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First time: Very often he was so close. Six times, John Degenkolb finished second of his career in a stage of the Tour de France. For the summit, it was never enough – until today. On the dreaded pavement stage in Roubaix, Team Trek-Segafredo man scored the first victory of the day at the Tour de France. Roubaix, of all: three years ago, he had already won the most famous classic in the world, Paris Roubaix. The pavers are Degenkolbs plates. "It's so hard to put into words," said one close to tears near the goal of the ARD.
End of the Passion: For Degenkolb, it was also the end of a two-year ordeal. One year after his victory in Paris-Roubaix, he collided with a car in formation and was seriously injured. He almost lost his left index finger. It took months to regain his balance in the race. In the Tour this year, he seemed to be able to return to form before the accident. Saturday, he was already third in the mass sprint.
The result: Degenkolb wins the ninth stage of the 105th Tour de France at the sprint of a three-man lead over belgian Belgians Greg van Avermaet (BMC) and Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors). Click here for the report of the race
Stage: No stage had been so much feared by the riders as this ninth 156-kilometer section between Arras Citadelle and Roubaix. Because there was no normal 156 kilometers. 21.7 rolled on pavements, largely on the legendary sections of the Paris-Roubaix spring classic. The falls seemed preprogrammed.
The first fall: The first pass with paving stones was not reached yet, because there was already the first mass crash. In the wake: Richie Porte, captain of the BMC team and probably the biggest challenger of the series winner Chris Froome (Sky). Door sits on the tarmac for several minutes, holding his right shoulder and finally giving up. Once again. Already last year, Porte also had to get hurt after an accident on the ninth stage. The 33-year-old remains in his career pursued by unlucky.
The race: After the mass crash at Porte, the peloton reduced the pace, a group of ten-headed breakaways formed. The peloton never gave them more than three and a half minutes of advantage. When the outliers were caught, there were more attacks every minute. But only the group of three at Degenkolb, van Avermaet and Lampaert could settle permanently and make the victory between them
Bluff of the scene: The day before, the Belgian Thomas de Gendt in social networks still had the scene cursed. But then he drove into the breakaway group of the day and also won the intermediate sprint. Although it had nothing to do with the outcome of the race, Gendt could be satisfied in the end.
Other accidents: He caught almost all the favorites at least once. Some were lucky and managed to join the main draw (Chris Froome, Jakob Fuglsang, Rafal Majka), while others had big problems: last year, Rigoberto Uran lost 1: 28 minutes, the Spanish Mikel Landa seven seconds. Remarkable in the case of Landa was that his Movistar team was front and back in the squad while the Spanish was fighting for the back
A good bike would have done well Bardet: Despite the many accidents, one rider was particularly unlucky: The Frenchman Roman Bardet had several flaws. Whenever he had beaten to return to the peloton, his bike broke again. In the end, Bardet could only shake his head. After all, he kept the residue in bounds and lost only seven seconds to the competition on arrival.
Escape Maneuver Scene: This award goes to Greg van Avermaet. The wearer of the yellow jersey nearly fell to the ground in the fall of several Sky drivers. But the Belgian has managed with great talent and luck to continue cycling. So in the end he defended the Yellow Jersey with confidence. But he will not be happy about it. The loss of Richie Porte weighs heavily for his team. All the more so with Tejay van Garderen, even the team's second option for the overall standings with more than five minutes behind defeat came home. The so-called "Northern Hell" has again claimed many lives.
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