So it was Grabsch (THR) who kicked things off, and there was virtually no wind in the early part of the day’s racing. His team mate, Martin had his turn later on, and easily beat the opposition to that point, with an average speed over the trial of over 50 km/h. When the 39th rider started, conditions were still favorable, and this was Cancellara, an ace time trialler who won the Prologue at the very beginning of the Tour. He completed the 52 km in just over 60 minutes. This put him well and truly in the lead, with the nearby Atlantic Ocean beginning to drive strong winds at the following participants. The task became gradually harder and harder as the day progressed with strong headwinds and side gusts slowing the riders down and breaking their rhythm.

As the time trial continued it became obvious the high winds were playing havoc, with superb TT competitors reduced to appallingly bad times, and some of them were finishing only in the top hundred, when ordinarily they would have been top 25 contenders or better! Armstrong came in over 7 minutes behind Cancellara’s time – and Armstrong has won 9 individual time trials in past Tours. Others did not fare any better. However, the story of the worsening weather and it effect on the relative timings of the field was not the main event today.

(Photo of Alberto Contador, by Josh Hallett. Reproduced under Creative Commons licence.)

The last two riders out were Andy Schleck, who started 8 seconds down on the last man out Alberto Contador. There had been something about Schleck over the last week; he exuded confidence and didn’t seem at all fazed by the prospect of the time trial, even though the smart money was on Contador to make gains of several minutes. Perhaps none of the usual cycling commentators gave Schleck much of a chance, but he had a shock up his sleeve. Evidently, he has worked very hard on trialling in his training, and at the first time check today, Schleck led Contador by 2 seconds. The deficit was now 6 seconds overall, and people were starting to pay attention! By the 30 km stage, the young Luxembourger had gained 5 seconds on his rival, desperate to pick up another 4 seconds to gain him the Yellow Jersey. Meanwhile, Contador struggled to get into any kind of rhythm as all the last riders fought against the headwinds.

Unfortunately for Schleck, the 5 second advantage on the road, quickly began to dissipate in the breeze, as the smaller and more experienced Spaniard folded himself into a perfectly aerodynamic shape and finally found a good metronomic rhythm, beating out over a hundred cycles per minute on the pedals. However, it wasn’t until 7 km to go that it became clear Contador had gained the upper hand and was making steady progress against Schleck, extending his time advantage in a fiercely strong drive in the latter half of the Stage. Full credit must go to Schleck though; this was indeed his best ever performance in a time trial, and he should be glowing with pride and confidence after that effort today.

In the event, Contador amassed a total of 39 seconds lead over Schleck, with only the final steady ride Paris left, which is normally not much of a contest – except for the sprinters. And for those people in the conspiracy theory camp, yes, 39 seconds is exactly what Contador managed to steal quite controversially from Schleck to gain the Yellow Jersey in the mountains, when Schleck’s chain came off. If the unwritten protocol had been conserved back then, the two riders could still be locked on exactly the same time after today! As it turned out, 39 seconds still represents the fifth closest first and second placings in Tour history. All in all an amazing day today on the tour. The expected slugging match between Sanchez and Menchov fizzled out quickly and was a non-event with Menchov easily overcoming the Spaniard.

Here’s the results of the time trial in Stage 19 and how the General Classification looks tonight, which will probably be the final Standings at the end of the Tour:

So the final showdown did end up as most people expected today, with Contador keeping the Yellow Jersey and almost certainly keeping it unless he crashes out tomorrow in the final stage to Paris. Schleck put on a great show, and came so close, but had to settle for a third White Jersey in the Tour, this being the last year he will be allowed to contest it, as he will be too old next year to qualify.

Tomorrow sees the grand finale, the final stage of the Tour de France 2010, from Longjumeau to Paris Champs-Élysées. This will be a stage for the sprinters and the end of the road for the Green Jersey competition. In the running are the current holder Petacchi, chased by Hushovd, who blames losing the Maillot Vert on the sprint that never was in Stage 2, and the dark horse, Cavendish. It remains to be seen whether the rider from the Isle of Man will throw caution to the wind tomorrow and go for some points in one of the intermediate sprints before running for the finish and a fifth stage win for the year.

