General classification
1 Chris Froome
2 Tejay van Garderen 2’52”
3 Nairo Quintana, at 3’09”
4 Alejandro Valverde 4’01”
5 Geraint Thomas, at 4’03”
Thanks for your company. Here’s the race report.
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Stage result
1 Froome
2 Porte - ‘59
3 Quintana 1’04”
4 Gesink 1’33”
5 Valverde 2’01
6 Thomas
7 Yates
8 Rolland
9 Gallopin
10 Van Garderen
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Van Garderen, who started the day second overall, comes in 2’32” behind Froome. Contador, visibly suffering, rolls in 2’50” behind.
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Porte overtakes Quintana in the last 200m to take an impressive second place. Quintana takes third and Gesink takes fourth.
Froome takes stage victory and demonstrates strong credentials for overall triumphh
That was a phenomenal attack and finish in the first mountain stage of the 2015 Tour.
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Sky are targeting a one-two, as Porte is honing in on Quintana with 1km to go.
Froome is not going to be caught: it’s just a question of how much time he puts into the other contenders in the GC. His lead over Quintana - the closest challenger - is nearly one minute.
Quintana fancied that this would be the stage where his Tour would really begin, but Froome is gazumping him here. With 3km to go, Quintana is weakening - 50 seconds behind.
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Froome in front!
Froome is on course to make big gains if he can keep this up over the last 5km. That’s a humungus if, to be sure, but he’s looking strong. He is leading the stage, 27 seconds ahead of Quintana, 59 from Van Garderen , 1’28” in front of Contador and 2’52” of Nibali.
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Froome attacks with 6.3km to go! Quintana sets off in pursuit but the other GC contenders are well behind: this is bold from Froome. Will it pay off?
Gesink is still 12 seconds in front and looking strong. Valverrde’s attempt to think out Froome’s support hasn’t worked so far, as Sky rallied to protect their leader, but others are dropping. Nibali is 1’20” behind. And now Contador is beginning to weaken too!
Alejandro Valverde has burst out of the yellow jersey group. Sky, led by Geraint Thomas, are forced to chase him and subdue the attack. Froome remains snugly behind his team-mates.
Gesink has shaken off Valls and has sole lead again.
Valls has joined Gesink at the front, that pair being 25 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group.
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Sky have taken charge of the yellow jersey group, seemingly intent on putting more distance between them and Nibali, who’s in serious difficulty in this first Pyrenean stage.
Vincenzo Nibali, 13th overall, is struggling and losing ground badly on the yellow jersey group, with Movistar continuing to shave off challengers for Quintana.
Fedrigo’s fight is at an end: 11km from the end he is overtaken by Robert Gesink and several others.
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There isn’t going to be any French stage winner on Bastille Day - and the country’s best hopes of gaining an overall victory are all suffering on the mountain, where both Thibaut Pinot and Jean-Christope Peraud have been dropped.
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Andrew Talansky, Dan Martin and Romain Bardet have all been dropped as Movistar continue to set a tortuous pace.
And then there was one ...
Fedrigo has made a break for glory and dropped Vanbilsen, who is quickly devoured by the peloton. Fedrigo’s time will come too, alas, as he’s o’s less than a minute in front. The pack is now becoming very dispersed, but Movistar and Quintana both have their men well positioned.
The climb is already laying waste to some, with more and more stragglers starting to appear. Cavendish has slipped into survival mode at the back.
Let the peril commence: the leaders begin making their way up the first hors-catégorie climb of the tour, a gruelling 15.3km yomp. The first 2km of it are very testing, then there’s a long second portion with a gradient of 9.6%. The roll-in is relatively comfortable thereafter.
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Looks like Fedrigo and Vanbilsen have bowed to the inevitable - they seem to be easing off, and their lead is down to 3’48”.
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The leaders arrive at the ski resort of Arette, which marks 23km to the finish ... and the imminence of the long final ascent.
What is going through the heads of Fedrigo and Vanbilsen right now? Their lead is down to 5’12”, which suggests there is little chance of them staying in front throughout the long and painful climb to the finish at La Pierre-Saint-Martin, which looms about 10km ahead. They’ll be recalling the story of Sisyphus, that’s what.
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The peloton continue the climb towards Montory, a village of just over 300 people, most of whom seem to be standing by the roadside clapping the riders.
