As expected Tony Martin dominated today's time trial winning by 1:39 from Tom Demoulin and with only two other riders within two minutes of him. One of these being Vincenzo Nibali, who rode conservatively at the beginning speeding up in the second part of the course. As I rather suspected Jean-Christophe Peraud took the second place from Thibaut Pinot despite a puncture, although Pinot did a good ride. AGR2R Le Mondial had bad luck having two punctures. The second cost young Romain Bardet his fifth place as Tejay Van Garderen moved ahead of him by just two seconds. Even so it has been a great Tour de France for the French. The big disappointment today was Alejandro Valverde who lost a lot of time to both Peraud and Pinot, although he does keep his 4th place.
This afternoon's victory takes Tony Martin's Tour stage wins to four. See updated list of stage winners from 1903 to 2014 here.
Vincenzo Nibali extended his lead to 7:58 – it is a long time since a Tour winner has had such a margin. It is also 30 years since there have been two French riders – Peraud and Pinot – on the podium in Paris, barring accidents during the last stage. The last time was in 1984 when Laurent Fignon won the Tour with Bernard Hinault in second and Greg Lemond in third. Of course Pinot has the white jersey as the Best Young Rider.
No comments:
Post a Comment