Sad day for Tinkoff with Alberto Contador withdrawl

It was a sad day for Tinkoff on the 184.5km 9th stage of the Tour de France as team leader Alberto Contador abandoned the race. After a hard first week of the race battling against injuries sustained in the first two days and suffering from fever in the morning, Contador was forced to withdraw from the race after one of the toughest challenges of his career so far. After a week spent fighting against GC rivals – who had suffered none of the misfortunes he had – and holding his own against them, the strain became too much and the Spanish rider climbed off the bike on the second climb of the day. Picking up the baton, Alberto’s teammates pushed on hard, with Rafal Majka and Peter Sagan taking points in the climbers’ and points contests respectively, and Roman Kreuziger riding hard with the GC group for the remainder of the day.

With the stage starting on a first category climb with no lead-in, this was going to be a tough day in the saddle. Spending much of the day in the Spanish Pyrenees before crossing into Andorra for the final 55km, the 184.5km stage saw the race ascend five categorised climbs – with the final climb into Andorre Arcalis a 10.1km, 7.2% Hors Catégorie leg killer. Combined with the heat of the mountains, nobody was going to escape the suffering.

Before the race reached that point however, there were four categorised climbs that, from a strategic point of view, gave the GC riders reason to be excited. The 6.1% Port de la Bonaigua from the start would show who had good legs, while the Port del Cantò dominated the middle section of the stage with its 19km distance sapping energy. The Côte de la Comella and Col de Beixalis were where the day was likely to really take shape however. The two climbs – second and first category respectively – were relatively short and punchy, which brought with them the potential for attacks.

There were attacks from the start, first with King of the Mountains, Rafal Majka – for the second successive day – going up ahead with teammate Peter Sagan as part of a large group, before team leader, Alberto Contador also went on the attack. In spite of his best efforts, and after staying with the escape as they built up a 1’30” advantage on the peloton, the Spanish rider dropped back to the bunch.

Alberto had started the day suffering from a fever after working hard on the previous stages to recover following crashes in the first two days of the race. Dropping back to the team car after the descent of the Port de la Bonaigua, it was clear that the Tinkoff leader wasn’t feeling comfortable, having tested his legs attacking on the first climb of the day. Climbing off his bike, Alberto and the team made the difficult decision to abandon before the ascent of the Port del Cantò made his sickness worse.

Alberto had tried to push on from the first crash to his attack on the stage today – never giving up hope. He spoke about his decision after the race. “I did my best today. I tried to attack earlier on in the race but it was impossible – my legs simply couldn’t go after the two earlier crashes. Earlier this morning I had a little fever as well as throat pain, but nonetheless I decided to give it a shot. After I tried to attack my legs were really empty, so I dropped back to team car and talk to the Sport Directors. We agreed that the best decision was to abandon the race in order to rest and carry out further medical examinations, and we’ll assess my racing calendar now until the end of the season.”

Speaking after the stage, Sport Director, Steven De Jongh, explained the difficult decision for Alberto to withdraw.“Obviously it was hard to see Alberto leave today. He had a lot of fever when he got up this morning but still wanted to try and change the situation. He went for the break early on, but was empty and then got dropped. He came to the car and we discussed with him and then with the doctor and decided it was better to stop and leave the race to recover. It made no sense to keep pushing on.”

Further up the road, Rafal and Peter remained in the breakaway and pushed ahead in spite of the sad news. The UCI World Champion was working hard to collect points for the green jersey contest and took all of them at the foot of the Côte de la Comella with total ease – none of the riders in the breakaway even attempting to challenge the strong Slovakian rider. Having taken the full 20 points and re-taking second spot in the points contest, Peter dropped from the break, his work done, while Rafal continued up the road, looking for more climbers’ points. A duo had broken away from the front of the break, but were well within sight of the rest of the escapees and were soon pulled back in.

De Jongh was pleased that after Alberto’s departure from the race, the team was still fighting hard. “The team was in a real fighting spirit. Peter was going for the green jersey points in the break, he picked up another 20, and then Rafa was going for the KOM points and for the stage win too.”

The breakaway’s lead hovering around ten minutes, the road pitched up for the final, brutal climb of the day, and there were only six on the front – each of them wanting to take the stage. Attacks came and went, and Rafal himself tested the legs of his breakaway compatriots. While his rivals on the climb were out of the saddle and pedalling hard, Rafal was sat down and looking comfortable, holding his own against the others. A solo break had gone out in front, but Rafal was next in line a little way down the road with one other, while the remainder of the break fell apart behind him.

With rain falling on the final climb however, conditions were going to be tough for the riders having ridden in the heat all day. At the finish line sheets of rain and hail were falling, which would slow riders down while making the road surfaces slippery. After the summery start to the day the rain was absolutely torrential and back in the peloton, riders were looking miserable. The gap had dropped to 8’30” with 3km to go, but Rafal and his compatriot were reducing their gap on the lone rider out on the front. The peloton was pulling hard to reduce the gap on the three of them as well, with Roman Kreuziger putting in a big effort to stay in touch in the group.

The solo escapee crossed the line, and shortly after came Rafal, narrowly beaten to the line, taking 3rd place. In 22nd position came Roman, fighting hard on the final climb against the rain, hail and the GC group. While Rafal lost his Maillot à Pois, he is behind in the climbers’ contest by only 3 points, and there are plenty of opportunities for him in the race to come.

With 1,769.5km raced, the Tour de France goes into its first rest day tomorrow – a welcome relief for riders after nine incredibly hard stages. When the race returns on Tuesday for stage 10, the race will start with a climb of the first category Port d’Envalira before a long and steady downhill for the rest of the 197km stage, interrupted only by the third category Côte de Saint-Ferréol, cresting 7km from the finish. A finish for the puncheurs, this could be a chance for Peter Sagan to re-take the Maillot Vert.

Looking ahead to the days to come, De Jongh was pleased that the team was already pulling together to work for other goals in the race. “Now we have Roman up there on GC and we will try and help him. Then we have the goal of the green and the KoM jerseys too, so even though it wasn’t a good day, we can look forward and refocus.”