Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin won the toughest stage in the Pyrenees of the Tour de France with a solo breakaway in a hailstorm Sunday.
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Sam Bennett digs deep during yesterday’s ninth stage of the Tour de France from Vielha val d’Aran to Andorra.
The day was still a success for Froome, with his overall lead again reflecting his team’s brilliant work to control the stage before the finale, as much as his ability to account for a number of attacks on the last climb to Arcalis when the conditions were at their worst.
The Italian Tour debutant Fabio Aru lost a minute, which does not bode well, but Romain Bardet and Rodríguez limited their losses; like Quintana, the pair remain within a minute of Froome along with Henao, the Dutchman Bauke Mollema – another energetic attacker here – and the South African Louis Meintjes.
Rui Costa (Lampre – Merida) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) tried to reel the 25-year-old in, but his break was timed to perfection, sealing his first stage win at the Tour.
Froome is primarily concerned with Movistar’s Nairo Quintana.
“I’ve showed that I’m not only a time trial specialist”.
“It won’t make a big difference because there was a downhill and flat portion before the finish”, said Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour technical director. The level is higher.
Froome’s former team mate Richie Porte (BMC) of Australia, Yates and Martin also managed to hang on to the defending champion’s wheel.
The general classification lead pack featuring Team Sky rider Chris Froome in the yellow jersey arrived about six and a half minutes behind, led by Adam Yates of Orica-BikeExchange.
“He had a flag that was flying out behind him and it was just getting risky so I pushed him away”, the defending champion added.
The race will resume with a 197km stage from Escaldes-Engordany to Revel on Tuesday (July 12), with the first rest day taking place tomorrow.
Froome, however, is happy to be in the ideal position to sustain his bid for a third triumph in four years and he said: “I’m going into the first rest day in yellow, I’ve got a fantastic team around me and I couldn’t be in a better place right now”. “All the way up to the last kilometre and into the last kilometre, I thought, “He hasn’t attacked yet, maybe he’s saving it for one big move” but that never came”. As he didn’t, I like to think that he was at his limit.
Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium, who was in a breakaway with Cummings, held on to the yellow jersey he claimed two days earlier. My teammates did such a good job.
“They (his rivals) were sticking to us so I made a decision to give it a go in the descent”.
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As Team Sky powered the peloton for overall leader Froome, the lead group were battling for mountains points, and De Gendt edged the next two ahead of Pinot, Majka and Diego Rosa (Astana). “I owe it to the that I am still in the yellow this evening”.
