At the front end of the race there were spectacular rides from new pros, as French rider Warren Barguil slipped away to take the stage on Friday as the main contenders marked each other. Roche stole few seconds in a intermediate sprint but otherwise the GC remained unchanged. This was his first professional win and kept the race's clear mood going as an opportunity for the less-well known riders.
On Saturday the race went into the big mountains in a stage that went out of Spain into Andorra and on a day that where the weather dramatically shifted form the sun that of the previous few weeks to torrential rain and freezing conditions. The climbing and the weather shook the race up considerably. Once again the stage went to a rider taking his first professional win as Daniele Ratto was in the leading break from the first mile and then went out into the treacherous wet and slippery mountains alone for the entire rest of the day. His position in the overall race meant noone was too bothered to chase him down and he took a stunningly epic win. In the final climb the duelling between the big names started as they followed Ratto. Roche showed just how hard he's been working to hang onto second pace and cracked, while Nibali and Horner broke free and raced together to second and third, pushing Horner to second and Nibali retaining the red jersey. Rodiguez climbed hard on his local training ground but couldn't mix it with the on-form duo,and Valverde was dropped hard at the start of the climb, but then put in a great ride to stay in the running.
The extent of the weather is best summed up by the 14 riders who abandoned, many, including the 7th placed Ivan Basso, due to hypothermia.
Sunday's stage 15 was another mountain day, heading into France to celebrate the 100th Tour de France, with more bad weather forecast. Luke Rowe was another rider to abandon the race due to illness and he was joined by Tony Martin, Philip Gilbert and around 8 other riders. Roche went for a bit of an attack to rebuild his position after a bad day on Saturday, chasing down the leader, Geniez. It was another day for the lone leader and Frenchman Geniez took a well timed win into France as the leaders fought it out and Roche stayed clear in a big attack to gain some time, looking like he was hurting a lot as he went under 1km to go. The Irish rider took third on the stage ahead of the other big names, with time bonuses that put him still in 6th but with a slightly cut time deficit, in weather that turned out to be not as bad as anyone feared, and with riders better wrapped up against the cold. Nibali and Horner marked each other and kept stuff hard for the explosive riders like Valverde and Rodriguez.
Today is expected to be warm and dry, which will be a relief.
It probably won't be as sunny for the start of the Tour or Britain, but at least there will be surprises (as I continue my streak of not being good at all at predicting teams):
If you thought you'd never see the words 'Quintana" and "Peebles" in the same sentence, then prepare to be shaken to your very foundations.
— Ned Boulting (@nedboulting) September 9, 2013
I'm not all about the road here as you probably know, so have some free-ride action from the Bearclaw Invitational.
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