Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) made use of his excellent time trialing skills to take a fabulous solo victory in the Vosges when he took off on his own with 56km to go and held off a very strong and determined chase group in stage 9 of the Tour de France. The other big winner was Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) who was part of the second group and took over the yellow jersey from Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) who showed no interest in defending his position in the overall standings.

 

In 2011, Tony Martin took his first Tour de France stage victory when he won the final time trial of that year’s race. Today he made use of the same skills to double his tally but today’s victory was taken in a completely different way.

 

Martin was in a determined mood right from the beginning of the hilly stage in the Vosges that included no less than 6 climbs and after a dangerous group had been brought back after the first climb, the time trial world champion took off. He was joined by Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale) and the pair joined forces to build a gap.

 

Behind the leading pair, the attacking continued until a very strong 28-rider group had formed. In that group, Tony Gallopin was a prominent presence as the Frenchman was sitting in 11th overall, just 3.27 behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali.

 

As most teams had a rider in one of the two breakaways, the peloton showed no interest in chasing them down and Astana clearly indicated that they did not intend to defend their leader’s jersey. Hence, the two breakaways were allowed to extend their gap throughout most of the day and it soon became clear that Gallopin would take the yellow jersey.

 

Martin and De Marchi decided not to wait for their chasers and did a fantastic job to hold off the strong group that contained no less than 5 Europcar riders who worked hard to set up Pierre Rolland and Cyril Gautier for the stage win and a jump up the overall standings. Meanwhile, Martin led De Marchi score plenty of KOM points but as they hit the penultimate climb, the German made his move.

 

Martin attacked on the lower slopes of the 10km ascent and immediately soloed clear. De Marchi cracked immediately and from there, the outcome was never in doubt.

 

Despite a determined chase effort by Gallopin, Rolland, Gautier, Brice Feillu (Bretagne) and Tiago Machado (NetApp) who were all riding for GC, Martin managed to maintain a 3-minute gap in the flat run-in to the finish in Mulhouse. Inside the final 5km, the German had plenty of time to celebrate the solo victory that so narrowly eluded him last year in the Vuelta.

 

Behind, Gallopin dug deep to maximize his gains and rolled across the line at the back of the group from which Fabian Cancellara (Trek) had beaten Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) in the sprint for second. As the Astana-led peloton lost around 5 minutes to that group, the Lotto Belisol rider moved into the overall lead with a 1.34 lead over Nibali. Machado moved into 3rd while Rolland now finds himself in 8th overall.

 

Gallopin faces an uphill battle if he wants to defend his lead as tomorrow’s stage is the hardest of the race so far. With 7 categorized climbs, it is up or down all day before it all comes to a close on the final climb to La Planche des Belles Filles where Chris Froome took a maiden Tour stage victory two years ago.

 

A hilly stage

After yesterday’s first summit finish, the Tour de France continued with its hilliest stage yet when the rdiers travelled over 170km from Gerardmer to Mulhouse. Right from the start, they went up the Cold de la Schlucht and then another 5 climbs followed in quick succession. The final one summited 43km from the finish and from there it was downhill before a flat road led to the finish in Mulhouse.

 

For the umpteenth time, the 184 riders took the start under a very cloudy sky and luckily all riders who finished yesterday's stage, signed in this morning. Right from the gun, the pace was extremely fast as everybody expects this to be a day for a breakaway.

 

A strong group

The attacks started immediately and one of the first riders to give it  a go was green jersey holder Peter Sagan who took off after 2km of racing. However, he was brought back by the time the riders reached the bottom of the first climb, the Col de la Schlucht.

 

The ascent was the perfect launch pad for an offensive and several riders tried to get clear. A very strong 17-rider group with Danny Pate (Sky), Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez and Simon Spilak (Katusha), Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff), Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale), Laurens ten Dam (Belkin), Jan Bakelants (OPQS), Ben Gastauer (AG2R), Tom Dumoulin (Giant), Kristjan Durasek (Lampre), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Amaël Moinard (BMC), Perrig Quémeneur, Cyril Gautier and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Dani Navarro and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Michael Albasini (Orica), Danilo Wyss (IAM), Leo König and José Mendes (NetApp) and Brice Feillu (Bretagne) got an advantage and had a 17-second lead when they approached the summit. Meanwhile, riders started to get dropped, with Arnaud Demare and Rudy Molard among the first riders to lose contact.

 

Martin makes his move

Rodriguez and Voeckler were among the most active in the group and at the top, it was Voeckler who took maximum points ahead of Edet, Rodriguez and Dumoulin. At that point, the peloton was 20 seconds behind but as Trek had missed the move, they chased hard and after 13km of racing, the group was caught.

 

At this point, 26 riders had been tailed off, including Cheng Ji (Giant-Shimano), and they had no chance to come back as the attacking continued. De Marchi made the next move and he was joined by Tony Martin.

 

Mechanical for Kadri

The pair quickly build a 10-second lead while Blel Kadri suffered a mechanical. The gruppetto with Marcel Kittel was now already 2 minutes behind.

