Martin is the master at the time-trial, but he went so early on the day that the television camera's weren't live to catch him and as a result was made to sit at the finish for some four hours waiting to see if he'd win. That's because Chris Froome, the last man on the road in his Yellow jersey made him wait right until the final hundred yards to confirm the German had indeed won the stage.
Froome won't mind too much at falling twelve seconds short of Martin's time, despite beating him by a single second and then two seconds at the two respective time-checks out on the course. The headwind into the finish caught up with Froome but it caught up with the men he was most concerned with more as he took huge chunks of time out of them all.
The upshot was that Froome not only retained his Yellow jersey, but moved further into the lead. A whole 3 minutes, 25 seconds now stands between him and second placed Alejandro Valverde with Bauke Mollema a further twelve seconds back. It's a major blow for Froome's rivals who, aware that he was a solid performer against the clock, must have been desperate to limit their losses to seconds rather than minutes. All that is left now is for the likes of Valverde's Movistar team, Mollema and Laurence Ten Dam's Belkin team, and Alberto Contador and Roman Kreuziger's Saxo Tinkoff team to come together to relentlessly attack Froome in the Alps in the hopes that they can once again isolate Sky as they did on stage nine and find a way to crack the solid looking Froome.
It's certainly possible, but whether they will come together to do this remains to be seen. The two Saxo boys, the two Belkin boys, and Movistar's Valverde and Nairo Quintana (who failed to flatter the rumours that he was quite good against the clock as he lost 3'16" to Froome) may do their own attacking and counter attacking because a mere 45 seconds separate second to sixth which might lead them to getting in one another's way as podium seeking becomes as important as trying to reel back in the Yellow jersey.
Froome may be gone now and while he deserves to be where he is and the biggest race deserves to have the biggest names in it so that we know the winner really is the best out there, you can't help but look at the second to sixth positions and imagine what a Yellow jersey battle that we'd be watching had Froome not been around. But he is, and they have to find a way to deal with him less they choose to ignore him and settle for second. I hope not.
There was some other fine performances of note on the stage. Thomas De Gendt set a fantastic time to finish third, albeit over a minute behind Martin. He's had a poor tour by his standards so this might make up for it a little. I don't think anyone seen him time-trialing so well, but clearly he felt good afer the rest day on Monday. Likewise Richie Porte who on stage nine fell apart and dropped well down the overll. He came in forth. And in sixth was Canada's Svein Tuft. A time-trial specialist I hoped he might crack the top three, but sixth is still impressive. Canadian's are used to seeing Ryder Hesjedal in this sort of position on this kind of stage, but the 2011 Giro champion is riding hurt and clearly didn't have the heart for it today finishing way back in 136th, 5'02" behind Martin.
Another strong performance was that of Peter Sagan. He finished 17th in the end but will be disappointed he didn't cling onto a top 15 placing that would have seen him score more points in the Green jersey contest. Still, his lead in that is so strong it will take him not finishing the Tour for him to lose the jersey. Indeed, many will now suggest that it's just the Mountains competition and the Young riders contest that remain viable competitions in this years Tour. I like to hope the Yellow jersey isn't all won yet given the amount of climbing left, but we'll see.
Speaking of the White jersey competition, what about Michal Kwiatkowski in fifth? That's the young 23-year old's fifth top five stage finish of the ten road and individual time-trial stages we've had so far. He looks one hell of a talent who has been getting right up in the mix for the sprint finishes, been keeping near the front in the mountains and today proved he's also good against the clock. The result was good enough to move him back ahead of Quintana in the White jersey competition and it's clear the Tour has found a young talent that could very well win the Tour one day.
stage 11 certainly shook things up a bit and will prove to have been one of the pivotal stages in this years Tour. It's amazing the Tour has only visited Mont Saint Michel on one other occasions than this -- 1990 when Johan Musseeuw won a bunch gallop -- but it's certainly a camera mans delight as we seen from the multiple shots of the abbey on the causeway in the background as each rider made his approach.
Tomorrow they head south bound towards the mountains, tough it'll take several stages to get there. It should end up in a bunch sprint yet again, but it was clear to look at some of the times today that there were many men riding below their maximum, perhaps saving their legs in the hopes of doing something to disappoint the sprinters.
On we continue...
Stage 11 result
1. Tony Martin (QPQ) in 36'29"
2. Chris Froome (SKY) + 12"
3. Thomas De Gendt (VCD) + 1'01"
4. Richie Porte (SKY) + 1'21"
5. Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQ) + 1'31"
6. Svein Tuft (OGE) + 1'35"
Others
11. Bauke Mollema (BEL) + 2'05"
13. Alejandro Valverde (MOV) + 2'12"
15. Alberto Contador (TST) + 2'15"
General classification after stage 11
1. Chris Froome (SKY)
2. Alejandro Valverde (MOV) + 3'25"
3. Bauke Mollema (BEL) + 3'37"
4. Alberto Contador (TST) + 3'54"
5. Roman Kreuziger (TST) + 3'57"
6. Laurens Ten Dam (BEL) + 4'10"
