Degenkolb mastered the cobblestones of the Porte during the Tour de France

ROUBAIX, FRANCE – John Degenkolb won a three-man sprint to conclude stage 9 of the paved and action packed Tour de France on Sunday, while his rival Richie Porte went on to removed from the race and his favorite Chris Froome overcame

Yellow jersey holder Greg Van Avermaet was second and his overall lead was 43 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas, Team Sky's teammate at Froome . Yves Lampaert, of Quick-Step, finished third

Chris Froome, four-time Tour champion, crossed the main pack 27 seconds from the end, after being helped by a fan who revived him at 45 kilometers from the finish.

Froome climbed back to eighth place overall, 1:42 behind Van Avermaet, who is not a threat in the mountains.

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Rigoberto Uran, vice-champion of last year, and Mikel Landa, one of the three leaders of the Movistar team, also dropped and lost time.

Romain Bardet, the French hopeful who has finished on the podium in the past two years, has gone through three flat tires but downplayed his losses.

Among the favorites in the overall standings with the exception of Froome: Alejandro Valverde is fifth (1:31 late); Rafal Majka sixth (1:32); Jakob Fuglsang seventh (1:33); Adam Yates ninth (1:42); Landa 10th (1:42); and Vincenzo Nibali 12th (1:48).

This was the first career Tour victory for Degenkolb, a German rider for the Trek-Segafredo team. Degenkolb won the Paris-Roubaix day clbadic, which covers much of the same course, in 2015.

"It's a very big win," said Degenkolb, who returned of a serious accident of training. since. "I have lived a lot, it was really difficult."

Degenkolb became the third driver to win Paris-Roubaix and a paved stage at the Tour after Roger De Vlaeminck and Bernard Hinault. Its average speed on stage was 45.9 km / h in general and 39.8 km / h on cobblestones.

The route that departed from Arras contained the largest number of paved sections since the 1980 Tour, with nearly 22 kilometers. Rainy and muddy as in April, the heat and the sun made it dry and dusty.

Among the others who crashed: Dylan Groenewegen, the Dutchman who won the previous two stages; Froome Sky teammates Egan Bernal and Michal Kwiatkowski; The American hope Tejay van Garderen and the Italian sprinter Sonny Colbrelli

The Spanish driver Gorka Izagirre had to stop when his rear wheel was badly buckled.

After the first day of rest on Monday, the Tour resumed in the Alps on Tuesday -kilometre (98.5 miles) from Annecy to Grand-Bornand with three category 1 climbs and one category climb.