We were worried yesterday that the Tour may be heading towards a 2012 ‘boring procession’ behind Squadra Murdoch – so big thanks to Garmin, Saxo and Movistar for making sure it was anything but. This season, Dan Martin has dispelled any doubts about whether he was ‘doing a Danielson’ and being a ‘coming man’ for year after year – Catalunya, la Doyenne and now a Tour stage mean that we can file British Cycling’s biggest ‘one that got away’ firmly under ‘Big.’
And we did say yesterday that it would be wrong to think that Movistar were on the ropes despite Sky’s Saturday domination; the Spanish squad’s tactics confirmed that fact today with Richie Porte now way out of contention and Sky left with only a single player at the GC table.
But if I was Froome or on the Sky management team what would be worrying me more would be the loss of Vasil Kiryienka – the team’s number one locomotive on the flat and transition stages.
Cadel Evans said what many were thinking;
“What I saw today was a surprise and not what I expected of Sky. Last year, they had really good recovery amongst all their riders every day throughout the whole tour.
“Today, that wasn’t the case at all. They had one rider in the front and that was a strange and really bizarre situation for the yellow jersey, especially so early in the race.”
And while we’re dealing with the press releases, Movistar were modest about their day’s efforts:
“Splendid teamwork piece from start to finish by the Movistar riders – which stays on top of the teams’ classifications and keeps Quintana’s white jersey, putting three riders within the best ten overall- leads Valverde into 2nd place GC and takes Richie Porte (SKY) 15 minutes down.”
It was also written in bold block capitals – just in case the content wasn’t enough . . .
Some say that really they changed nothing with Valverde still at the same margin on Froome – I don’t agree, they took Porte out of the picture, eliminated Kiryienka and got a lot of riders and managers thinking; ‘maybe them Sky boys aren’t as automatic as last year?’
And there was no little relish in the ASO press release, happy to point out that Sky is ‘fallible.’
“The first 80km of the ninth stage reminded everyone that although Sky is strong, it is fallible.
“In his first hours of racing in the yellow jersey, Chris Froome found himself under attack from the Movistar and Saxo-Tinkoff teams who relished the fact that the race leader was isolated without help from his right-hand man, Richie Porte.
“Generally the action from the general classification candidates comes at the end of a mountain stage but today it happened right from the start.
“Garmin-Sharp was one of the main early aggressors but Movistar jumped on the fact Froome found himself all on his own.
“The big loss for Sky happened in the opening hour and Porte never recovered; even when the Tasmanian did get some momentum, Movistar rubbed salt into his wounds by accelerating at the front of the yellow jersey’s peloton.
“Porte would drop dramatically down the rankings after finishing 17’59” behind the stage winner!”
ASO aren’t too keen on ‘boring processions’ either.
But on the subject of processions, there was good business done on the autobuses today with the last one arriving with 45 passengers at 26:20 and containing the likes of Cav, Tommy Voeckler – not top ten for him, then – Boasson Hagen, David Millar and le Gorille.
But the usually robotic Kiryienka couldn’t catch it – spare a thought for him, tonight.
And before VeloVeritas gets our first rest day of the Tour, let me say that this piece is being written and edited with us wrapped in Saltires and Jimmy Shand’s Greatest Hits playing in the background.
Congratulations to Andy Murray from VeloVeritas – we’re proud of you, young man.
‘Oh flower of Scotland when will we see…’
Results - Le Tour de France 2013 – Stage 9
Stage Result
2 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
3 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:00:20
4 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha
5 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha
6 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
7 Wouter Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
8 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
9 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
10 Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack Leopard
11 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team
12 Andy Schleck (Lux) RadioShack Leopard
13 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
14 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
15 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
16 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
17 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
18 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
19 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
20 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team
21 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
22 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:25
23 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team
24 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:54
25 Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
26 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
27 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar
28 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
29 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Lampre-Merida
30 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:07:07
31 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Team Europcar
32 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida
33 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Sharp
34 Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Belisol
35 Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Movistar Team
36 Simon Clarke (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
37 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) BMC Racing Team 0:07:57
38 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar
39 Jens Voigt (Ger) RadioShack Leopard
40 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
41 Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack Leopard
42 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:11:38
43 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
44 Juan Jose Oroz Ugalde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
45 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
46 Laurent Didier (Lux) RadioShack Leopard
47 Maxime Mederel (Fra) Sojasun
48 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
49 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida
50 Peter Velits (Svk) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
51 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano
52 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Astana Pro Team
53 Imanol Erviti Ollo (Spa) Movistar Team
54 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Movistar Team
55 Jesus Hernandez Blazquez (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
56 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
57 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha
58 Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:17:59
59 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp
60 Richie Porte (Aus) Sky Procycling
61 Yury Trofimov (Rus) Katusha
62 Bram Tankink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:18:59
63 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Sojasun
64 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
65 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano
66 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
67 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
68 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Katusha 0:20:26
69 Murilo Antonio Fischer (Bra) FDJ.fr
70 Kévin Reza (Fra) Team Europcar
71 David Veilleux (Can) Team Europcar
72 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack Leopard
73 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) BMC Racing Team
74 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
75 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Lotto Belisol
76 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) FDJ.fr
77 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
78 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Katusha
79 Alberto Losada Alguacil (Spa) Katusha
80 Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (CRc) Movistar Team
81 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team 0:22:43
82 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
83 Luis Angel Mate Mardones (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
84 Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre-Merida
85 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
86 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
87 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack Leopard
88 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team
89 Gatis Smukulis (Lat) Katusha
90 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge
91 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica-GreenEdge
92 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Astana Pro Team
93 Maarten Wynants (Bel) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
94 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
95 Sébastien Minard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
96 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
97 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol
98 Brice Feillu (Fra) Sojasun
99 Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano
100 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano
101 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Sky Procycling
102 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling
103 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
104 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
105 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale Pro Cycling
106 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Sharp
107 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ.fr
108 Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ.fr
109 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Team Europcar
110 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:25:12
111 Kristijan Koren (Slo) Cannondale Pro Cycling
112 Julien Simon (Fra) Sojasun
113 Frederik Willems (Bel) Lotto Belisol
114 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
115 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack Leopard
116 Julien El Fares (Fra) Sojasun
117 Lars Boom (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
118 Alan Marangoni (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
119 Romain Sicard (Fra) Euskaltel-Euskadi
120 Elia Favilli (Ita) Lampre-Merida
121 Svein Tuft (Can) Orica-GreenEdge