to do more.
“This was a very important victory, which was certainly achieved with the help of the whole team,” Sanchez told the Rabobsport website. “Not only Steven [Kruijswijk], who helped me fantastically today. It is very nice to have a teammate with you during such a breakaway. But the team has kept together, despite all the setbacks and that also feels like an enormous support.”
“This win came at a good moment for me as well as for the team, of course. We’ve got another week to go before Paris and this certainly gives us the motivation to make more out of it. Of course there are only four of us left, but the unity is quite good in our team. This really is an award for all of us, also for the riders who are already back home.”
