July 12/15 21:24 pm - Tour de France: Stages 8 & 9

Posted by Editoress on 07/12/15
 

Stage 8:  Vuillermoz delivers first French win

Alexis Vuillermoz delivers the first French stage victory of the 2015 Tour de France one year after another AG2R-La Mondiale, Blel Kadri, paved the way for his compatriots one year ago. He counter-attacked after an acceleration by Chris Froome 800 metres before the top of Mûr de Bretagne and surprised Dan Martin who started his effort too late and came second. Froome retained the yellow jersey ahead of the team time trial set to finish in Plumelec where the winner of the yearly Grand Prix this year in May was... Vuillermoz.

185 riders started stage 8 in Rennes. One non-starter: Luca Paolini (Katusha). Local team Bretagne-Séché Environnement attacked from the gun but only at km 9 a four-man breakaway was formed with Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon 18) and Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) being rejoined by Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement). They reached a maximum time gap of 3.55 at km 16. Lotto-Soudal was prompt to seize the reins of the peloton and not let the time difference grow.

Bak, Golas and Huzarski in the middle of Breton flags
After the intermediate sprint at Gare de Moncontour (km 108.5), a group of 17 riders continued its effort and took off: Lars Boom (Astana), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Lars Bak, Thomas de Gendt and André Greipel (Lotto), John Degenkolb, Roy Curvers and Koen de Kort (Giant), Michal Kwiatkowski, Mark Cavendish and Michal Golas (Etixx), Pierre Rolland, Bryan Coquard and Angelo Tulik (Europcar), Frédéric Brun and Pierrick Fédrigo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement). With 69km to go, they caught the four leaders. The green jersey contenders gave up and three riders managed to ride away: Bak, Golas and Huzarski. They were strongly encouraged by huge crowds waving Breton flags all along the route.

Vuillermoz responds to Froome
Cannondale-Garmin was the most active team in the chase of the leading trio. Soon after Huzarski gave up, Bak and Golas were reeled in with 8km to go. The Polish rider from Bora-Argon 18 was awarded the most aggressive rider price of the day. Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale) showed his intentions under the flamme rouge but Chris Froome accelerated just after that as Vincenzo Nibali was in trouble. The tiny French climbers responded to the lanky Brit and rode away solo. Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) rode after him but a bit too late. Already third atop the Mur de Huy, Vuillermoz, a former mountain biker, claimed his first stage victory at the Tour de France at the age of 27.

Stage 9: BMC Racing Team beats Team Sky by one second

It was tight! BMC Racing Team won the atypical team time trial from Vannes to Plumelec on the 28km long stage that closed the first chapter of the 102nd Tour de France. The other two dominant teams were Sky who only lost by one second after creeping in the Cadoudal hill and Movistar who finished strongly but four seconds down. Chris Froome retained the lead of the overall ranking with an advantage of 12 seconds over Tejay van Garderen before the Pyrenees.

Orica-GreenEDGE started first as they were last in the teams' classification. Reduced to a six-man squad after the abandons of Simon Gerrans, Daryl Impey and Michael Albasini due to crashes, the previous winners of the team time trial of the Tour de France in Nice in 2013 obviously weren't motivated and cruised at 45km/h with the only intention to complete the race within the time cut. Second team on the road, local favourites Bretagne-Séché Environnement who aren't specialists in this exercise beat the Australians by more than three minutes!

Excellent finish by Movistar
The eighth team in action, IAM Cycling, was first to set an interesting time at the finish in Plumelec at an average speed of 51.08km/h. Astana was the first team to beat the Swiss outfit, by only three seconds, as Vincenzo Nibali had put his team-mates in trouble on several occasions. Jakob Fuglsang, Tanel Kangert, Michele Scarponi and Lieuwe Westra accompanied the defending champion of the Tour de France till the end. Astana lost the lead to Movistar by 31 seconds, so Nairo Quintana overtook Nibali in the overall ranking. He also passed Warren Barguil and therefore will wear the white jersey in the first Pyrenean stage as Peter Sagan remains in the lead of the points classification. Movistar's average speed was 51.98km/h. They used their time trial specialists first (Alex Dowsett, Adriano Malori) and finished with their climbers in the Cadoudal hill.

BMC Racing Team at 52.09km/h
Team time trial world champions BMC Racing Team was the first squad to clock in more than 52km/h average with Tejay van Garderen, Rohan Dennis, Damiano Caruso, Greg van Avermaet and Samuel Sanchez. Wout Poels, Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Roche finished the job for Team Sky but missed out on the victory by one second after being equal with BMC at the first check point and leading by one second at the second check point. Prior to the mountain stages, Froome leads the overall ranking with 12 seconds over Van Garderen while Alberto Contador is at 1.03, Quintana at 1.59 and Nibali at 2.22.

Report courtesy ASO