Stage 9 Analysis
In a day that definitely didn’t bore, there seemed to be at least one thing going on throughout the whole stage. It took a while for the early morning break to get started (and by a while I mean maybe a couple of kilometers), and for some time, it looked like it was going to be a break of maybe 4 people, and then the peloton could pull it back and everything would go crazy. However, the break ended up being a solid 14 riders, with Marc Soler and Rui Costa chasing to get on. Soler managed to get on, but Rui Costa expended a lot of energy and fell back once the going got too tough. Once the break was established and gained a lot of time quickly, it was clear that they weren’t going to be caught, and that’s how it finished, with the peloton around 16 minutes behind at the end of the day. Once the peloton was happy enough with letting the break go, it was pretty much just a Sunday afternoon ride for the peloton, while the breakaway did the real racing. A set of mini attacks in the breakaway for different sorts of points broke out throughout the day, but the first real attack came with 44 kilometers to go. This split the breakaway group and whittled it down and then an attack from Pöstlberger looked as if it would win the day, as the breakaway didn’t look like it wanted to attack. However, they chased it down and then another attack broke it into the two leaders Daryl Impey and Tiesj Benoot who stayed out for the rest of the day. Back in the peloton, Romain Bardet attacked to hype up his own crowd, but Richie Porte tagged on, and the peloton chased. Impey ended up sprinting for the win, and the peloton rolled in behind them, some 16 minutes later.