On a day local Roman Catholics were celebrating the feast of St Anthony, two other Tonys had their own reason to celebrate in the Tour de France.
Germany’s Tony Martin took the stage win on Sunday, while France’s Tony Gallopin took the maillot jaune in an up-and-down stage 9 in the eastern Vosges mountains.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Martin, a three-time world champion known more for his dominance of the time trial, showed that he could climb too, while Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali of Astana, who was wearing the leader’s maillot jaune, did not chase Gallopin hard enough to keep it.
Photo: Reuters
French media — delighted to see the country’s first maillot jaune holder since Thomas Voeckler wore it in 2011 — reveled in the fact that Gallopin would lead France’s most beloved race on the Bastille Day holiday yesterday, while the 29-year-old German said his stage victory might have been an “omen” for his nation’s FIFA World Cup final ambitions against Argentina — which it turned out to be.
Gallopin of Lotto-Belisol said that he had been plotting a move for the leader’s jersey since stage 5 — when he positioned himself for a challenge because Nibali was unlikely to want to hold it all the way to Paris on July 27, when the race finishes.
It is a lot of pressure to try to carry the leader’s shirt so long, through the Alps and Pyrenees ahead, but Nibali knows that Gallopin is unlikely to make it up the big climbs ahead and the Italian did not lose any time against his biggest rivals — especially two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador.
Photo: EPA
Gallopin, by finishing about five minutes ahead of Nibali, easily erased his deficit to the Italian and now leads him by 1 minute, 34 seconds.
Portuguese rider Tiago Machado of NetApp-Endura is third overall, 4:08 back, but like Gallopin he is not considered a Tour contender.
“It’s with great pride that I will ride on the national holiday day in the yellow jersey,” said 26-year-old Gallopin, adding that he feared he may not keep it after an uphill finish at the super-steep Planche des Belles Filles. “It’s a little bit scary, but I will enjoy the day.”
Photo: AFP
“It was always a dream of wearing the yellow jersey,” said Gallopin, who finished 2:45 back of solo breakaway leader Martin.
Contador finished safely in the peloton along with Nibali and is 4:08 back in ninth place overall.
They will resume their contest in the toughest stage so far — yesterday’s 161.5km trek from Mulhouse to the famed La Planche des Belles Filles, featuring four steep category 1 climbs.
The peloton takes its first rest day of the Tour today.
“It was a tough day,” Tinkoff-Saxo’s Contador said on Sunday, looking ahead to yesterday. “We’ll have to decide whether or not we try to attack or ride defensively.”
The Tour paid tribute to those who died in World War I by riding along the battlefields where millions died. Sunday’s route took the peloton past a landmark remembering the Battle du Linge in 1915, where about 17,000 French and German soldiers fell in three ferocious months of fighting. The groves and thickets in Le Linge’s mountainous pass helped mask lethal sections of barbed wire protecting tight German defensive lines.
Shortly before the most difficult climb of the day — a category 1 ascent of 10.8km up Le Markstein — Martin broke away and Gallopin’s chasing group was about two minutes behind, with Nibali more than six minutes adrift.
Martin, about 18.5 minutes back in the general classification, was no threat to Nibali’s maillot jaune.
Nibali lost more and more ground, and urged his Astana teammates to step up the pace as they reached the last of the climbs — a short, sharp ascent up Grand Ballon — but they left themselves with far too much to do.
Martin, who narrowly beat Tour champion Chris Froome in a time trial last year, continued to surge ahead, with tail winds making for a quick descent down to the finish.
The departure of Froome in stage 5 due to injury has blown this year’s race wide open.
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