Stage 9 -- July 9: Arc-et-Senans to Besançon, 41.5 km (25.8 mi)
So Fabian Cancellara won the opening long-time-trial of this years Tour and now we head into the rest-day, right? Wrong. Just when it looked like he would win it when he set the fastest time, along came not one, but two Sky riders to destroy the RadioShack party and put a serious dampener on the hopes and dreams of Cadel Evans. Bradley Wiggins tore up the course, putting serious time into his most serious rival while making Cancellara look like some kind of time-trialing wannabe, as he won with ease, extended his Tour lead and put the pressure on everyone else to stop him riding to a first ever British tour win.
And what was even more amazing was that his team-mate and winner of stage seven, Chris Froome, rode way beyond any kind of expectation to not only beat Evans and move up to third on GC (rueing his puncture on stage 1 more than ever) but also beating Cancellara to finish second to his team-leader.
It's left many wishing that this pair weren't on the same team, or at the very least, that they might soon boost their lead over the rest to such a margin that Sky management will allow them to take off the gloves and race one another. Not very likely. What we have here is another Schleck Bros. like combo but with the added advantage that Wiggins and Froome can time-trial. With another big-time trial to come, the pressure is on the Sky rivals more than ever.
When Wiggins hasn't been winning time-trials this past week he has been defending himself against questions that you have to be doped to win the Tour de France. People have compared his teams tactics to those of US Postal's in the day's of Armstrong's, but watching him in today's time-trial and speculating as to what I might see from him in the coming mountains, Wiggins has shades of Indurain written all over him. That isn't to say Wiggins is in the same class as Indurain, but he has dominated the early time-trial as Indurain was prone to do and I get the feeling that the moment anyone such as Evans makes a move in the mountains, Wiggins will be all over them. He'll chase moves and he'll break other rivals while he's at it and while he might lose a little time to one, he'll take more time out of others and find himself at the penultimate stage time-trial with an even greater sense of breathing room than he had this morning.
This Tour has a long way to run and Wiggins will face a lot of pressure, but if today showed anything it was that Wiggins can handle the pressure and that the Tour is very much his to lose already.
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FAKE TWEET OF THE DAY
@f_cancellara Anyone else notice that distinct change in wind direction when I finished and Wiggins begun?
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STAGE 9 RESULT
1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky in 51-24
2. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky at 35 secs
3. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan at 57 secs
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 1-06
5. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 1-24
6. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 1-43
7. Peter Velits (Svk) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 1-59
8. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 2-07
9. Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha at 2-08
10. Andreas Kloden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan at 2-09
Other
12. Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 2-16
23. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r La Mondiale at 3-08
44. Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan at 4-32
51. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp at 4-46
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 9
1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky in 39-09-20
2. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 1-53
3. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky at 2-07
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 2-23
5. Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha at 3-02
6. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan at 3-19
7. Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan at 4-23
8. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 5-14
9. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto-Belisol at 5-20
10. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r La Mondiale at 5-29
