The hailstorm in Andorra and the solo victory of Tom Dumoulin (Alpecin -Giant). I’m pretty sure, everyone still remembers this stage. But how exactly it happened? Let’s see!
Previously on Tour de France 2016
This was the last Tour de France when Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) won a stage. Well, actually, he won a total of four stages (three on the first week and one later) and wore the yellow jersey for one day. Also, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Greg van Avermaet (BMC) claimed the first position in the GC temporarily before Chris Froome came and jumped up into the lead for the rest of the race on the 8th stage. Thus the 9th stage was the first one when he and his team had to defend this position.
GC Top 10 before the stage
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 39:13:04
2 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 0:00:16
3 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:17
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:19
6 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:23
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
8 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
9 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
The route
Stage 9 was the first day to end with a hilltop finish. The program included a total of five climbs, one 2nd, three 1st, and an HC category climb, the 10,1 km long and 7,2% steep Andorra Arcalis. Although the weather at the start of the race seemed to be fine, the snow on the top of the highest mountain of Andorra was ominous. The race also visited Spain for a short time that day.
Contador abandoned
At the beginning of the stage, a huge breakaway group (around 20 riders) tried to escape from the peloton. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) reacted a bit late but wanted to join this bunch. Soon he dropped, and the next time we saw him, it was the moment when he was sitting in the team car. He had fever since the beginning of the stage, tried to defeat the sickness, but he failed.
Fight for the polka dots
The stage with the five ascents provided an excellent opportunity to fight for the polka dot jersey. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), the actual leader of the competition was among the breakaway riders, but the day delivered the unlikely rivalry of Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ). Until the penultimate climb, which was too much for De Gendt. Pinot took the jersey at the end of the day and wore it until his withdrawal before the 13th stage.
But before he dropped, Thomas De Gendt had an impressive solo ride between the 3rd and the 4th (the penultimate) climbs. Meanwhile, the peloton, controlled by Team Sky, was almost ten minutes behind.
Tom Dumoulin’s private time trial
The race at the front among the last 8 breakaway riders started to be really sparkling before the start of the final climb. Although it started officially with 10,1 km to go, the road was slightly ascending already before. This transitional 7-8 km delivered a highspeed race and a great battle among the breakaway riders.
Pinot was of course still the dominant rider, but we could see attacks from George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) or an impressive attempt to escape by the duo of Dani Navarro (Cofidis) Jesus Herrada (Movistar).
This part of the race was the first time when Dumoulin seemed to be active in the group and he helped to chase the actual escapees. He also had some attempts, the most successful one happened with 13 km to go. From that moment on, nobody could be a danger for his stage victory. His closest chasers were Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) – Rafal Majka
The battle of the GC guys
Dumoulin already rode inside the final 10 kilometers when the rain mixed with haildrops started pouring. According to the race cameras, he got the less of them, his chasers, and especially the GC-riders in the peloton suffered from the surprise of Mother Nature more.
It was already decided with 55 to go, that the peloton would let the breakaway group go. This was the moment when the gap jumped over 9 minutes. Team Sky was preparing only for the battle between the GC-rivals, without having any thought about another stage victory after the previous day.
And the battle started in the middle of the hailstorm. Dan Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) was really eager to prove himself against Froome. But the man in the yellow was able to answer all the attacks.
Froom attacked too, and his strongest counterpart seemed to be Nairo Quintana (Movistar). Also, Richie Porte’s (BMC) performance was impressive. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) had a short-lived attack and Romain Bardet (Ag2R) managed to stay in the main group of favourites mostly inside the final 4-5 km too.
Adam Yates(Orica-BikeExchange), the rider in the white jersey had something like a power move before the finish line, he outsprinted Froome, but it had no impact on his position in the GC. The only big name we lost at the end of the stage was Fabio Aru (Astana), who dropped from the group of the favourites right before the 4 km gate.
Top 10 of the stages
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 5:16:24
2 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre – Merida 0:00:38
3 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team
4 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:39
5 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team 0:01:57
6 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:02:30
7 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:02:48
8 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:02:52
9 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:03:44
10 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 0:06:35
GC top10 after the stage
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 44:36:03
2 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 0:00:16
3 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:19
4 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:23
5 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:37
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:44
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
8 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky
9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre – Merida 0:00:55
10 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:01