Stage Nine: Spanish Armada Attacks British Fleet

The Spanish Movistar team attacked Chris Froome’s British Team Sky today in the final stage of the Pyrénées, and exposed a possible weakness.  By maintaining the constant pressure of maximum speed through all five steep mountain climbs, Movistar was able to drop all of Froome’s teammates, leaving him to defend himself alone against most of his top rivals.  (Is Team Sky having second thoughts about leaving its Columbians Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Luis Henao off their roster?)  To his credit, Froome only lost time to two rivals – and only 20 seconds.

Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) won the stage after attacking just before the summit of the final climb, followed closely by Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).  Froome’s Yellow Jersey peleton of 19 riders crossed the line 20 seconds later, with two stragglers at 25".  From there, the time gaps were 4 minutes, 7 minutes, 11 minutes, etc., up to the final riders arriving more than 26 minutes behind Martin.

As dangerous as Movistar’s aggression was for Froome, he actually solidified his hold on the Yellow Jersey.  Prior to Stage 9, 15 riders were within 3'07" of Froome; after the stage, only 12 riders are within that gap.  Only Martin and Fuglsang improved their times relative to Froome, and they are both in the bottom half of that challenging pack, at 2'28" and 3'07" respectively.  Andy Schleck (RadioShack), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Daniel Moreno (Katusha) clawed their way back into the top 20, but did not improve their times relative to Froome.  Losers from the previous top 20 were Richie Porte (Sky) from 2nd to 33rd place, Michael Rogers (Saxo) 10th to 18th, Andrew Talansky (Garmin) 12th to 22nd, Igor Anton (Euskaltel) 15th to 19th, and Haimar Zubeldia (RadioShack) 19th to 40th.

None of the leaders for the Green Jersey won any points today, so Peter Sagan (Cannondale) maintains his commanding lead.  Nairo Quintana (Movistar) retained his White Jersey (youth).  Pierre Rolland (Europcar) collected a few more climbing points and kept the Polka-dot Jersey.  Romain Bardet (AG2R) spent much of the race in attacking breakaway groups, and won the combativity award (red number dossard in next stage).  Movistar has a 4'11" lead over Saxo-Tinkoff for the team prize, with Belkin close behind at 5'22".

Tomorrow is a rest day, so there will be no post, unless I hear of something amazing to report.

Tuesday offers a flat stage, with probably a bunch sprint finish.  So, fireworks from Sagan, Greipel and Cavendish.  Wednesday is a flat individual time trial.  So, an opportunity for shifts in the top ranks for the Yellow Jersey.  Stay tuned.

This is the road leading into Bagnères de Bigorre, where Daniel Martin (Garmin) claimed victory in today's 9th Stage.  The race today came down this road in the opposite direction from these riders, who are beginning the climb to the Col du Tourmalet (2011).



When the Tour de France is not in town, Bagnères de Bigorre is a quiet little town, a doorway to the Pyrénées, with a good bike rental shop, if you want to try your own legs on the famous climbs from the Tour de France.  This photo from May, 2011 shows Matt Jensen, Aaron & Nan Kennard, and Ashley Jensen, ready to begin their assault on the Col du Tourmalet.