His biggest rival, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), is within 23 seconds and a total of eight riders are within a minute. It is different between riding a week-long race and a Grand Tour.
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“(Teammate) Alejandro (Valverde) went flat out to chase that move, but it wasn’t enough”, Quintana added. He never relinquished the lead. By no means did I expect it to be easy and I was just going to ride away from everyone. He lead the race by almost three minutes after that, again never being overtaken.
Even midway through the stage, Froome rode hard at the front of the peloton, perhaps sensing that some of his rivals were having trouble keeping pace.
“Good question”, Froome said when asked why no move came from the Movistar rider.
Yates, one of the most gifted riders of his generation, is a potential Tour de France victor and the time has now come for him to play with the best over three weeks, meaning a stage win has to come second to GC considerations.
Dan Martin, an Irish rider with Etixx-Quick Step, won a sprint for second, crossing 13 seconds behind, and Joaquim Rodriguez, a Spaniard with Katusha, finished third. “You just need the right technology to find it – you’ve either got an engine in your bike or you haven’t”. “I’m glad I did”.
Thomas’ impressive display at last year’s Tour de France helped Froome win a second title with the Cardiff-born rider ultimately finishing 15th. To go from one end of the spectrum to the other like that made it quite hard out there. “For morale and for the team, but also tactically, it puts the shoe on the other foot because the other teams have to go out and have to gain back time they’ve lost already”.
Slightly more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the end of Stage 9 from the Spanish town of Vielha to the ski resort of Arcalis in Andorra, the 33-year-old Spaniard stopped at the side of the road, hopped off his bike and got into the passenger seat of his team auto.
Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford has noticed a difference in the way his star man is handling himself. “It’s great for us to still be in yellow after such a tough two days like that”, he said.
“At the end of the day there s only one team controlling this race, that s us”.
The two stages following today’s first rest day seem unlikely to have much of an impact on the GC, but things change after that.
Thursday’s stage to Mont Ventoux is likely the next key one for Froome and his overall rivals.
“There is no pressure”, he said. “But also looking towards … stage 17, 18, 19 and 20”.
Cavendish has performed far in excess of all expectations in an outstanding opening week in which he took his career total of Tour stage wins to 29.
“I did everything I could”, said Contador, a Tour victor in 2007 and 2009 who is now 3:12 off the pace.
“I guess people just don’t quite understand how it is when you’re on the limit – it’s just not always possible to keep attacking”. “All the way up until the last km …”
“He attacked on the first climb and was up front so obviously he wasn’t feeling too bad at the start, but of course he was still suffering with injury”.
Whatever the outcome, Froome spearheads what is an unprecedented level of success for British cycling in the 112-year-old Tour’s first nine days.
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The major contenders for overall honors were then left to battle it out just over six minutes behind.