 

De Marchi and Martin hit the second climb with a 25-second advantage but had to fight hard to maintain their gap. Behind the attacking continued as Jeremy Roy (FDJ) and a Cofidis rider took off.

 

A strong chase group

They were joined by Van Avermaet, Sagan, Rolland and a few more while Kadri was fighting as hard as he could to rejoin the peloton that was riding extremely fast. That move was borught back and instead Simon Spilak (Katusha) took off.

 

A bit of reshuffling took place until a 28-rider group had emerged. José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez and Simon Spilak (Katusha), Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff), Kristjan Koren (Cannondale), Lars Boom and Steven Kruijswijk (Belkin), Mikaël Chérel and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R), Tom Dumoulin (Giant), Rafa Valls (Lampre), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Amaël Moinard and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Pierre Rolland, Cyril Gautier, Alexandre Pichot, Perrig Quémeneur and Kevin Reza (Europcar), Fabian Cancellara (Trek), Dani Navarro and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Christian Meier (Orica), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM), Tiago Machado (NetApp), Brice Feillu and Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne) had made it into the move while the peloton finally slowed down.

 

Astana in control

Maxim Iglinskiy, Dmitriy Gruzdev and Alessandro Vanotti assumed their position on the front of the group for Astana and they quickly started to lose ground. After 53km of racing, they were 2.05 behind while the chasers had lost 35 seconds.

 

De Marchi led Martin over the top of the climb while behind Rodriguez, Chavanel and Rolland sprinted for KOM points that were not there as the leading pair had taken them all. At the bottom of the third climb, Spilak attacked and he was joined by Machado, Van Avermaet, Montaguti and Edet and moments later Rolland and Navarro also made the junction.

 

Kittel loses ground

That group stayed clear for a little while but with 113km the two chase groups again merged. Meanwhile, a gruppetto had formed around Marcel Kittel and they were already 5 minutes behind the leaders.

 

De Marchi again led Martin over the top of the climb while Pichot and Reza were now sacrificing themselves completely for Gautier and Rolland. Nonetheless, they continued to lose ground and at the top, they were 1.05 behind while the peloton had lost 3.48.

 

Rodriguez scores points

On the next climb, Feillu asked his teammate Bideau to also contribute to the pace-setting but it did not have any effect. At the top, they were s1.50 behind while the peloton followed at 5.55. De Marchi again took maximum points while Rodriguez beat Edet in the sprint for third.

 

Chavanel drops off

Chavanel and Reza were both dropped on the climb and fell back to the peloton. Boom had also lost ground and found himself in lone pursuit for a little while before he also dropped back.

 

Martin took the points in the intermediate sprint while Pichot led the chase group across the line, showing no interest in the points. Iglinskiy and Gruzdev had now fallen off the pace in the peloton which was led by Andriy Grivko and Vanotti.

 

Martin makes his next move

On the biggest climb of the day, Pichot fell off the pace and now Quemeneur set the pace for Europcar. When he had brought the gap down from 2.35 to 2.00, Martin realized that something had to be done and so he attacked on his own.

 

De Marchi tried to rejoin the German but he quickly cracked and started to fade back. Meanwhile, Quemeneur continued to lead the chase group but he was now losing ground to Martin.

 

The chase group splits up

Koren, Ladagnous, Bideau, Meier, Quemeneur and Cancellara were all dropped from the chase group before Navarro launched the first of two attacks. Kruijswijk and Machado both took turns on the front before Moinard launched a promising move that was shut down by Edet.

 

Martin took maximum points on the climb while Rodriguez beat Edet in the sprint for third. Meanwhile, Martin had started the final climb with a 2.10 advantage over De Marchi while the chase group was 1.00 further adrift.

 

Pinot attacks

Rodriguez attacked hard on the climb and managed to pass De Marchi to pick up the final point behind Martin. However, the Spaniard fell back to the chase group on the descent while Michele Scarponi and Lieuwe Westra had now taken over the pace-setting for Astana.

 

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) made a small attack to take the descent on his own but was swallowed up near the bottom. Meanwhile, Machado, Gallopin, Rolland, Gautier and Feillu were now working hard in the chase group to maximize their time gains.

 

Gallopin gets clear

Gallopin even managed to get a gap on the descent and was joined by Cherel to form a duo that stayed clear for a little while. With 10km to go, however, they were brought back and Gallopin went back to work on the front of the group.

 

At the bottom of the descent, Astana had lost 8.10 to Martin but now they started to ride a bit hard, Grivko, Westra, Scarponi and Tanel Kangert all contributed to the pace-setting and started to reduce their deficit.

 

No one was stopping Martin though and he had lots of time to celebrate his victory. 2.45 later Cancellara who had rejoined the group on the descent, beat Van Avermaet in a photo finish in the sprint for 2nd. Kangert led the peloton across the line almost 5 minutes later, meaning that Nibali’s time as race leader had come to an end.