SUBJECTIVE RACE COVERAGE FROM NEW YORK CITY

Tour de France

THE 100 TOURS POSTER IS HERE AT LAST.

STAGE 11 : July 10

Avranches → Mont-Saint-Michel

Good day / Bad day

Tony Martin had to wait several hours before winning the stage — such is the strange nature of the individual time trial. While this was a pretty flat stage and not as wind-affected as yesterday, it nevertheless came down to a pair of exciting rides, first by Martin and then Chris Froome. Martin’s pace of 54.271km/h turned out to be unbeatable and no wonder he’s the reigning World Champion at this event. But Froome was faster at both splits: up 1 second after 9.5 km and up 2 after 22 km.

This was where my feed crashed and I missed the end and so this is all post-race review and something has to be done about my service provider. Apparently Froome slowed over the last 11km and finished 0:12 back. He may have ridden harder than he needed to, but to gain a minute on Valverde and more on the rest of the field — probably worth it. Coming that close to beating Martin is just a bonus, whereas Martin was mostly definitely ‘riding for pride’ as Liggett said.

Of course, on the day Froome was the big winner, gaining 2:00 over 2nd place Valverde. The other big result was the passing of the white jersey from my man Quintana to pretty damn impressive Michal Kwiatkowski. Poland has had just one stage winner: Zenon Jaskuła, who finished third in the ’93 Tour. I’d like to see Kwiatkowski do well.

But Tony Martin! I read somewhere that only in the last couple days could he sleep on his back again after that big, terrible crash 5km from the end of stage 1 (remember the bus). Here’s why:

11_martin

Source here.

Tough man.

Just out of curiousity to see how this time trial affected the general classification, I made this quick table. Not sure it shows all the much, actually, except that Froome and Martin were a lot stronger today and that this mostly helps Froome build a lead but doesn’t much change the GC standings (Martin went from 118 at +01:20:29 to 112 at +01:20:17 so virtually no change) or who might be the main contenders.

GC at start Stage placing GC at end Position Time lost*
FROOME
41h 52’ 43"
MARTIN
36’ 29"
FROOME
42h 29’ 24"
VALVERDE
+ 01’ 25"
FROOME
+ 00’ 12"
VALVERDE
+ 03’ 25"
2:00
MOLLEMA
+ 01’ 44"
DE GENDT
+ 01’ 01"
MOLLEMA
+ 03’ 37"
1:53
TEN DAM
+ 01’ 50"
PORTE
+ 01’ 21"
CONTADOR
+ 03’ 54"
AC ↑ 2 AC 2:03
KREUZIGER
+ 01’ 51"
KWIATKOWSKI
+ 01’ 31"
KREUZIGER
+ 03’ 57"
1:06
CONTADOR
+ 01’ 51"
TUFT
+ 01’ 35"
TEN DAM
+ 04’ 10"
LTD ↓ 2 LTD 2:20
QUINTANA
+ 02’ 02"
CHAVANEL
+ 01’ 37"
KWIATKOWSKI
+ 04’ 44"
MK ↑ 6 MK 1:19
MARTIN
+ 02’ 28"
ROY
+ 01’ 43"
QUINTANA
+ 05’ 18"
NQ ↓ 1 NQ 3:16
RODRIGUEZ
+ 02’ 31"
DUMOULIN
+ 01’ 45"
COSTA
+ 05’ 37"
RAC ↑ 1 RAC 2:52
COSTA
+ 02’ 45"
CASTROVIEJO
+ 01’ 52"
PÉRAUD
+ 05’ 39"
JCP ↑ 4 JCP 2:10
*That is, the amount by which each guy lost time to Froome. In this regard Kreuziger had the best day, while Kwiatkowski had the best day in terms of the classification.

Anyway, here are some of the guys:

11_martin_race

Tony Martin, world champion colors allowed today

11_kwiatkowski

The new white jersey, Kwiatkowski

11_quintana

Nairo Quintana

11_chavanel

Chavanel, always fast

11_rolland

Rolland in tastefully non-polka-dotted shorts

11_voigt

Jens ‘Shut Up Legs’ Voigt

11_porte

Richie Porte, with the finish line reflected in his goggles

11_froome_b

Froome on the course

Lastly, such a shame to have someone throw urine at Cavendish. No one deserves that, obviously. Froome said it ‘ruins the whole atmosphere’ of the Tour. Jokes about yellow jerseys aside, it was stupid.

Here is your daily champion for Stage 11:
Laurent Fignon, ‘The Professor’
Winning a time trial in the ’82 Tour.
Battling Hinault in ’84.
Winner in ’83 and ’84. Forever associated with a certain individual time trial on the Champs Élysées, Fignon was a fighter, headstrong and proud, and a great rival in the age of great rivalries. He died too young in 2010 and all was forgiven.
Please email me if you own the copyright to any of the above images and would like an image credit or link, or it you do not want them displayed. Thanks.

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