Stage 9: Don't count your chickens

Team Sky is fallible
That's what I took out of today's epicness.  Richie Porte, yesterday looking very much like last year's Chris Froome, got dropped like a hot potato today.  Movistar, I think sensing that Porte overdid himself a bit yesterday protecting Froome, didn't let Sky control the pace for even a second, instead pushing the race hard and dropping all of Froome's teammates.  Froome, for his part, is still a beast and wasn't phased.  But this still served to show that there is a chink in the armor.  If day 2 of mountains caused his vanguard to combust, there's hope deep in the week 3 Alps.  Not to mention, Movistar had 3-4 men up front the whole race.

Movistar putting in the work (letour.fr)

The Winner

Attacking midway up the final cat 1 of the day, Dan Martin launched to a gap and saw no attempt by the lead group to follow him.  He was joined by Jakob Fuglsang, and together they burned the trail to the finish.  They worked very well together, taking turns in the lead, and didn't start to play cat and mouse until inside the final kilometer.  In the end, it was Martin making a move before the last turn and taking the victory.

Martin steals the show (velonews.com)

The Strategy

In addition to burning up Sky riders, Movistar did something else that entertained me a lot on the last climb.  After leading the whole race, they brought their young rockstar from Stage 8, Nairo Quintana, to the front to attack Froome.  At the same time, the rest of their workhorses moved behind Froome.  Quintana was close enough to a threat to overall that Froome had to reel him in, but he was certainly left to do so on  his own while Movistar had a turn just riding his wheel and reacting to him.  They may had let Dan Martin steal the victory, but that wasn't a huge concern of theirs.  Either way, the 4 or 5 attacks by Quintana were entertaining.

Wrapup

Froome stays in Yellow, 1:25 over Valverde and now 1:44 over Bauke Mollema (whom I thought was looking in excellent form at TdSuisse).  Pierre Roland back in the Polka Dots for reals (wore them today, but technically Froome was the leader).  Quintana has 1:23 lead in the White.  No change for Sagan's Green.  And Movistar has established themselved for the time being as the leading team.

Now a rest day!

Parting Thought: As long as I got my suit and tie, Imma leave it all on the floor tonight