34km from the end, and the gap to the two in front is shortening. Fedrigo and Vanbilsen are really suffering on the final fourth category climb of the day, and their lead is down to 6’13”.
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Greipel takes the 15 points for third place in the intermediate sprint, and that is enough to take the green jersey off Sagan, who zoomed in three places behind him, and only one ahead of Cavendish.
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The sprinters’ teams are manoeuvring for position as Sagan, Cavendish and Griepel, in particular, look for the place points in the intermediate sprint, which is 4km away...
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Vanbilsen, who has already bagged the points and prize money for the two King of the Mountain features today. does not really make much of an effort to prevent Fedrigo from taking the sprint points.
FDJ have taken up the pursuit now, as Movistar retreat a little back into the peloton. According to those in the know, a lead of at least eight minutes is required at the foot of Col de Soudet to have any chance of holding on for a stage victory. Fedrigo and Valbilsen are currently 9’21” in front. Jens Voigt, however, reckons on ITV4 that the break-away boys will need at least 15 minutes.
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All this watching cycling does strange things to a man. Take James Dart, for instance: one of Guardian sport’s supremos has got into his head that he should take on some bonkers biking challenge, for the greater good. Look, he’s doing the Prudential RideLondon 100 next month. If you have the means and the inclination, you can support him and a great cause here.
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Movistar have seized control of the peloton and cranked up the speed. This, the first mountain stage, is where their man Nairo Quintana hopes to begin gaining ground on Froome, who is currently 1’59” ahead of him in the GC.
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Sky have taken charge of the peloton, which features all the man challenges in the GC. No more inroads have been made into the lead of the pair of upstarts ahead, with Fedrigo and Valbilsen still 11’49” to the good.
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A bit of mechanical trouble for Mark Cavendish, but nothing serious and he’s quickly back among the pack.
The riders are currently traversing Navarrenx, but this is no time for them to admire what the village that was voted the prettiest in France award in 2014.
The peloton are starting to chow down on the front pair’s lead. Fedrigo and Valbilsen, currently ranked 113th and 152nd in the general classification, are now only 11’45” ahead.
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Lars Boom is out of the Tour
Astana rider Lars Boom, who won a muddy, scrappy stage over cobblestones in last year’s Tour de France, has dropped out of this year’s race because of a high fever, reports Associated Press.
Race organisers say the 29-year-old Dutchman has had a high fever for the last two days.
Boom had been at the center of controversy before the start. The Movement for Credible Cycling, which applies stricter anti-doping measures than cycling’s governing body or the World Anti-Doping Agency, said it had temporarily suspended Astana after pre-race tests showed Boom had an abnormally low cortisol level. Such low readings can indicate cortisone doping but is not conclusive proof of doping.
Boom won Stage 5 in last year’s Tour, the same day that 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome crashed out of the race. Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali went on to win the 2014 Tour.
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Heart-warming scenes after Warren Barguil crashes in the feed zone. Not the incident itself, of course, nor the fact that the Frenchman seemed to hurt his knee quite badly, but what was uplifting, almost literally, was the way his team-mate, Ramon Sinkeldam, dropped back to help Barguil to rejoin the peloton.
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And they're off!
Well actually, they’re been off for quite a while. They’ve already covered 90km, meaning there are a paltry 78km remaining. What a doddle. Except that there are some steep climbs ahead, including the 374m Cote de Montory and then, just before the finishing line, a cruel 1,540m hike up the Col de Soudet, which lasts 14km and offers an average gradient of 7.5%. One for the masochists, then. Two guys have got a little giddy and taken it upon themselves to scale it before everyone else: P Fedrigo and K Valbilsen have made a break for it, leaving the yellow jersey posse 12’33” back.
Paul will be here soon enough. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about today’s stage:
A rolling run to the first major ascent of the Tour on the Col du Soudet, 1,610m above sea-level up a 15.3km climb with its toughest passages earlier on, as the gradient steadies at five kilometres to go.
The script is simple: while an early break may well be given its head to fight out the stage win, there will be a tense battle for position among the favourites’ teams as far as the foot of the climb before the mountain domestiques take over.
Short, simply structured this is made for Quintana or Froome, but it’s easy to read: the top 15 overall here will whittle down to the top 10 in Paris.
And here are some images from the early action.
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