Stage 11: Pau > Cauterets, 188km
I wonder what was going through the head of Dan Martin as he realised that the most recent move to go off the front of the peloton was looking like the winning one. He had clearly targed this stage when he coasted in 11'34" behind the Yellow jersey of Chris Froome the day before, but now it looked like he'd missed the move.
Many a rider would have accepted such defeat and waited for another day, but not Martin. He ju,ped out of the peloton and charged up the Col d'Aspin after them. He had more than two minutes to make up but 3 kilometres from the summit, he had caught them. A fantastic chase and he was back in with a shout for the stage he wanted along with six other protagonists.
They stayed together on the descent but it was always the out of category rated Col du Tourmalet that would break the group apart and leaving a smaller selection to decide the race the final climb to Cauterets, a third category climb.
Martin was celarly tired from his chase however, and hadn't fully recovered on the descent of the Aspin and the most noted climber in the group, Rafal Majka - two time stage winner in 2014 and winner of the King of the Mountains competition - senced his opportunity to help with his second annual rescue bid of the Tinkoff-Saxo Tour now that it seemed Contador's bid to win it was fading. With 7km to go to the top he forced the issue and nobody could react. They could only hope he had gone too soon.
It was Majka then who crossed the highest peak of the Pyrenees to win the Jacques Goddet prize and €5000 thank you very much. And it was clearly starting to look like the winning move for he had put 1'45" into the chasing Serge Pauwels with Dan Martin struggling at 2'05".
Behind things were gradually heating up in the peloton with Astana forcing the issue and the bunch quickly reduced to just 15 men. It was clear however that anyone willing to put Froome into any kind of trouble would need to go on the Tourmalet rather than the Cote de Cauterets, but none seemed willing or able and they went over together 5'40" behind Majka and led by the Yellow jersey of Froome.
With the peloton looking like a non-factor on the stage, Majka charged down the Tourmalet and though he lost some time to the men behind he still carried a minutes lead over Pauwels onto the final run up to the finish.
By now though, Martin was starting to come around. Recoving from his earlier effort to get across to the now fractured group, he looked the freshest of the lot. He caught and passed Pauwels with 5km to go and went after Majka, but the Pole was far from slowing and distance to the line was running out. Majka stayed away and took his third career Tour de France win. This time last year he lost a lot of time in the early part of the Tour allowing him to make such moves and was given the freedom to do so once Contador crashed out. Contador is still in the race, but clearly his team realise that stage wins are now more likely than GC glory and so Majka is once again off the leash. Once more he's lost enough time in the early stages to allow him such freedom from the contenders and once more the rest don't seem able to beat him.
Whether this now triggers his bid for the King of the Mountains competition remains to be seen, but you have to think that like last year, he now fancies his chances and you also wouldn't put it past him to win another stage.
Dan Martin had to settle for second in the end coming in a minute behind Majka. The Yellow jersey sprinted in 9th with his main rivals behind him bar Alejandro Valverde who had snatched two seconds on the line.
| Result: | Classement: |
| 1. Majka (TCS) in 5h 2' 01" 2. D. Martin (TCG) +1' 00" 3. Buchmann (BOA) + 1'23" --- 8. Valverde (MOV) +5' 19" 9. Froome (SKY) +5' 21" 10. Contador (TCS) 11. Quintana (MOV) 13, Van Garderen (BMC) all s.t. 23. Nibali (AST) +6' 11" | 1. Froome (SKY) in 41h 3' 31" 2. Van Garderen (BMC) +2' 52" 3. Quintana (MOV) +3' 09" 4. Valverde (MOV) +3'59" 5. Thomas (SKY) +4' 03" 6. Contador (TSC) +4' 04" |
