Dimension Data rider Stephen Cummings attacked the leading breakaway with 27 km to go in Stage Seven of the 2016 Tour de France, and outdistanced all attackers to ride alone to his second career Tour de France stage win. The 35-year-old Brit outpaced the entire peloton up the Cat 1 Col d'Aspin, foiling the best efforts of Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali to make up time on the stage.
“Of all my victories, I think it’s the best one,” Cummings told LeTour.com. "The Tour is the Tour, it’s special. I didn’t need to win a stage this year. I had a different condition from last year as I started the Tour riding for Mark [Cavendish] who is such a winner and an inspiration. It’s brilliant, it’s fantastic.
“I wasn’t confident in that group with Nibali and Navarro. Before, I had to play it strategically with the teams who had the numbers, like Cofidis and Cannondale with three riders, Astana with two… I don’t know why Navarro killed himself on the flat because he’s such a good climber but when he rode away with (Breschel) and (Duchesne) it was perfect for me to go with them. Then I avoided Nibali to come across. It was a good strategy, I think!”
Cummings said that while he felt excellent all day long when he won Stage Seven in the Critérium Dauphiné in June, he felt absolutely terrible climbing Col d'Aspin. “I was cooking on the climb,” he quipped. “But I committed to my decision to ride my tempo till the end.”
