Tour de France: Chris Froome retains lead after Stage 9

Chris Froome says he is in the flawless position after fending off repeated attacks on his Tour de France lead on Sunday.

“That was a tough stage and the weather made it even tougher”, Froome said after. It was super hot before we got rain on our head and ice falling from the sky. To go from one end of the spectrum to the other like that made it quite hard out there.

The riders will finish in Revel after tackling the category one climb of Port d’Envalira and a gently descending stage profile.

On Team Giant-Alpecin, Dumoulin won the opening time trial in this year’s Giro d’Italia and wore the overall leader’s pink jersey for six stages before withdrawing midway through the race with saddle sores.

Once again, Chris Froome reached the first rest day of the Tour de France in yellow, but this year, his advantage is much thinner and his main rival Nairo Quintana is keeping his cards close to his chest.

Froome holds a 16-second lead over fellow British rider Adam Yates, and is 19 seconds ahead of Dan Martin of Ireland.

But the Tour lost two-time former champion Alberto Contador who pulled out just over 80km into the stage as he succumbed to injury and illness.

This was exemplified towards the end of Stage 8 when, after cresting the final climb of the day, the peloton rightly expected that the group would more-or-less coast the final 15 kilometres to the finish line and rest up for the following day’s challenge. He added, optimistically: “I’d like to think he was on his limit”. “Believe me, I did the best I can”.

“His bike’s been tested more than anyone else’s, we’re getting tested every day”.

“The first real mountain day of the Tour I always tend to struggle [in] more than the other ones”.

I reckon they should have given him a time bonus!

“Obviously the disaster I had last Sunday is still a bit of a hard one to take, but the hardest days of the race are in front of us so hopefully I can make more time back and try to hit that podium in Paris”.

Quintana played down the significance of Froome’s time gain, but blamed himself for not reacting quickly enough to the Briton’s attack. We saw this illustrated graphically just one kilometre from the finish of Stage 7 when the Flamme Rouge inflatable archway rapidly deflated, spectacularly snaring Adam Yates and the chasing peloton in its rubbery clutches. I thought I would give it [attacking downhill] a try. It was a tough day. “He stuck to my wheel like glue by the look of it”.

Daryl Impey of South Africa finished second and Daniel Navarro of Spain crossed third, each 65 seconds behind Cummings. “There’s still a long way to go on this Tour – you must attack when it’s your real time”. “I’ve said it a few times coming into this race, I feel this is going to be the biggest battle of my career, and that’s what it’s turning out to be”, said Froome. I figure that is what it is turning out to be. “It’s not easy to ride away from everyone this year”.

After the shameful scenes of previous year, when spectators poured urine and spat on Froome, he was well within his rights to administer his own brand of roadside justice.

“This is a dream come true, I’m so exhausted that I can’t even speak”, said Dumoulin, who has now won a stage at all three Grand Tours in the past year.

Froome is expecting he will also need his team to continue riding as it did on Sunday.