British rider Steve Cummings of MTN Qhubeka has taken victory on stage fourteen of the 102nd Tour De France.
Stage fourteen with Chris Froome still safe in the leader’s jersey, was a 175.8km stage from Rodez to Mende which featured two category four climbs and two category two climbs.
175 riders started the stage on a day where temperatures were around the 32 degrees mark and after five kilometres, there was a crash involving Robert Gesink and Thibaut Pinot.
Both were able to carry on but Steve Morabito of FDJ, who was also involved, was forced to abandon the race.
Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Ruben Plaza (Lampre) put in an attack but they were pulled back after seventeen kilometres and Peter Sagan of Tinkoff Saxo launched a new attack which saw a twenty four man group in Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Adriano Malori (Movistar), Warren Barguil and Koen de Kort (Giant), Giampaolo Caruso and Alberto Losada (Katusha), Pieter Weening and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Rigoberto Uran (Etixx), Pierre Rolland and Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Bob Jungels (Trek), Ruben Plaza and Rafael Valls (Lampre), Andrew Talansky and Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Bartosz Huzarski and Paul Voss (Bora), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Stephen Cummings who MTN Qhubeka team were celebrating Mandela Day by wearing orange helmets, get clear.
Bartosz Huzarski took the points on the Category Four Côte de Pont-de-Salars climb which was 1.3kms long with an average gradient of 5.8%
With a lead of 32 seconds, the front group was split by an attack from Grivko, Ladagnous, Uran, Plaza and Talansky who were caught by Sagan, Pantano and Jungels.
After 74kms as the riders went under the Millau viaduct, Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Rigoberto Uran (Etixx), Bob Jungels (Trek), Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) and Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) were 22 seconds ahead of a group of 13 riders: Romain Bardet and Jan Bakelants (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thibaut Pinot and Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar), Greg van Avermaet (BMC), Koen de Kort (Giant-Alpecin), Simon Yate (Orica-GreenEdge), Michal Golas (Etixx-Quick Step), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Kristjian Koren (Cannondale-Garmin), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) and 7.15 ahead of the peloton led by Team Sky.
The two groups formed and with 100kms to go, Peter Sagan took the intermediate sprint points.
The twenty riders were 7.28 ahead with 84kms left before Ramon Sinkeldam of Giant Alpecin was forced out of the race because of sickness.
Onto the category two Côte de Sauveterre climb which was nine kilometres long with average gradients of 6% and the gap back to the peloton was 5.34 as Matthieu Ladagnous took the five points with three points for Jérémy Roy.
With 25kms left, Michael Golas of Etixx Quick Step broke away from the front group and took a ten second lead over Koren of Cannondale-Garmin and twenty three over the chasing group whilst the peloton were at 5.27.
Kristjian Koren caught up to Golas as they started in the category four Côte de Chabrits climb on the D42 road.
Koren took the points on the climb but on the climb up to the category two 1,055m Cote de la Croix Neuve, they were caught by the chasing group and Romain Bardet attacked with Simon Yates followed him.
Bardet of AG2R put in another dig and this time Yates was not able to respond and Bardet was away with a lead of 4.50 over the group containing Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali who both tried to escape the clutches of the isolated Team Sky leader.
Thibaut Pinot went after Bardet as did Steve Cummings. Pinot passed Bardet and took the points but up came Steve Cummings and he shot past them under the flam rouge and on Mandela Day, the South African based team had a victory when Cummings won in 4.23.43.
Pinot was second with Bardet third both were three seconds down with Rigoberto Uran fourth and Peter Sagan fifth, the ninth time in this race that the Slovakian has finished in the top five.
Chris Froome finished in 20th place and has extended his lead in the race to 3.10 ahead of Nairo Quintana.
"I knew I was not the strongest climber," said Cummings. "I just waited for an opportunity. I waited and waited.
"Nobody goes bananas at the bottom of the climb in the Tour De France so I just did a time trial and went for it. I threw caution to the wind and it was difficult to catch me.
"I have always dreamt about winning a stage like this and I just love it."
The jerseys after stage 14: Yellow: Froome Green: Sagan Polka dot: Froome White: Quintana.
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