Le Tour 2014 – Stage 9

Gérardmer – Mulhouse

Distance: 170 kilometers.

This stage begins with a Category 2 climb, then two Category 3s, followed by another Category 2. Then there is 20 km of hills before the first Category 1 on this year’s Tour which has a Category 3 climb and then about 40 km of downhill to the finish. The sprinters will be pushed even further back in the General Classification.

A Frenchman, Tony Gallopin, will be wearing the Yellow Jersey on Bastille Day. Nibali’s team needed to save their energy for tomorrow’s stage where they think that Contador will make his move in the General Classification. By protecting Nibali so long the Astana team has been stretched fairly thin chasing down escape groups.

The other big winner was Tony Martin who repeated Blel Kadri’s win of yesterday – taking the stage, the Polka Dots, and the Red Numbers.

Tony Gallopin ( Fra – LTB – 134 ) [Yellow] 38h 04′ 38″
Peter Sagan ( Svk – CAN – 051 ) [Green] 267 points
Tony Martin ( Ger – OPQ – 075 ) [Polka Dot] 18 points
Michal Kwiatkowski ( Pol – OPQ – 074 ) 6 [White]

Team: Astana Pro ( AST – 041-049 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Tony Martin ( Ger – OPQ – 075 )
Combative: Tony Martin ( Ger – OPQ – 075 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1 Tony Gallopin ( Fra – LTB – 134 )
2 Vincenzo Nibali ( Ita – AST – 041 ) + 01′ 34″
3 Tiago Machado ( Por – TNE – 206 ) + 02′ 40″
4 Jakob Fuglsang ( Den – AST – 042 ) + 03′ 18″
5 Richie Porte ( Aus – SKY – 007 ) + 03′ 32″
6 Michal Kwiatkowski ( Pol – OPQ – 074 ) + 04′ 00″
7 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte ( Esp – MOV – 011 ) + 04′ 01″
8 Pierre Rolland ( Fra – EUC – 151 ) + 04′ 07″
9 Alberto Contador ( Esp – TCS – 031 ) + 04′ 08″
10 Romain Bardet ( Fra – ALM – 082 ) + 04′ 13″

The Rest of the Top 30:

11 Alberto Costa Rui ( Por – LAM – 111 ) + 04′ 26″
12 Bauke Mollema ( Ned – BEL – 061 ) + 04′ 36″
13 Jurgen Van Den Broeck ( Bel – LTB – 131 ) + 04′ 36″
14 Cyril Gautier ( Fra – EUC – 154 ) + 04′ 44″
15 Thibaut Pinot ( Fra – FDJ – 127 ) + 05′ 06″
16 Tejay Van Garderen ( US – BMC – 141 ) + 05′ 08″
17 Jean-Christophe Péraud ( Fra – ALM – 081 ) + 05′ 11″
18 Geraint Thomas ( GB – SKY – 008 ) + 05′ 28″
19 Andrew Talansky ( US – GRS – 091 ) + 05′ 56″
20 Yury Trofimov ( Rus – KAT – 029 ) + 06′ 12″
21 Mikel Nieve Iturralde ( Esp – SKY – 005 ) + 06′ 43″
22 Brice Feillu ( Fra – BSE – 211 ) + 06′ 56″
23 Laurens Ten Dam ( Ned – BEL – 067 ) + 07′ 18″
24 Christopher Horner ( US – LAM – 114 ) + 07′ 46″
25 Steven Kruijswijk ( Ned – BEL – 064 ) + 07′ 53″
26 Tom Dumoulin ( Ned – GIA – 106 ) + 08′ 08″
27 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre ( Esp – TFR – 169 ) + 08′ 27″
28 Leopold Konig ( Cze – TNE – 201 ) + 09′ 09″
29 Tanel Kangert ( Est – AST – 046 ) + 09′ 47″
30 Tony Martin ( Ger – OPQ – 075 ) + 12′ 15″

Did not finish:
Egoitz Garcia Echeguibel ( Esp – COF – 173 )

Note: Wikipedia has a simple article on the Mountain classification used on the Tour. The basic fact is that climbs fall into five types, with the four numbered types decreasing in difficulty as the numbers get larger, and then there is the Hors Catégorie, literally “without category”, which generally makes you look for an elevator or Sherpas.

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