Shoutouts to Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin, winners for stages 8 and 9 respectively, for their incredible victories over the weekend. Without a doubt two of the most engaging stages yet on the tour, let's begin on Saturday:
The first true mountain stage of the tour took place saturday as the tour rolled into the Pyrenees, with 4 major climbs on the day including the tour favorite, the Col du Tourmalet and the finishing climb of the day on Col de Peyresourde. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, a top climber on the tour, attempted to take the glory for France early on with an attack, but was eventually caught on the slopes of the 3rd climb. The GC leaders played it relatively conservatively until the reached the last climb. At this point the attacks began, as each team relentlessly attempted to put tour favorite Froome into distress, forcing him to mark each move, which he did time and time again. As the lead group reached the summit of that final climb, Chris Froome, in what he claims was a spur-of-the-moment decision, launched his own attack as they crested, a blistering downhill assault that caught all of his competitors off guard. Showing a reckless abandon not frequently seen by a leader of the tour, he reached speeds of 50 MPH and was able to open up and hold a gap on the leaders, enough to give him control of the yellow jersey for the first time in this years edition of the tour. The main filed was able to limit the time loss to 13 seconds, but notice was served to the entire peleton: this race has one favorite, and his name is Chris Froome.
Sunday
The first mountaintop finish of the tour, Stage 9 was not only a battle against the mountains, it was a battle against the weather that is likely to be remembered in future years for the grit and determination of the riders as the final climb was completed in a deluge of rain and hailstones. The severe weather conditions did little to prevent a second consecutive day of persistent attacking against stage 8 winner and GC leader Chris Froome, as the other teams desperately look for cracks in his armor. Sadly for them, none seem to exist as the stage ended with him retaining yellow.
Tom Dumoulin was the lone survivor of an early breakaway, holding on in the terrible conditions to outlast Rui Costa and Rafal Majka by 38 seconds. Other remnants of the breakaway, none of whom are in GC contention, straggled across in the downpour ahead of the select group of leaders including Froome, Quintana, Martin and BMC's Richie Porte, who in doing so left the side of teammate Tejay Van Garderan who was dropped on the climb and left to fend for himself, losing 17 seconds on the lead group. Porte was in top-notch form, launching attack after attack on the leaders, along with Dan Martin. It was all Quintana could do just to keep up, let alone launch his own assault, which is leading to the question of whether Quintana has the legs at this point to launch an attack even if he wanted to. It was young Adam Yates and Froome ho eventually crossed the line recording the same time, with the other leaders coming in 2 seconds later. Froome is clearly the man to beat, and going into Mondays first rest day, make no mistake, he is the one and only man to beat if anyone has dreams of wearing the yellow into Paris. That said, there are many hills left to climb in this years tour.
YELLOW - Chris Froome, by 16 seconds over Adam Yates
GREEN - Mark Cavendish
POLKA DOT - Thibault Pinot
WHITE - Adam Yates