Tour de France 2012: stage nine - as it happened

Today's 41.5 kilometre individual time trial "The first target for Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans," writes William Fotheringham, in our interactive guide to Le Tour . "As the best time triallists, they will want to gain time over the better climbers on this medium-length test with a rolling start and flatter roads towards the end. If either stumbles, their Tour challenge will be jeopardised." William Fotheringham's stage eight report The phrase "the road to Paris is long" is one of the oldest cliches in the Tour de France lexicon, but it will be especially apposite for the Tour leader Bradley Wiggins from now on. He got a taste of what is in store for him on his first day in the yellow jersey, when one of the most animated stages in recent years ended with Vincenzo Nibali of Italy, Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Belgium and the defending Tour champion Cadel Evans testing his legs into the finish. Then, afterwards, he received his first proddings from the media. Van Den Broeck and his faithful sidekick Jelle Vanendert will be constant threats in the mountains now, and they accelerated at the top of the last climb of the day, the short, steep and aptly named Col de la Croix, asking questions of the lead group, which was then whittled down to just Wiggins, Chris Froome, Van Den Broeck, Nibali and Evans. It was the Italian who attacked twice on the descent – perhaps because the general perception is that going downhill is Wiggins's weak point – but the Englishman responded, and he had the legs in the final kilometres to answer a late attack from the Belgian, who swept away after going round a roundabout on the opposite side from the rest of the group, with Evans, briefly, joining him. Click on the link to read the rest of the report ... The Top 10 on General Classification 1. Bradley Wiggins (GBR) Sky 38hr 17min 56sec 2. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC +10sec 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale +16sec 4. Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha +54sec 5. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Radioshack-Nissan +59sec 6. Chris Froome (GBR) Sky +1min 32sec 7. Maxime Monfort (Ger) Radioshack-Nissan +2min 08sec 8. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto +2min 11sec 9. Nicolas Roche (Ire) AG2R La Mondiale +2min 21sec 10. Rein Taarame (Est) Cofidis +2min 27sec Click on the link to see the full GC ... Jersey wearers Yellow: Bradley Wiggins (Sky) Green: Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) Polka-dot: Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) White: Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) Today's schedule: The last 60 riders depart at three-minute intervals today and as leader on General Classsification, Bradley Wiggins will be last down the starting ramp at 3.39pm (BST). Barry will be here to bring you updates on how the main contenders are faring from 3pm. 3.15pm: Good afternoon everybody . Apologies for my tardinesss, but we're being plagued by technical difficulties here at Guardian Towers this afternoon and I've spent the past half-hour sitting staring at a hypnotic spinning golf-umbrealla of death on my computer screen. 3.17pm: With Juergen van den Broeck, who is eigth on GC, rolling down the ramp, RadioShack-Nissan prologue specialist Fabien Cancellara has set the fastest time of 52min 21sec. O,egan Pharma-Quickstep rider Sylvain Chavanel is second at +27sec and his team-mate Peter Velits is third at +1min 02sec. 3.21pm: THere are two official time-checks on today's course, the first at Abbans-Dessus on the 16.5km mark, the second at Avanne-Aveney on the 31.5km mark. BMC rider Tejay van Garderen has just clocked in three seconds ahead of Cancellara at Abbans-Dessus. 3.24pm: Sky Rider Chris Froome rolls down the ramp, which means there are just five riders left to take to the road: Haimar Zubeldia (Radioshack-Nissan), Denis Menchov (Katusha), Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Bradley Wiggins (Sky). 3.26pm: "What´s your take on the reaction to yesterdays press conference?" asks Andy Cummings. "I can understand Wiggins frustration if he is clean, but I feel he picked the wrong target in the fans who have been let down time and again by riders who were equally indignant about their performances being questioned and then proving to have lied all along. After years and years of this, I think we all have the right to be suspicious. Summed up far more eloquently than I could here ." I'd pretty much agree with you and the chap who posted that open letter, Steve. When I heard that journalists applauded Wiggins in the wake of his rant, I was appalled (but not hugely surprised) by their obsequiousness, but I've since heard it was only five or six out of an assembled press corps numbering a couple of hundred. 