So, the stage began much like all the others with a breakaway consisting of 11 riders led by Gautier (BTL). The escape gained traction, and spawned a counterattack by Hunter (GRM) and Popovych (RSH) and by the 25 km mark, the leading group were 2 minutes ahead of the peloton, and the countering group 40 seconds ahead. As was expected, the mountain specialists tested the resolve of other riders all day and on the climbs, riders were dropped if they couldn’t match the pace of their respective groups. By the summit of the second climb (a category 1), the col de la Colombière, there were nine front riders left, chased by a group of two – Cunego and Taaramae; behind this duo was Frohlinger; then a trio consisting of Gadret, Hushovd and Seeldrayers before the pursuing main peloton. However, on the descent there was a general phase of regrouping, leaving a lead group of 12 riders being hunted by the peloton.

As the race continued inexorably closer to the most challenging mountain climb of the Tour, no further major attacks took place, and the leaders steadily extended their time advantage, and with Sanchez at the front, he became the virtual Yellow Jersey with Evans trailing back in the main pack.

(Photo of Anthony Charteau, by Ludo. Reproduced under Creative Commons licence.)

As the ascent of the col de la Madeleine began, the mountain specialists began to stretch the peloton and test the mettle of the other GC contenders. The current King of the Mountains, Pineau, was dropped off the peloton and struggled with the pace of the multiple attacks. Vinokourov took off and left the reamining riders in his dust trail, this group containing the current Yellow Jersey Cadel Evans with a lone team mate, Santambrogio, who assumed the lead of the chasing pack to set pace and keep Evans in contention. Unfortuantely for him, Evans struggled to find the legs to match.

Other riders in the group sensed weakness and capitalized by mounting a huge attack – led by Navarro and promptly matched by his team mate Contador, and the White Jersey holder Andy Schleck. Evans was a spent force at this point and fell off the group. This opened up the chance for Contador and Schleck to fight it out as the two riders left with any real hope of taking the Yellow Jersey overall.

The stage was now set, with many of the hopefuls lost back in the mountains. Four riders were left in the lead group: Casar, Charteau, Cunego and Luis-Leon Sanchez; they were hotly pursued by Contador, Schleck and Moreau (who had dropped off the lead group, but had his team mate Sanchez up in front).

As the front runners played mind games to figure out who was going to attack and when, Contador and Schleck were burning up the road and gaining on the lead group with every second. By the time they had got into the final kilometer, the chase was over and there were seven riders fighting for the win in a tricky sprint finish which saw the road climb and then veer off to the left directly before the finishing the line. Schleck took the lead briefly, but was caught back, and Casar took his first Stage win of this year’s Tour de France (his third in total). Charteau came in fifth, but made strong gains by reaching the summit of the last climb in first place, gaining him the Polka Dot Jersey.

So Stage 9 was an amazing race in the latter stages, and at one point it looked like both Contador and Schleck would steal places from the group which had led the stage from the outset. In the event, they came in 6th and 7th, losing just 2 seconds tothe leaders.

Here are the Stage 9 results and current General Classification (GC) standings:

This means three changes of cycling shirts for the top riders, with Hushovd the only one to retain his Green Jersey today. So Andy Schleck converted his White Young Rider’s Jersey into a Yellow Jersey today with a merciless ride which only Contador was able to match. Evans was the loser in that battle, losing over 8 minutes to Schleck. The White Jersey shuffles its way down to the next best Young Rider, who is Robert Gesink. The Polka Dot Jersey was relinquished today by Pineau, going to Anthony Charteau who put in a great performance in the breakaway group and conquered the first HC climb of the Tour.

The next stage will be contested between Cambéry and Gap, a leg of 179 km, which has a cat. 1 and a cat. 2 climb to negotiate.