The first 80km of stage 9 reminded us that the riders of Team Sky are, in fact, human and not “skybots”. Perhaps the days of full teams spending stage after stage at the front are now behind us.
The action from the GC contenders doesn’t normally come until later in stages like today’s, but repeated attacks by Garmin, Saxo Tinkoff and Movistar found race leader Chris Froome isolated without his wingman, Richie Porte, in the opening hour of today’s stage.
As Porte said after the race, “Full credit to Valverde. He attacked so early and it takes a fair set of swingers to do that.” Movistar showed they are determined to ensure Sky doesn’t ride all the way to Paris in yellow unchallenged.
As amazing as it was to see Team Sky dominate proceedings yesterday, it would seem that Porte and Kiriyenka paid for it today. Porte lost nearly 18 minutes on the stage and dropped from second overall to 33rd. He said after the race:
“Yesterday was my day, but today was probably the worst day I have had on a bike all season. There are still another two weeks of the Tour, so I will look forward to moving on. I think the peloton kicked our arses and that’s all there is to it.”
Kiriyenka fared even worse, missing the time cut and has been eliminated from the race. It’s still more than 2,000km to Paris and Kiriyenka would have played a vital role in defending the jersey for Froome.
We’re now seeing a bunch of conspiracy theories pop up on Twitter saying that Porte intentionally lost time in order to make himself appear more human. I’m sorry, but there’s no way a team would order their riders to “have a bad day” to alleviate suspicion at the cost of jeopardising the win. I just don’t buy it.
What this stage tells us is that the yellow jersey is far from being won. There were some big gains and big losses on GC today and if Froome has a day like Porte did today, the yellow jersey could slip through his fingers.
On a charitable note, all of the riders that won prizemoney on stage 9 have donated those earnings to the victims of the recent floods in the nearby Haute-Garonne and Huates-Pyrenees areas. They’ll also donate a jersey signed by all the riders which will be auctioned off to raise more money.
Tomorrow’s the first rest day in this year’s edition of the race and I’m sure there are more than a few people involved in the Tour — not just riders — that will be grateful for a break. We’ll be back tomorrow with something a little different but until then, check out the photos below from the second and final day in the Pyrenees.
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- This photo is more typical of the finish of a stage. This is in the first hour of the stage when Sky was under constant attack. Porte was constantly chasing down moves from rival teams.
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- Hesjedal was one of the instigators for Garmin, who weren’t going to sit back and let Sky dominate. Bardet, Rolland, Hesjedal and de Clerq, followed by a group with Bakelants and Geschke, briefly got away on an early climb.
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- Roman Kreuziger leads what’s left of the peloton
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- “higher is more beautiful”
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- Cadel said after the race, “”We have to stay realistic now. I came here to go for the win like in 2011. That’s a little bit unrealistic. Finishing in the first five would be good and getting in the first ten is the first step. There’s a lot of hard racing to go. Yesterday was a preview of what is to come. We’re going to take things step by step and try and move up on GC.”
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- Martin and Fuglsang make their winning move on the Hourquette d’Ancizan
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- Wout Poels had an incredible stage finishing seventh after trying to bridge to Martin and Fuglsang at the top of the final climb (Hourquette d’Ancizan).
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- The candidates for the general classification .
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- Martin attacked on the final climb and was soon jouned by Fuglsang. The two rode away and would not be seen again until the finish. Martin was in the perfect position coming into the finishing straight and stood his ground to stay behind Fuglsang until the final meters where he opened up his sprint.
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- Chris Froome is still in yellow, but it’s not going to be a re-run of last year.
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- Voekler was not himself today, coming across the line with the groupetto over 26 minutes behind. Robbie McEwen tweeted before the race, “Why Voeckler? Good form, won mtn stg in Dauphine. Lost time yday & sold the suffering. Don’t be fooled, he’ll lick ‘em today”
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- Contador gets swarmed by the media after the finish.
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- It would not have been a fun day for Kittel, but he rode remarkably well over those five mountain passes, coming through the finish in the second last group.
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- Peter Kennaugh looked to have touched wheels and crashed sending him down a steep ditch which left him chasing all day.
