Miguel Indurain once described Mikel Landa as `an old-school racer capable of the best and the worst of performances`, but if he watched Sunday`s stage of the Tour de France, Indurain might well have added `and the most unpredictable.` Landa was the only one of the GC favourites in the yellow jersey group willing to launch a long-distance attack on the Mur de Péguère, and at the finish 40 kilometres further on at the finish, only a climber of the calibre of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) proved able to regain contact with the fast-moving Basque. Having attacked along on the Mur de Péguère`s steepest slopes, chapter two of Landa`s audacious challenge came when he managed to regain contact with two of Movistar`s three men from the early break of the day, Marc Soler and Andrey Amador.ADVERTISEMENT After Soler and Amador had then given Landa an armchair ride to the foot of the Prat d`Albis, Landa then hammered off on a solo run on the final climb, overtaking the remnants of the early break in the process, including Movistar`s third man from the break, Nairo Quintana. Landa later revealed that Movistar`s initial plan had been for Quintana, who gave up on his GC aspirations on Saturday, to go for the stage win. When that failed to materialise, he opted to go for his own chances again. `We had a plan, which was to get somebody in the break and when we ended up with three riders in there, we thought about Nairo,` Landa said. `Then when we saw that the stage win was impossible` - after the two Simons, Geschke (CCC) and Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) had attacked on the Mur de Péguère - `I decided to go for it from a long way out.` Podium ambitions
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