2018 Tour de France Stage 9 Results & Recap
Stage 9 of the 2018 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Degenkolb, king of Roubiax
By Clara Beard
After a serious training accident plagued John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) for two years, the German was back today in Roubaix, claiming an emotional victory. The 2015 Paris Roubaix winner outsprinted Greg Van Avermaet and Yves Lampaert for top honors.
“I think it’s fantastic, I can’t find right words to express how it feels to win,” Degenkolb said. “I’ve waited for this victory for so long. A lot of people didn’t believe in me anymore and thought I wouldn’t come back to the same level anymore. A few months ago, I had another setback with a crash in Paris-Roubaix. My knee was injured. I had to stop training for almost four weeks. I doubted of myself but with the help of my wife and my whole family, I found the strength to work towards that goal of winning today’s stage. I knew I could sprint against these guys. The breakaway was kind of a déjà vu at Paris-Roubaix three years ago. It increased my confidence for the sprint.”
Van Avermaet retains his yellow jersey by 43 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas (SKY). Phillippe Gilbert has moved up to third place at 44 seconds. An early crash left GC contender Richie Porte with a broken collarbone and forced the Tasmanian to retire the race early.
“The day started pretty badly. Richie [Porte] crashed out and we had to rethink our strategy,” Van Avermaet said. “The race goes on, so we needed to set new goals as soon as possible. I believed in my sprint. I’m pretty fast myself. Maybe I started sprinting too late. It's a big disappointment. It was a big goal to win with the yellow jersey here in Roubaix. It would have made a nice photo. With the new situation we’re in, I have more freedom and I can maybe try to break away with the yellow jersey on Tuesday. And I still want to win a stage by the end of the Tour de France.
At the beginning of the 156.5 kilometre stage, Omar Fraile (Astana), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Antwan Tolhoek (LottoNL-Jumbo), JĂ©rĂ´me Cousin and Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie) escaped off the front. Chad Haga (Sunweb), Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ), Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg (Dimension), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) joined them making it 10 up the road. At kilometre 35 they drew out their biggest advantage of 3 minutes and 49 seconds.
The entire stage, crashes and punctured shadowed the riders and Tolhoek was the first to be forced out of the break due to a mechanical. The pace was high in the peloton the entire race, but it was with 20 to go that Van Avermat instigated a chase that would catch the remaining breakway riders before the time bonus, where he took three seconds. From there, he escaped with Degankolb and Lampaert leaving a select group of chasers to fight for fourth place.
“I made a bit of a mistake,” said Sagan, who took fourth. “There was only one sector that I took a bit at the back and it’s where they rode away. It was very hard to catch them. I tried to follow but it was too late. It was too hard also because everyone was on my wheel. I went on the attack in the last four kilometres but it was too late. It was a crazy day. Everybody was nervous. Richie [Porte] had a real bad luck. It was a stupid crash after 9km on the asphalted road.”\n
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