3.29pm: Parish notice: "In August I will be attempting to cycle 5,000 miles solo and unsupported across the USA for disaster relief charity ShelterBox (more than twice the distance of the Tour, but not quite matching their speed!). I was hoping you may be able to give me a mention in the live blog to help me drum up a bit of support for the trip? People can follow me on Twitter here ." 3.31pm: For those asking, I can confirm that, unlike in the prologue, Sky rider Chris Froome remembered to remove the cotton wool swabs from his nose prior to setting off on this particular time trial. 3.33pm: Tejay van Garderen (BMC) passes the second checkpoint at 21min 34sec, two seconds faster than clubhouse leader Fabian Cancellara was at that point. 3.36pm: Cadel Evans sets off on his race of truth against the clock. Pottty-mouthed Guardian columnist and race-leader Bradley Wiggins is next. 3.37pm: "Can't help thinking that Brad's outburst yesterday was a litttle ill advised," writes James Cavell. "Even sympathetic media sources have been mentioning the tactical parallel between Sky 2012 and US Postal of 1999-2005, and one hopes that Wiggins hasn't challenged journalists, bloggers and 'anonymous tweeter losers/c**ts' to provoke him to generate some spectacular press conference scenes. If Wiggins catches Evans today and goes minutes ahead, you can be sure there will be more suspicions raised, (if only just to annoy Brad) especially if Froome, Rogers and Porte also ride strongly. "Mick Rogers says that he produced his best ever power output on saturday's climb. But overall in the Tour, power outputs uphill have been falling from nigh on 500 watts in the early noughties to the lower 400's upper 300's in the last few years. Very few 32-year-old riders are hitting their best numbers now, that's for sure. Rogers obviously has changed the way he trains significantly. "I am sure that Sky really have revolutionised training techniques and preparation to generate marginal gains, and they do seem to ride at an impressive high cadence with a laser like focus on this one event. I understand it must be difficult to be a clean team, who cannot divulge the innovative training techniques that give them such a collection of gains that combine into something big, or else they reveal secrets to the competition. "But when the performance is so dominant, in an event where such performances are demonstrably suspicious, one does feel a little more reassurance is required - rather than a foul mouthed tantrum in a press conference." 3.39pm: Bradley Wiggins rolls off the start ramp wearing his yellow Tour leader's skinsuit. 3.40pm: "Do you (or anyone in MBM-land) know if anyone has won an Olympic track gold and a Tour de France?" asks Gary Naylor. "I don't think Eddy Merckx did, and if The Cannibal didn't do it, not many have." Anyone? I know Miguel Indurain won gold in the Olympic time trial, but I suspect that may not have been on the track. 3.42pm: "I didn't think that letter was at all well written," writes Lawrie Jones by eway of response to James Cummings and I. "I thought it was trite drivel, the same nonsense we get drawn out every year when the Tour is on. Cyclists are no more or less moral than you and I. They are fragile, flawed human beings as drawn to temptation as anybody else; it's just likely to be more present and available in their lives. Can you – or the original writer of that letter – claim never to have misled someone, lied to them or covered something up in their lives? Don't project some sort of super-morality on men who ride bikes for a living." I think, with respect, you're missing the point, Lawrie. Nobody's saying that cyclists should be super-moral, just that they should expect and be prepared to answer difficult questions when they're competing in a sport where dishonesty has long been rife. 3.44pm: Terjay van Garderen has crossed the finish line, but failed to do so faster than Fabian Cancellara. Having been two seconds faster than Cancellara at the second intermediate checkpoint, he's lost 11 seconds in the final third of the course. He's currently second in the stage behind Cancellara, nine seconds behind. 3.49pm: "Are you in a special Guardian minute-by-minute skinsuit?" asks Alex Bowden, presumably with a shudder at the very notion. I expect a Guardian skinsuit would be fabricated from ethically sourced eco-friendly Lycra-type fabric, with aerodynamic pointy sandals and a big G-shaped helmet. 3.54pm: Cadel Evans has lost 30 seconds to Bradley Wiggins already, with 30 kilomtres still to go on the stage. Yikes. 3.55pm: Further up the road, Chris Froome has knocked 23.41sec off the time set by van Garderen at the first intermediate checkpoint. 