Cycling: What a terrific performance from Chris Froome and his team Sky today on the first Pyrenees stage of the Tour de France. The man in yellow wins superiorly, just under a minute ahead of team-mate Richie Porte. Quintana loses over a minute, Contador over two and Nibali is out of the title race for good. André Greipel gets the green jersey back.
After yesterday's rest day, the peloton went into the first difficult mountain stage, which as usual led to the Pyrenees, at least partially recovered. Right from the start you could feel that all the riders, but of course especially the classification riders and the climbers, were preparing for the mountain finish at the Col de la Pierre-Saint-Martin. This is how it happened that a breakaway duo quickly found themselves at the front: First Pierrick Fedrigo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) drove away alone at the front after a few kilometers, Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) was stuck behind him. After a few kilometers the two found themselves at the front and within a short time they were more than 10 minutes ahead of the peloton, which was carefully dividing its strength.
It got exciting again at the intermediate sprint in Trois-Villes after 124km. After the top duo, André Greipel secured 15 points ahead of Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin). Thus, the Rostocker from Lotto-Soudal was able to pass Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) again in the points classification and will start again tomorrow in the green jersey.
At the foot of the irrhythmic, sometimes extremely steep final ascent to the finish in Pierre-Saint-Martin, the great exchange of blows between the favorites began. The two escapees had meanwhile been removed from the field, although Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), a new escapee, drove away at the top, but attention was focused on the classification drivers, and of course Chris Froome in the lead. The Man in Yellow had two very strong helpers with him in Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas, but Contador, Quintana and Nibali were also ready and riding in their helpers' tow.
Surprisingly, the first victim of the steep ramps was Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). Last year's winner had problems in Huy and on the Mur de Bretagne last week and even today he couldn't keep up with the pace of the competition. Even before the really big speed increases at the front, the Italian let go and left a lot behind. Then there was a gripping exchange of blows between Sky and Movistar. The two noble helpers from Froome and Quintana, Porte and Valverde increased the pace again and again and did not give each other a millimeter.
The next victim of the enormously high pace at the front was Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), who was now also on his own. He had to give up 10 km before the finish - shortly afterwards he was followed by Tejay van Garderen (BMC), who was really strong again today and who, like Contador, had no support from the team anymore. So the starting position was clear: It was a duel between Quintana and Froome, between Movistar and Sky for the day's victory.
But Chris Froome had other plans: 6km (!) before the finish, the 30-year-old attacked with a freshness and liveliness, as if he had nothing more than a trip to the ice cream parlor in his legs. As if nothing could be easier, he pulled away from Quintana and within 2km he was already half a minute behind. The Colombian looked even fresher than Nibali, Contador and van Garderen, but couldn't keep up the pace of the Sky captain.
While Alejandro Valverde fell back after the exhausting exchange of blows with Sky, Richie Porte also looked very fresh. The Australian was even able to pick up the pace towards the end of the stage and knock Quintana out of second place in the final meters. Double victory for Sky and a severe damper for the ambitions of Quintana, Contador, van Garderen and above all Nibali, who finally said goodbye to the title race with a deficit of more than 4 minutes today and more than 6 minutes in the overall classification.
Final result stage 10 Tour de France 2015
[easy table th=“0″]1., Chris Froome, Sky, 04:22:07
2., Richie Porte, Sky, 00:00:59
3., Nairo Quintana, Movistar, 00:01:04
4th, Robert Gesink, LottoNL-Jumbo, 00:01:33
5th, Alejandro Valverde, Movistar, 00:02:01
6th,Geraint Thomas,Sky,
7.,Adam Yates,Orica-GreenEdge,00:02:04
8th, Pierre Rolland, Europcar,
9.,Tony Gallopin,Lotto-Soudal,00:02:22
10.,Tejay van Garderen,BMC,00:02:30
[/easy table]
[tab:Preview]
The time has finally come: The Tour de France reaches the mountains – and how! The 167km from Tarbes to La Pierre Saint-Martin will be the first benchmark in the overall standings and could also cause some time gaps. The profile of the day's stage is quite unusual for a mountain stage: it goes over 140km through rather moderately mountainous areas, before the 24km long Col de Soudet awaits at the end up to the stage destination in La Pierre Saint-Martin.
The average gradient of the climb up the 1.610m La Pierre Saint-Martin is just 5,5%, but there are always steeper ramps of over 10% that will make the riders suffer for the first time this year . It will be interesting to see how the favorites and their teams fare towards the final climb - it's likely to be a tense stalk, perhaps with some saber rattling and the occasional small attack to lure the competition out of reserve.
How the favorites are positioned at the foot of the Col de Soudet will be crucial today. Sky and Movistar certainly have the best cards here to position their drivers Froome and Quintana with good prospects. But Contador or Nibali will also want to have a say about the day's victory and at least do everything possible not to lose any time on their competitors before the most difficult stages of the tour so far await in the next two days.
[tab:Cards and Profiles]stage profile
La Pierre Saint Martin
[tab:TV and streaming]TV
Tuesday, July 14, 14:15 p.m. – 17:00 p.m
Tuesday, July 14, 15:10 p.m. – 17:10 p.m
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