At the team hotel later in the evening, owner Bernard Tapie had to intervene in an argument between his two leaders and Andrew Hampsten described the mood on the squad from then on as "super tense". Transition stages to the Alps The fourteenth stage led the race to Blagnac and was won by Niki Rüttimann (). The team had placed riders in every escape group of the day, and after about , Rüttimann managed to stay away with three other riders. They exchanged attacks in the final of the stage, with Rüttimann putting in the decisive move to win solo ahead of his pursuers, jumping into eighth place in the general classification. LeMond managed to gain six bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint, closing the gap on Hinault in the general classification to 34 seconds. Frank Hoste () won stage 15 in a two-man sprint against Silvano Contini (). The main field came in just eight seconds behind, but Luis Herrera lost 49 seconds after failing to bridge a gap in the peloton. The final day before the Alps was stage 16, ending in the town of Gap. The peloton had to endure significant crosswinds during the stage, accompanied by several attacks from the field. After , Hinault was part of a group of four riders splitting away from the field in the winds, quickly making contact with another four-man break to form an escape of eight riders. While Hinault was joined by teammates Rüttimann and Winterberg, the group also contained Zimmermann, third overall. LeMond, crucially, had missed the move, but his three teammates in the breakaway still rode hard tempo, drawing out an advantage of 52 seconds. LeMond, again bound not to chase his own teammates, asked Robert Millar for help, who agreed to have his team do the chase work, while LeMond promised to gift Millar a stage should they finish close together. After , the groups were back together. Jean-François Bernard from won the stage after the two other riders in the final breakaway both punctured a tyre on the descent of the Col d'Espreaux. He moved up into thirteenth place in the general classification, which meant that now had five riders in the top thirteen places. Because of Hinault's breakaway tactics during the stage, Lemond threatened to resign from the race and had to be calmed by Tapie. According to Hampsten, the team was split into