2017 Tour de France: carnage on stage 9 – Uran wins, Froome still in Yellow

As I feared very steep descents on wet roads brought carnage to the Tour yesterday with Geraint Thomas and then Richie Porte the headline riders who crashed out. Other riders out include Robert Gesink (crash), Arnaud Démare along with three team mates, Mark Renshaw, Matteo Trentin and Peter Sagan's brother – Juraj – all were outside the time limit for yesterday's brutal stage.

  

Despite a damaged bike – unable to change gear from the top 11 sprocket with only the option of moving from the big ring to the small, Rigoberto Uran just managed to hold off Warren Bargueil to win the stage – his first ever TdF stage win. Bargueil, who rode very well, has the compensation of being in the climbers' jersey with a healthy 30 point lead plus several days to recover before the next set of mountains. 

Chris Froome came through this tough test showing on the final climb Mont du Chat that he was the strongest climber on the day. The Yellow Jersey overall classification is now clearer with now only three riders – Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran within a minute of Froome. Nairo Quintana faded on the last climb and is now at 2.13 while Alberto Contador had a terrible time and is now 12th overall at 5.15 down. 

Sprinter Michael Matthews did an amazing ride to get over two HC climbs to pick up maximum points in the Intermediate Sprint. With Démare out – not sure why FDJ sacrificed three team mates to assist the clearly ill and weak Démare – Matthews looks to be Marcel Kittel's only serious challenger for the Green Jersey. However, he is still 52 points behind Kittel with several sprinters' stages still to come. Kittel must be the favourite for Green. 

Today is a very welcome rest day to be followed by a couple of likely sprint stages. 

 

2017 Tour de France: Calmejane wins in Jura. Brutal Stage 9 preview

 Fine first TDF stage win for Lilian Calmejane 

Chris Froome still in Yellow – 

will he still be wearing it after Stage 9?

Yesterday the fine solo victory of 24-year-old Lilian Calmejean added further to the promise already shown by this young French rider. Not only was this his first TDF stage win but he took the climber's mountain polka dot jersey from Fabio Aru. Let's hope that the pressure of being a new hope for French cycling doesn't prove too much of a burden for him.  

Yesterday's stage was easily the most exciting of this year's Tour with the racing fast and furious from the off and it never really settled down. As I suggested yesterday not only was there big competition to get into the break but the sprinters' teams were also keen to contest the intermediate sprint, which was early on in the stage. 

The uncategorized climb out of Arbois found out some of the riders – notably Arnaud Démare and Luke Rowe, the team captain of Sky. 

Eventually a large group of riders got away around 80 kilometres into the stage but Sky managed to control this well. By the finish only Calmejean, who won despite a bout of cramp just five kilometres from the finish, and Robert Gesink were ahead of the still substantial peloton. None of the overall contenders made any serious attack, perhaps wanting to wait for today's very tough stage. 

Stage 9: Nantua to Chambéry 181.5 kms

 Today's ferocious profile with three HC climbs

 First two HC climbs 

 Mont du Chat

Today's stage with its three HC climbs is certainly very tough. Let's hope that the racing lives up to expectation. It could go either way: the contenders look at attack Sky and Chris Froome or it becomes a procession with contenders fearful to take the risk, especially as thundery showers are forecast for today.  

We could see big changes to the overall order tonight. Will Froome still be in Yellow or will it be Fabio Aru or Richie Porte or Dan Martin. How will Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador fare?

As this stage starts with an immediate climb up the Cat 2 Côte des Neyrolles and if I was one of Froome's rivals I would look to attack right from the start and hope to repeat what happened in Stage 15 of the 2016 Vuelta when Froome was isolated on a similar start.