Relive the infamous 9th stage of 2017 Tour de France!
Before the stage
Geraint Thomas took the yellow jersey after winning the opening time trial in Düsseldorf. Team Sky didn’t give away the leading position, after Thomas, Chris Froome wore the yellow.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) crashed out on the first stage. Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) was disqualified. Fabio Aru (Astana) won on the La Planche des Belles Filles. Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) won his first Tour de France etape.
The stage
3 HC category mountains in the program, this is quite rare even at the Tour de France.
- Col de la Biche,
- Grand Colombiere, which was introduced to the race previous year and has the steepest gradient of all of the Tour de France mountains and at last but not least,
- Mont du Chat, which is according to Eddy Merckx, was the hardest climb he ever had to climb
Because the race started immediately with climbing, it was expected a bigger breakaway group with at least one rider of every team fighting for the yellow.
The big group
A 40-men huge breakaway group established early including Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Warren Barguil (Sunweb), Tiesj Benoot, Tony Gallopin (both Lotto-Soudal) among others. On the first big test, Col de la Biche, the group started to get smaller. Although at the top of the climb Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) launched an attack, Roglic took the maximum points on the top of the hill.
At the foot of the Grand Colombier, only a few riders left. The protagonists of the breakaway group for the next few couples of km were Tiesj Benoot, Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R), Warren Barguil and Jarlison Pantano (Trek-Segafredo). Barguil took the maximum point for the climb. He reamained at the front till the group of the favouites joined him
Meanwhile in the peloton
The peloton was controlled by Team Sky during most of the race. Downhill from the La Binche Ag2R lanched an attack, tried to decimate this group. They caused a big damage in the line of team Sky, Gerain Thomas crashed on the descent of the climb. Also other riders hit the ground at this part of the race, like Jesus Herrada (Movistar) in the breakaway groug, and Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe).
The real fight in the main group started on the last climb, when Fabio Aru launched an attack. exaclty the same moment when Chris Froome was asking for the team car. He had to change his bike, while some of his rivals went away. But not for long, the atrtack was shot down, due to the circumstances.
Aru was restless, but Froome had his own attack. Most of his rival could follow and joinh him, except Nairo Quitana (Movistar). During the crazy downhill ride, Richie Porte (BMC) crashed, also Dan Martin (Quick Step Floors) was involved in the scene, but he could continue the race.
Intermezzo far behind the peloton
Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ), the French champion suffered already from the frist km. He has several temamates with him, all of the arrived later out of the tie limit and had to leave the race.
The thriller in the finish
The small group of the main contenders has caught Barguil with 2,2 km to go. From this group Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) seemed to be the most capable to win the stage. Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) had some mechanical problem, couldn’t change the gear for a while, but the problem was soon solved. At the end he and Barguil crossed the finish line together.
For the first glimps it looked that Barguil was the first, he was even invited to the media room for the usual backstage interview, meanwhile it was confirmed by the photo finish, that Uran had his bike a bit ahead an he reached the line first