Good morning and welcome to live team coverage of stage 9 at the Tour de France from VeloNews.com.
Today's 41.5km individual time trial runs from Arc-et-Senans to Besançon and should give us an even clearer picture of the top of the overall standings than the weekend's mountain stages.
Tony Martin, fractured scaphoid and all, is leading the early going with 103 riders in the clubhouse. Here's a look at the top 10:
1.MARTIN T. 196OPQ in 53:40
2.VOIGT J. 18RNT in 54:08 at 00:28
3.WESTRA L. 121VCD in 54:09 at 00:29
4.ROY J. 148FDJ in 54:16 at 00:36
5.LARSSON G. 124VCD in 54:19 at 00:39
6.GRIVKO A. 184AST in 54:22 at 00:42
7.SANCHEZ L. 155RAB in 54:32 at 00:52
8.GILBERT P. 4BMC in 55:11 at 01:31
9.MILLAR D. 66GRS in 55:38 at 01:58
10.NERZ D. 55LIQ in 55:44 at 02:04
Morning everyone. What's amazing? The fact Tony Martin put that time up with a flat. It may not hold. But the world champ in the TT has shown his class ... And his bad luck.
Wowza. There are whispers that Martin will retire from the Tour after today's stage and turn his focus toward the London Games. This would be a confidence boost he sorely needs after his car/bike crash in April and his broken wrist to start the Tour.
Our next 10 riders to start are:
14:09 Steven Kruijswijk, Rabobank
14:12 George Hincapie, BMC Racing
14:15 Laurens Ten Dan, Rabobank
14:18 Edvald Boasson Hagen, Sky
14:21 Fredrik Kessiakoff, Astana
14:24 Arthur Vichot, FDJ-BigMat
14:27 Rafael Valls, Vacansoleil-DCM
14:30 Robert Kiserlovski, Astana
14:33 Jean-Christophe Peraud, Ag2r La Mondiale
14:36 Sylvester Szmyd, Liquigas-Cannondale
The top-10 GC men start to roll-out at 10:12 a.m. EDT today:
16:12 Rein Taaramae, Cofidis
16:15 Nicolas Roche, Ag2r La Mondiale
16:18 Jurgen Van den Broeck, Lotto-Belisol
16:21 Maxime Monfort, RadioShack-Nissan
16:24 Chris Froome, Sky
16:27 Haimar Zubeldia, RadioShack-Nissan
16:30 Denis Menchov, Katusha
16:33 Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas-Cannondale
16:36 Cadel Evans, BMC Racing
16:39 Bradley Wiggins, Sky
Michael Albasini, the Swiss Orica riders, logs a 57:10, good for 25th at the moment.
Jens! Still putting out crushing efforts. Who doesn't love seeing that? He's a favorite wherever he goes.
Good morning, Jeff. I foresee a similar situation to last year with Garmin in the latter half of the race, where the team actually turns its focus to the teams classification. A win there is more high profile and pays better than a 5-10 GC placing.
Plus, they get to wear the yellow lids.
We're seeing a course that I think is more suited to Evans than Wiggins. That's just my take...
Horner will be the best placed RSNT rider in Paris. Anyone think I'm crazy?
Good morning, Travis. The forecast for the rest of the afternoon in Arc-et-Senans is 72-74 F, around 55% humidity and light winds out of the WSW. Things look just about the same in Besançon. We should see a pretty even playing field for the boys today.
It's nice weather here. A bit humid, if you pressed me to complain, compared to Boulder, Colo. Not much wind in town. I'm not sure about the rest of the course.
Here's an updated look at our top 10 on the stage, with 118 riders finished:
1.MARTIN T. 196OPQ in 53:40
2.VOIGT J. 18RNT in 54:08 at 00:28
3.WESTRA L. 121VCD in 54:09 at 00:29
4.ROY J. 148FDJ in 54:16 at 00:36
5.LARSSON G. 124VCD in 54:19 at 00:39
6.GRIVKO A. 184AST in 54:22 at 00:42
7.SANCHEZ L. 155RAB in 54:32 at 00:52
8.GILBERT P. 4BMC in 55:11 at 01:31
9.RIBLON C. 78ALM in 55:21 at 01:41
10.MILLAR D. 66GRS in 55:38 at 01:58
Good afternoon from eastern France
Gesink crossed the line about 3mins off Martin's time - tough Tour so far for the Tour of California champion. Rabobank lost all three of its GC options in the crash at Metz ... now they're in the stage-hunting business to try to salvage the Tour.
Good afternoon, Sr. Hood.
Cancellara stuffed an energy bar into his jersey moments before starting, just in case he gets hungry on-course.
Vinokourov is pushing for the finish.
He's out of the saddle in his silvery Astana skinsuit and comes through for 8th at the moment.
Not a bad TT from Vino - especially for a guy who broke his femur a year ago. I was amazed to see the respect the guy received from the peloton when I was at the Tour of Turkey earlier this year. Racers from the smaller teams were asking him for photographs and autographs.
That's true, David. Zabriskie sits in 21st, at 2:34.
TTs are fairly boring to watch (IMHO), but watching Cancellara on the bike is a pleasure - an artist filling the canvas
Fair enough, Andy, but there are few sounds as emotive for me in sport as the sounds of a disc spinning and cranks being applied massive pressure.
Points go through the top-15 in a TT; Sagan is a beast, but he will not be augmenting his points haul today
Sagan is climbing now, resplendent in his green skinsuit. The road up to Abbans-Dessus is filled with fans.
For a lot of riders, the TT is an "extra day off." Those are the marching orders at Sky, where only Wiggins, Froome and Rogers will take a full dig at the stage today - the others have been told to take it easy and save their matches for the looming battle.
But of course. Cancellara should be through check #1 in about 10 minutes.
Sandy Casar comes through the first time check in 22:16, just 7 seconds behind Martin and 2 ticks inside of Voigt. We'll see if the Frenchman can hold onto that time of pace.
And Hincapie finishes in 30th for now.
From the "born this way" file:
I remember a few years ago I was at a bike-fitting session with Cancellara and the technician asked Cancellara to touch his toes. He laid it out and put his palms flat on the ground with his legs totally straight. When asked how often stretched, Cancellara answered, "Almost never!"
