Stage 9

The road

At the start

A team time trial on day nine

Chris Froome starts in yellow, eleven seconds up on Peter Sagan and thirteen on Tejay van Garderen, and this afternoon every contender is only as quick as the men around him. The Tour has not run a team time trial this late since 1982: 28 rolling kilometres from Vannes to Plumelec, two long drags and the Côte de Cadoual at the end. Several teams are already a rider or two short.

How it was won

1. 118 km to go

   Movistar come apart

   Fastest of all at the first check, the Spanish team then shatter into three separate groups on one of the climbs. They regroup, but the hilly Breton roads have already taken their time.

2. 28 km to go

   Froome does too much

   Sky are setting the best splits but shedding men, and the race leader keeps glancing back to count them. He takes turn after turn on the front, and it will cost him.

3. 3At the line

   One second in Plumelec

   A hundred metres from the line Froome swings back to pace a struggling Nicolas Roche — his fifth man, and the one the clock stops on. BMC take the stage by a single second; Froome keeps the maillot jaune.

The result