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:
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:
Tony Martin, world champion colors allowed today
The new white jersey, Kwiatkowski
Nairo Quintana
Chavanel, always fast
Rolland in tastefully non-polka-dotted shorts
Jens ‘Shut Up Legs’ Voigt
Richie Porte, with the finish line reflected in his goggles
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.