Briton Chris Froome retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after controlling his closest rivals in the ascent to Arcalis, a 10.1km effort at an average gradient of 7.2 percent.
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The Colombian finished second to Froome in each of the Briton’s previous Tour victories in 2013 and past year.
Given that all Chris Froome’s stage wins in the Tour de France prior to this year had come either in uphill finishes or time trials, there were grounds for claiming that the double Tour de France victor was a cyclist with a relatively limited register based on sheer power on mountain tops and against the watch. The Colombian shadowed Froome all the way up.
This tactic played out differently at the end of Stage 9, and the team might find itself regretting the decision, for it may have prevented Froome from gaining more time on his rivals. “Tomorrow, it will be too hard with all the climbs, but I’m happy I spent an extra day in the yellow jersey”. “‘But push on and use that as a little bit of a disguise, if you like, to try and get a small gap and catch people out'”.
Froome won on Ventoux in 2013 on his way to his first Tour title and will hope a repeat performance can strengthen his presently narrow lead overall.
Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford has noticed a difference in the way his star man is handling himself.
“I’m happy to still be in yellow”.
“We’ll take it day by day”, he said. His Movistar team insists there is still a long way to go before the race reaches Paris and that Quintana will have plenty of opportunities to challenge Froome, especially at Mont Ventoux or in the Alps.
He slid back into the peloton as Contador, who had been distanced earlier, was struggling, rolling down to his team auto four times before getting off his bike for good.
The Team Sky leader will carry a 16-second lead into Monday’s rest day after repeatedly snuffing out attacks as conditions became treacherous late in the day.
Contador crashed in each of the opening stages and had already dropped significant time to the other overall favorites.
Yates said: “There is no pressure”. That changed with Saturday’s daring descent and stage win in the Pyrenees. He climbed off his bike after battling through the first week with injuries sustained on day one. “A few days ago, had you asked me if I was going to win the queen stage, I would have said you’re insane”.
Bennett is now last overall but if he can recover enough over the next few days, may well feature on one of the flatter sprint stages to come.
Martin then attacked the group a kilometre later, with only last year’s runner-up Nairo Quintana of Movistar able to follow. Maybe he’s saving it for one big move’.
“I’d like to think he was on the limit”.
The stony-faced Colombian is famously hard to read on the bike and has given little away so far.
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Then on Sunday’s trek over five massive Pyrenean cols, Froome had to contend with freak weather conditions as much as his rivals, when four hours of blazing heat abruptly gave way to near freezing conditions. Or will Froome manage to maintain if not extend his lead from here?
