2015 Tour de France stage 10

Every morning before sign on begins, the biggest race sponsors put on little shows for the crowd. Vittel asks Tour/Vittel related trivia questions and the prize for a correct answer is a ride for you and a friend in the publicity caravan and passes for the VIP area just before the finish line.

 

Wouldn't you know it, we were asked how many vehicles are in the caravan and gave the correct response: 160!

 

So we climbed aboard a Vittel float and drove the entire 167.5km course.

 

Passing through the official start.

 

There were people for almost the entirety of the course which meant my waving muscles got a good workout today.

Beautiful scenery.

It was fascinating to see the signs put up by the race organization. There were plenty of roundabout signs, for example, which showed that the race would continue use straight through the roundabout. This was true in the sense that there was no significant turn but often there was a short way and a long way to go around and if a rider got it wrong, he'd lose 15 positions in the blink of an eye. Given how just many roundabouts there were, it'd be impossible to get them all right.

There were three category 4 climbs and one sprint ahead of the big summit finish at La Pierre-Saint Martin.

The first hors categorie climb of the 2015 Tour, La Pierre-Saint Martin averages 7.4% over 15.3km, but the first 10km are much steeper than that. It's hard to show in photos what a steep climb looks like, but the switchbacks give you something of an idea.

 

The flamme rouge!

After passing under the finish line, we were ushered into a VIP area. Normally I'm not interested in that kind of stuff, but I definitely helped myself to the free ice cream after sitting in the sun for over 5 hours. The best thing about VIP areas? Most of the VIPs don't really care about cycling, so we grabbed a fantastic spot about 60 meters before the finish and watched the last 30km on the big screen.

 

After 9 tough stages and a rest day, who still had the legs to attack? When a select group went, Chris Froome bided his time before putting in a deep acceleration that no one could match. This was the same acceleration he had in the Dauphiné to ride away from Tejay Van Garderen, ultimately winning the overall.

 

Froome soloed to a stage victory, putting in significant time into his rivals.

 

Richie Porte had looked after his British friend until Froome rode off. Porte, further down the road and perhaps with thoughts of securing a hefty contract for 2016, rode passed Nairo Quinatana to finish second, 59″ back.

 

Quintana, in the white jersey, lost time to Froome but still moved up to third overall at 3:09.

 

Robert Gesink was 4th on the stage and is now 8th on GC.

 

Alejandro Valverde and Geraint Thomas are both in the GC top 10 at present.

 

Adam Yates and Pierre Rolland–the best place Frenchman on the Bastille Day stage–finished 7th and 8th respectively.

 

Tony Gallopin wore yellow last Bastille Day but today will have to settle for a respectable 9th on the stage and 7th on GC.

 

Van Garderen lost time today, but not nearly as much as the other GC contenders. After finishing 10th on the stage, he now lies 2:52 behind in second place overall.

 

Alberto Comtador, so dominate in the Giro this spring, didn't have the legs today and ceded nearly 3 minutes to Froome one day after losing one of his domestiques, Ivan Basso, who announced on the rest day he'd just learned heirs currently just outside of the top,10 had testicular cancer.

 

Astan announced after the stage that Jakob Fuglsang would take over as team leader from Vincenzo Nibali. The Dane is currently just outside of the top 10, though at 8:41 down, it remains to be seen how much time he can make up.

 

Serge Pauwels looked over his shoulder to see Warren Barguil, the young Frenchman who had crashes earlier in the stage, right on his wheel.

 

Sami Sanchez.

 

Bauke Mollema and Jacques Janse Van Rensburg.

 

Eduardo Sepúlveda.

 

Even having a teammate pulling his wasn't enough to ke p the 2014 victor from bleeding time. Below: Tanel Kangert, Vincenzo Nibali, and Laurens Ten Dam.

 

Rigoberto Uran.

 

Joaquim Rodriguez.

 

Bora Argon 18 teammates Emanuel Buchmann and Dominik Nerz.

 

Jan Bakelants, Romain Bardet, Giampaolo Caruso, and Ryder Hesjedal.

 

Rafal Majka.

 

Thibaut Pinot led in a sextet.

 

Gesink and Steven Kruijswijk on the descent to their team bus.

 

Andrew Talansky and Dan Martin lost more than 11 minutes each today, effectively ending their GC chances. The argyle outfit, however, is known for pulling off unconventional stage wins so hope is by no means lost for Cannondale Garmin.

 

Jarlinson Pantano on the way to his bus while Pierrick Fedrigo approached the finish.

 

Romain Sicard and Merhawi Kudus.

 

A group of 10 arrived with Winner Anacona.

 

Nick Roche.

 

Simon Geschke.

 

Dani Navarro and Luis Angel Mate of Cofidis led in over 20 riders, including (middle picture) Michael Schär and Jose Mendes, and (bottom picture) Sylvain Chavanel and Roy Curvers.

 

All of the 183 riders who started today finished the stage within the time limit. Lars Boom, whose presence at the Tour revived the debate about the usefulness of the Movement for Credible Cycling when he started the Grand Tour despite low cortisol levels, abandoned after the rest day due to illness.

 

When the peloton looks at the stage profile for tomorrow, the rest day will have completely vanished from their memories. With 6 categories climbs, including an HC climb 150km in and a cat 3 summit finish to conclude 188km of racing, a breakaway is likely to succeed here. The opening kilometers will therefore be stressful and busy as the peloton chases down dangerous breaks. It's doubtful any of the GC riders will be allowed to go in the break, but a climber like Rui Costa or an opportunist like Ryder Hesjedal just might pull it off.