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Tour de France standings 2017: Rigoberto Uran wins in photo finish at the end of a wild Stage 9

Stage 9 of the Tour de France was everything it was billed to be.

Jul 9, 2017, 3:17 PM UTC

Rigoberto Uran won a wild Stage 9 on the Tour de France in a photo finish, just out sprinting Frenchman Warren Barguil. He also had to edge out Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet, and Chris Froome to get to the finish line at Chambéry first. Oh, and he did on a bike with only two working gears.

Uran and Barguil had brilliant rides throughout the day, spending much of it at the front of a breakaway, waiting for the yellow jersey group to catch up. It did, of course. Uran was caught on the final ascent up Mont du Chat, while Barguil was able to stave them off until the descent on the other side, having gone solo up the mountain and racked up 20 King of the Mountains points. Barguil also took the summit of Grand Colombier, easily putting him in the polka-dot jersey after the stage.

At the top of Mont du Chat, a group comprised of Uran, Froome, Bardet, Aru, Jakob Fuglsang, Richie Porte, and Dan Martin began the descent approximately 10 seconds behind Barguil. Bardet was the superior descender, and chased down Barguil easily while putting nearly 20 seconds into his rivals. Porte and Martin were involved in a crash, and it was disastrous for Porte in particular, who had to have his neck stabilized in a brace and was transported in an ambulance. His Tour is finished.

Uran’s stage-winning hopes were almost immolated by a mechanical problem. His back derailleur broke, leaving him with only two working gears on the descent. Rather than take a new, inferior bike, however, Uran decided to continue on the equipment he had:

Uran was somehow able to stay with the pack. Meanwhile, Bardet’s poor time trial skills caught up to him on the flat 12-kilometer stretch to the finish line. He was caught with under 2 kilometers to go, then this group of full-time climbers did their best Marcel Kittel impressions. Fuglsang opened the sprinting early, with roughly 400 meters to the finish. At one point, Bardet appeared to have saved the stage, but he, too, fell back and Barguil and Uran found themselves going together toward the line.

Barguil began celebrating as soon as the two crossed the line, believing he had won:

The photo at the line would confirm that Uran had just edged him out, however, giving the Colombian rider a stage win on what was perhaps the hardest stage on this year’s Tour route.

The day began with a 38-man breakaway.

Two categorized climbs at the outset of Stage 9 ensured that racing would occur early and often. Among the riders who would remain at the front of the stage from that group were Barguil, Bauke Mollema, Carlos Betancur, Alexis Vuillermoz, Axel Domont, and Jan Bakelants.

Of particular note were the three AG2R riders — Vuillermoz, Domont, and Bakelants. The team attacked on two fronts. As those three drove the breakaway as hard as it could go, AG2R was also leading the peloton over the first Hors-Catégorie climbs of the day, and were eventually successful at drawing out an elite group of riders that Froome and several members of Team Sky, but also their chief, Bardet, who would finish fourth on the stage after his brave assault on Mont du Chat’s treacherous descent.

At the bottom of Mont du Chat, Bakelants went clear with Tony Gallopin. Bakelants quickly fell back, leaving Gallopin solo but with Barguil chasing out of the breakaway group. The yellow jersey group, meanwhile, was 2:30 back, gearing up for the final climb, after having let the breakaway gain more than five minutes earlier in the stage.

Fabio Aru made the first move in the yellow jersey group, and it was dirty.

Early on Mont du Chat, Froome put his hand up to signal that he had a mechanical problem, and Aru immediately attacked.

Froome was furious as he fell to the back of the group. Lucky for him, the rest of the general classification contenders adhered to the unspoken rule that you don’t take advantage of the yellow jersey when he is having an issue outside of his control. They quickly caught up to Aru, then refused to work with him, forcing him to drop back and ride at their cadence while Froome caught up.

Farther ahead, Gallopin couldn’t maintain his pace and fell behind the yellow jersey group, leaving Barguil on his own with 6 kilometers to go to the summit, and 18 kilometers before the finish.

When Froome had rejoined his rivals, several other riders made attempts to break free from the pack, including Porte and Bardet. Froome kept up and launched an acceleration of his own that most notably left behind Nairo Quintana. The Colombian rider who attempted the Giro d’Italia this year as a “warm up” to the Tour all but resigned his hopes of making the podium this year.

Only Fuglsang was able to get away from those elite riders, though that might have said more about how much Froome and company respected the Danish rider’s ability. He was caught before the summit, leading to the seven-man chase group that went after Barguil — Froome, Bardet, Fuglsang, Aru, Uran, Porte, and Martin.

And at the end of all that, Froome is still in yellow.