Chasing Le Tour: Martin speeds to ITT win
The winner of the day was Tony “Big Dog” Martin who pushed a 58×11 at an average of 54km/h to take his second Tour de France stage win. But Martin didn’t go unchallenged – Chris Froome hammered another nail in the coffin of his GC rivals today on his way to second place, putting 2 minutes into second-placed Valverde and many others. Froome now leads the GC by 3:25.
The wind picked up as the day progressed and it wasn’t until the final meters of Froome’s ITT that we knew Tony Martin was the winner. Froome laid down an impressive time trial and Martin looked like he may have been beaten when Froome was 1 second ahead at the first time check, and 2.4 seconds ahead at the second time check. However, Froome faded in the last part of the course and came in 12 seconds behind the German.
Froome’s nearest GC challenger was Bauke Mollema who came in 11th. He retained his 3rd place overall but still lost nearly 2 minutes to Froome.
What did change however was the leader of the best young rider classification. The 23-year-old Michal Kwiatkowski rode to an incredible 5th place only 1:31 behind Tony Martin. He will wear the white jersey on stage 12 having taken it back from Nairo Quintana who finished 54th, 3:28 behind Martin. I tell you, watch out for Kwiatkowski. After seeing him today and during the Spring Classics, I’m sure this kid will be the next big thing.
And just when we thought we’d seen it all from the fans, from protests to tacks on the road, someone decided to throw urine on Mark Cavendish today in what I assume was a reaction to yesterday’s crash:
Well i think the apple juice looks far from appetising for me tonight… And I'm not taking the piss. Did that once already today. #standup
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) July 10, 2013
And for all you number crunchers who love to look at the time splits, then look no further:
A google spreadsheet with today's split times https://t.co/mBy4RxwzSw @tom_dumoulin had 6th time on 2nd split
— Velofacts (@velofacts) July 10, 2013
Enjoy the photos from stage 11, including some of the beautiful Mont-Saint-Michel.
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- Many, if not all of the riders will follow a warm-up routine before heading out on course for their ITT.
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- Greg Henderson warms up. Although he has a track background and many teams pursuit titles to his name, being a leadout man is his specialty now.
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- Tony Martin (left) completed the 33km course more than 5 minutes faster than Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (right) who was 136th on stage 11 and sits 41st overall.
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- Alejandro Valverde finished 13th in the ITT; good enough to ensure that he stays in 2nd place overall going into stage 12.
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- Andy Schleck has something to prove during this Tour, but he didn’t do it today. He came in 123rd at +4:44 which brings him from 15th to 17th in GC.
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- Bauke Mollema (Belkin, left) continued his impressive run at the Tour, finishing stage 11 in 11th place and staying in 3rd place in the general classification. Meanwhile, Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep, right) showed, once again, that he’s going to be a star of the future, finishing 5th on the stage, moving up to 7th overall (from 13th) and taking back the best young rider’s jersey from Nairo Quintana.
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- Cadel Evans was 21st on the stage 11 ITT and said afterwards: “My time wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything particularly special. Looking toward Paris and the end of the race, it would have been ideal to take back more time on some of the rivals ahead of me, but I didn’t have it in the legs today to do better. From here, I hope to improve myself for the next set of mountains and the next time trial and keep moving ahead on the GC”. Evans is currently in 14th overall, 6:54 behind Froome.
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- Vacansoleil’s Thomas De Gendt (left) put in one of the most impressive rides of the day, finishing 3rd behind Martin and Froome. Laurens Ten Dam’s time of 39:01 was enough to land him in 22nd place. More importantly, he currently sits 6th overall, 4:10 behind Froome.
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- Richie Porte finished the day in 4th place, 1:21 behind Tony Martin, having average 52.3km/h. The result saw Porte leap three places on the general classification, from 34th to 31st. He’s currently 21:19 behind his teammate Froome after losing big time on stage 9.
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- After 11 stages of the Tour, Saxo Tinkoff has two riders in the top 5 overall: Roman Kreuziger (left, 5th) and Alberto Contador (right, 4th). Contador said after the stage “Froome is at a level above the rest of the field, and you gotta respect that. However, as I’m not in perfect shape, I’m actually happy with my trial when I compared with other GC riders. It was certainly not the perfect route for me, so I’m happy with my own performance. I hope that the last week in the Alps will go better for me.”
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- As the leader of the race Chris Froome set off last. He was 1 second ahead of Tony Martin after the first time check, 2 seconds ahead after the second time check and 12 seconds behind at the finish. Importantly, he put serious time into his GC rivals, extending his lead over second-placed Valverde to more than three minutes.
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- Tony Martin crashed heavily on stage 1 losing a significant amount of skin and prompting some to suggest he would withdraw from the race. Eleven stages later Martin put in a blistering effort in the race’s first ITT, averaging more than 54km/h to win the stage.
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- With 10 stages to go in the 2013 Tour de France Chris Froome leads by more than three minutes. It will take a shocking day from the Brit or an exceptional performance from his rivals to wrest the yellow jersey from his shoulders now.
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