3.56pm: Wow! Bradley Wiggins is now over a minute quicker than Cadel Evans on the road. "It looks likely that Wiggins and Froome are going to humiliate the opposition in this time trial," writes James Cavell. "They look likely to beat Cancellara. This could start to look ridiculous. I fear press conferences are going to get worse in the next few days." 3.58pm: At the first intermediate checkpoint, Cadel Evans is 57 seconds slower than Sky rider Chris Froome. We'll have a Sky one-two on General Classification at the end of this stage at this rate. 4.00pm: Bradley Wiggins passes the first intermediate checkpoint at 21min 05sec having taken over a minute out of Cadel Evans in 16.5 kilometres. 4.05pm: These are extraordinary performances from Sky riders Froome and Wiggins, who are crushing the opposition. At the first intermediate checkpoint, Wiggins was five seconds ahead of his team-mate, who was in turn 24 seconds ahead of the third fastest man Tejay van Garderen. Time trial specialist Fabian Cancellara was a further three seconds back. 4.11pm: "It seems so unfair that any successful cyclist immediately gets accused of illicit assistance, as it doesn't seem to happen in any other sport," writes Robin Hazlehurst. "Nobody is raising eyebrows at Federer winning another grand slam or Andy Murray reaching the final (and I must underline I don't think they should), and the talk at the Olympics will only occasionally brush the question of doping in passing even if medals are redistributed following a positive test. Of course cycling has form and the questioning is not without grounds, but it should surely be balanced by equal finger-pointing in other sports or else cyclists should be left alone to be clean until proven guilty. Should Wiggo raise that point next time out and see how many journalists and representatives of other sports cough and change the topic?" 4.12pm: Chris Froome passes the second intermediate time-check in 39min 18sec, the fastest time posted at that point today by 20 seconds. Irish Ag2r La Mondiale rider Nicolas Roche crosses the finish line in 54min 32sec, which will keep him in ninth place on General Classification tonight. 4.15pm: Chris Froome drives to the line and finishes the time trial 51min 59sec, 22 seconds faster than Fabian Cancellara. 4.19pm: BMC rider Cadel Evans passes the second intermedate time check, 1min 03sec slower than Sky's Chris Froome. 4.21pm: "In response to Robin Hazlehurst, when non-specialists start humiliating the best riders in the world in their discipline as Chris 'Zoome' is doing to Cancellara, Nibali and Evans, an intelligent observer can't help but ask questions," writes James Cavell. "A climber with no time trial pedigree to speak of has just beaten the best time trial rider ever by 23 seconds in a long TT." This one's going to run and run, isn't it? 4.23pm: Bradley Wiggins passes the second intermediate checkpoint in a time of 39min 02sec. He's leading the staghe, 16 seconds ahead of his team-mate Chris Froome, 36 seconds ahead of Tejay van Garderen (BMC), 38 seconds faster than Fabian Cancellara (RNT) and 1min 19sec faster than Cadel Evans (BMC). 4.27pm: "I don't think anyone has won an Olympic gold on the track as well as the Tour, but the great Italian Fausto Coppi won two world championship gold medals on the track (in the pursuit - like Wiggins) before winning the Tour," writes Alex Dwiar. "Unlike Wiggins (and Geraint Thomas who is not riding the Tour so he can get his body ready for the Olympic track), Coppi managed to juggle being a track and road cyclist simultaneously rather than having two phases of his career - in 1947 he won the Giro as well as gold in the individual pursuit." 4.28pm: Cadel Evans crosses the finish line in 53min 07sec - he's going to lose a lot of time to Bradley Wiggins this afternoon. 4.30pm: Bradley Wiggins finishes in 51min 24sec, a whopping 35 seconds ahead of his team-mate Chris Froome. 4.31pm: "Chris Froome does have time trial pedigree," harrumphs Daniel Thomas, among others, by way of response to James Cavell. "He absolutely smashed the vuelta TT last year!" He smashed it? Presumably he wasn't hanging out the back of it, then? 4.34pm: "I've just seen that Chris Froome was second in the 2010 British TT championships, behind Wiggins and just ahead of the domestic elite license holders with part time jobs," writes cynicism's James Cavell. "That's some serious pedigree there.....entirely realistic that he beats Cancellara and Evans." The Top Five in Stage Nine 1. Bradley Wiggins (GBR) Sky 51min 24sec 2. Chris Froome (GBR) Sky +35sec 3. Fabian Cancellara (Sui) RNT +57sec 4. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC +1min 06sec 5. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) OPQ +1min 24sec The Top Five on General Classification 1. Bradley Wiggins (GBR) Sky 39hr 09min 20sec 2. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC +1min 53sec 3. Chris Froome (GBR) SKY +2min 07sec 4. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) LIQ +2min 23sec 5. Denis Menchov (Rus) KAT +3min 02sec Click on the link to see the full General Classification