10 July, 2016, Andorra Arcalis (FRA)
A brutal stage 9 of the Tour de France saw the peloton face five category climbs, with Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen testing their legs on the toughest day of racing so far.
Porte and van Garderen spent the day in the peloton with the support of their BMC Racing Team teammates. At the front of the race multiple breakaways formed, from which Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant Alpecin) emerged to take the solo win in Andorra.
On the final climb, the reduced number of General Classification riders put in attack after attack to split the group in the final kilometers. Porte crossed the line in 13th place just behind race leader Chris Froome (Team SKY) and van Garderen followed in 21st place.
The final stage before the first rest day saw a shake up of the General Classification, with van Garderen now sitting in 11th place, 1’01” behind Froome, and Porte in 14th, 2’10” back.
Quotes of the Day
Richie Porte:
“I put some time into some other General Classification guys so it’s a good day. I need to get time back so that’s what I was thinking [when I attacked in the final]. The team was fantastic today, we worked quite well together. It would have been nice to get a bit more of a gap but I’m guessing that they’re not just going to let me ride away like that. I feel good. It’s nice to get the first proper block of racing done. Physically I know where I am and that’s in a good place.”
Tejay van Garderen:
“It was long and super hot and then it got super cold at the finish. It was just a hard day off the back of a hard day so I think Richie [Porte] and I did pretty well. Richie was obviously a lot better than me, but we just look forward. It’s been nine hard days of racing so fatigue definitely starts going into play but it’s still the first week. The first real mountain day of the Tour I always tend to struggle more than the other ones so I think it can only get better from here. Any one of the stages could be an opportunity to gain back time, the mountains, the time trials, so I’ll just take it as it comes.”
Race Profile
Tour de France
Stage 8 Vielha val dAran > Andorra Arcalis (184km)
Top 3: Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant Alpecin), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff).
BMC Racing Team Top 3: 13. Richie Porte, 21. Tejay van Garderen, 35. Damiano Caruso
BMC Racing Team Top 3 on GC: 11. Tejay van Garderen, 14. Richie Porte, 25. Damiano Caruso
