Stage 9 - Reality Check

Obviously there was only enough product left in the Sky Team bus to service Chris Froome overnight after the teams dominant display in Stage 8. As a result, the entire Sky Team was shelled on the opening cat-2 climb of stage 9, leaving Froome to ride without support for the remaining 130km to Bagneres-de-Biggore. He managed to so so successfully, and the fact that none of his rivals, many with much more team support, were not able to put him in difficulty or gain time on him at any stage goes to show why this years Tour is pretty much done and dusted. However, Richie Porte paid for his efforts off the previous day, and saw his podium hopes go up in smoke, after failing big time and losing over 10 minutes on this stage. That has seen Alejandro Valverde move up to second, and Bauke Mollema move up to third, after both finished with the main group of favorites which included Froome (and Cadel Evans).

The win on the day went to Dan Martin, who broke away with Jakob Fuglsang on the days final climb, and managed to maintain their lead on the descent to finish 30 seconds ahead of the, extremely depleted main bunch. Martin is a hardworking Irishman who is one of those riders who is super talented but just lacks that X factor to be a top 10 tour rider, so it was good to see him win the stage. The only jersey change was mountains classification, with Pierre Rolland getting into a mid-race break and scooping up enough points to retake the polka dot jersey from Chris Froome.

It was good to see the Sky team absolutely capitulate after yesterday's 'out of this world' performance, although it must be still concerning that Froome was able to stay with all the favourites with what seemed consummate ease. Still I presume the Sky boys will be in 'recovery mode' on tomorrow's rest day, and with a decent break now until the next major mountains clash they are sure to be fresh and ready to go by the time we get to Mount Ventoux. I did find this comment on the cycling news website quite amusing though:

"OK Porte, we gotta turn down the heat on us, so I need you to finish 15 minutes back, just roll in with the grupetto, and then everyone can believe in us again". LOL, Sky are bad actors as well as bad cheaters!

Yellow Jersey - Chris Froome

Green Jersey - Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey - Pierre Rolland

White Jersey - Nairo Quintana
OK Porte, we gotta turn down the heat on us, so I need you to finish 15 minutes back, just roll in with the grupetto, and then everyone can believe in us again". LOL, Sky are bad actors as well as bad cheaters!