Trouble in the Clouds: Dan
Martin wins stage; Froome Isolated
Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) sprinted out of a two-man
breakaway to take the 9th stage of the 2013 Tour De France. As
Martin and breakaway companion Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) rode under the Flamme
Rouge Martin sat second wheel forcing Fuglsang to lead out the sprint. Martin
timed his sprint to perfection and sprinted away from Fuglsang with 200 meters
to go, holding on until the finish. It was the first taste of success for
Garmin-Sharp at this year’s Tour. The group containing all of the favorites
came in 20 seconds adrift.
The big story of the day was the implosion of Team Sky with
Froome becoming isolated on the day’s second climb of five. After the stage
Froome was relieved the day was over telling reporters “That was a really hard
day. One of the hardest day’s I’ve ever had on the bike.” Sports Director of
Team Sky Dave Brailsford had nothing, but praise for his captain saying,
“Froome was fantastic,” but when it came to how his team did during the stage
he hesitated saying “Ummm, with difficulty, to be fair” and that was putting it
nicely.
Attacks Galore
The 9th stage of the Tour from Saint Girons to
Bagneres-de-Bigorre was a relatively short affair at just 168 km, but with one
cat. 2 climb followed by four consecutive cat. 1 climbs, it was going to be a
brutal day in the saddle. Ironically, it wasn’t a mountain top finish but a
fast 30 km descent to the line.
As soon as the white flag dropped signaling the start of the
stage attacks were fast and furious, with Garmin-Sharp being the most active. Johnny
Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) gave it a go with Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) also
getting in on the action, but it would be another tough day in the saddle for Van
Garderen, as he would end up losing 22 minutes on the day. Eventually a group
of five got away, those riders were Dan Martin, Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp),
Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ), and Przemyslaw
Niemiec (Lampre). They went over the first climb, the cat. 2 Porte d’Aspet,
with Jeannesson cresting first. Further back, Peter Kennaugh (Sky) was
disappearing into a ravine, knocked of his bike by a Garmin rider accidentally
brushing his handlebars. He climbed out with only scrapes and bruises on his
left shoulder.
On the next climb
of the day, the cat. 1 Col de Mente, the field absolutely imploded as Team
MoviStar drove the pace at the front. Most surprisingly Richie Porte was seen
going backwards, unable to find the legs he had the day before. Cadel Evans also
appeared to be in a tough state, dangling off the back of the peloton, but he
would recover and finish the stage with the other favorites. As the riders
neared the summit, the front of the raced reshuffled with two riders leading
the race, Tom Danielson and Trofimov (Katusha). The descent and run through the
valley to the Col de Peyresourde was absolute chaos at the front with riders
attacking. Alejandro Valverde put in an attack with a teammate, but Froome shut
that down quickly. Froome began taking hits from all sides and had to dig deep
to bring everything back together.
At the top of the Col de Peyresourde it was a six man lead group that
included Rolland (EuropCar), Bardet (AG2R), Jan Bakelants (RadioShack),
Hesjedal, De Gendt, and De Clerq. Simon Clarke had jumped from the yellow
jersey group on the climb and bridged up on the descent.
A Fast Finish
On the penultimate
climb, the Col de Val Louron Azet, the breakaway shredded to pieces with Clarke
coming out on top. As he crested the summit he held a slim 18-second lead on
three chasers and only a minute on the yellow jersey group of favorites (minus
Richie Porte). The final climb was setting up to be quite a show with Froome
isolated and Valverde cocooned with much of his team intact and at his
disposal. As the riders hit the base of the climb Nairo Quintana (MoviStar), the
white jersey leader put in a small dig and Froome jumped right onto his wheel.
It appeared to be a non-committed acceleration and only something to test the
waters. At the back, riders, including, the young American Andrew Talansky, were
getting shelled. Quintana continued to put in dig after dig, succeeding in
lifting the pace but never really committing to launching a full-blown attack. As
the riders neared the top, Dan Martin and Jakob Fuglsang counter-attacked one
of Quintana’s accelerations. The duo had 42-second lead as they crested the
summit and charged down into the finishing town of Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
The gap continued
to hover near the 30 to 40 second mark. The chase seemed uncommitted to bring
back the duo, swerving across the road at times as riders tried to skirt their
turn on the pulls at the front. In the end it was a day for the Irishman Dan
Martin, with Michael Kwiatkowski bringing home the yellow jersey group some 20
seconds later.
After the stage Dan
Martin was relieved the stage was over, exclaiming “With 20 km to go I wanted
to get caught because my legs were hurting so much.” Martin was also quick to
thank his teammates who launched early attacks of their own. He even made sure
to point out the one teammate sitting at home Christian Vande Velde, who had to
abandon after crashing heavily, telling his good friend “This one's [you].”
A Tough Day for Many
The 9th
stage of the Tour saw the most abandonments yet with no less than five riders leaving
the race. Astana and Team Sky came out the worse for wear with Dimitri Murayev
(Astana) climbing into the team car midway through the stage and Vasil
Kiryienka (Sky) missing the time cut. Astana is now down to just five riders
with two weeks still left to go. Richie Porte finished the stage 18 minutes
down, perhaps paying for his big effort the day before. When American Andrew
Talansky crossed the line some seven minutes in the rear, he was quick to say,
“If anybody wants to understand why the Tour De France is the hardest sporting
event in the world all they have to do is watch today.” The gruppetto or
Autobus, the group containing all of the sprinters and lead-out men, came in 26
minutes down on winner Dan Martin, surviving the time cut.
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