Cycling Shirts Guide

After the rest day yesterday, the cycling shirts were due to change today, as the survivors from the first week of competition took on Stage 9, and a highly challenging 204.5 km leg from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint Jean de Maurienne. This stage featured only two intermediate sprints, and five climbs, one of them the first of the dreaded “Hors Catégorie” climbs – a climb beyond categorization, and a real tough one, namely the col de la Madeleine.

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.