Tour de France: Matteo Trentin captures stage 14 win as Chris Froome retains lead
Matteo Trentin continued a strong Tour de France campaign for Omega Pharma - Quick-Step with a win on stage 14.
Last Updated: 13/07/13 5:37pm
The Italian kept his powder dry during an attacking finish in Lyon before hitting out on the home straight to take the biggest win of his career in front of a huge crowd. Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) rounded out the podium.
An 18-man escape group battled it out for the stage win with the peloton happy to let the attackers go clear as Froome kept hold of the yellow jersey for Team Sky.
After a rapid start to proceedings Froome was finally afforded an armchair ride to the finish, the peloton cruising in seven minutes and 17 seconds down on the stage winner.
With the bunch looking to take it easy ahead of a date with Mont Ventoux on Sunday, Team Sky simply had to set a manageable tempo at the head of affairs with no one up the road an immediate threat to the yellow jersey.
As the race enters the Alps the Brit holds a lead of 2:28 over Bauke Mollema (Belkin) with Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) a further 17 seconds back.
It was no surprise to see a flurry of early attacks as the race departed Saint-Pourcain-sur-Sioule on a day which looked tailor-made for an escape.
Four riders - Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard) and Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) hit out early before a surge from the peloton created a strong move of 18 riders.
With Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) the best-placed rider up the road at 13:11, Team Sky set about controlling the pace after chase efforts from Lampre-Merida and Euskaltel Euskadi burnt out.
As the race headed towards its final 20km the escapees began attacking one another. David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) was one of the first to crack just before Julien Simon (Sojasun) bounded clear with 15km to go.
His rivals weren't willing to let the Frenchman pick up a home victory and things came back together in the final metres before Trentin (the room-mate of Mark Cavendish took a strong victory.
