It was supposed to be the stage of the giants, with epic clashes, but the one that ended yesterday in a storm under a flood of hail will be remembered above all for the abandonment of Alberto Contador. He had little or no impact on the standings even if he sent a not entirely reassuring signal on Aru who, despite the help of a gregarious Nibali, lost almost a minute from Froome and Quintana. On a par with Valverde, Van Garderen and Kreuziger who suffered an empty joke in the final arriving together with the two Italians from Astana.
To win it alone was Tom Dumoulin who last year in these parts was about to win the Vuelta before being crashed by Aru in the penultimate stage. A rider, the Dutchman from Alpecin-Giant who has class in spades, but who intelligently took note of not having the legs to hold up three weeks' races – this was also seen in the last Giro after starting in the jersey pink – and who therefore set out on the hunt for victories in prestigious stages.
And the Arcalis at 2.440 meters is certainly one of them. Here in the 1997 Tour Jan Ullrich conquered the yellow jersey setting the stage for his only success in the Grande Boucle. Dumoulin had entered the escape born just after the departure from Vielha Val d'Aran when the temperature reached 37 degrees: a dozen companions remained with him until the entrance into Andorra, then while the sky over the Principality became dark and threatening, ready to unloading a violent hailstorm, the Dutchman flew away by cutting the tragiardo with 38'' on Rui Costa, Majka.
Navarro and Anacona arrived in dribs and drabs. Sixth after 2 and a half minutes was Thibaut Pinot who with Majka engaged in a fight to the last point for the polka dot jersey of best climber. Mathias Frank arrived, last of the survivors of the initial escape, ninth at 3'44 '', the attention of the whole caravan was concentrated on the moves of the big names in the standings who had started the final climb 8 minutes late from Dumoulin.
In fact, the Andorran hors Categorie offered little or nothing of the epic challenges it evoked on the eve: if Froome has always monitored every move of his rivals, he never gave the impression of wanting to close the Tour yesterday. He finished 10th with the same time as Adam Yates who also confirmed yesterday that he is the authentic revelation of this Tour. Nairo Quintana does not lose seconds either, but from the Colombian Condor we expected a first important lunge, instead he was content to remain glued to the wheels of Froome.
Richie Porte and Daniel Martin survive the first major uphill finish unscathed. On the other hand, 20'' Rodriguez and Mollema lose. The classification, on the eve of the first rest, undergoes some settling with Aru and Kreuziger who leave the top ten even if their delay remains just over a minute from Froome. Valverde and Van Garderen also lose positions, having dropped to 10th and 11th place in the ranking which, however, is still very short awaiting the Mont Ventoux on 14th July.
Given Dumoulin what is due to him for his feat, the stage will go down in the annals of the Tour for the human and sporting ordeal of Contador who abandoned the race when there were exactly 100km left before the finish in Andorra Arcalis. A melancholy retreat, in the land of Spain, halfway up the ascent to Port del Cantò, the second asperity of the stage.
A painful and decisive exit from the scene after that at the beginning of the fraction it was Contador himself who lit the fuse with an attack on the Port de la Bonaigua. An action that did well on the newfound health of the Pistolero who reached Valverde until he joined a squad of fugitives including Dumoulin, Pinot, Majka and De Gend. The Tour, after Froome's downhill exploit on Saturday in Bagnères-de-Luchon, was looking forward to the return of the Spanish champion physically tormented by injuries from the two falls in the first two stages.
But it was only Contador's last attempt to see what responses he might have from his physique, also experienced by a feverish state that took over during the night. A test that disheartened the rider when he realized he couldn't keep the wheels of Valverde and the Movistars who were accelerating at the head of the race. Resigned, Contador got sucked into the group led by Froome's Team Sky, even ending up in the rear. The Spaniard approached the flagship disconsolately.
Everyone tried to cheer him up a bit, even some colleagues from other teams like Frank Schleck. Thinking about today's rest day, Contador tried to hold on for about ten km with the Tour cameras never losing sight of him, radiating the champion's drama around the world. Then the definitive surrender with the Spaniard who puts his foot on the ground and gets on the car bidding another farewell to the Tour that he hasn't been able to win since 2009.
A sort of curse has accompanied his participation in the Grande Boucle for years, since in 2010 he won it for the third time on the road but the UCI took that victory away from him - assigned to Andy Schleck - due to a case of clenbuterol doping that emerged at a control halfway through the Tour and punished a year and a half later, so much so that Contador, after winning the 2011 Giro, raced the following Tour sub judice, the one won by Cadel Evans ahead of the Scleck brothers. The Spaniard finished fourth.
Then a few days after the end of the Tour came the sentence of a two-year retroactive disqualification which in fact deprived him of his second triumph in the Giro (awarded to Michele Scarponi) in addition to the 2010 Tour. Contador always claimed his innocence blaming a food contamination from a steak but remained at the stake until August 2012. He came back in a big way by winning the Vuelta but his goal was to regain the Tour. An objective that he was no longer able to achieve: in 2013 he did not go beyond fourth place, the following year again the jinx raged against the Pistolero forcing him to retire following a crash in the tenth stage from Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles.
Last year, after winning the Giro again, he attempted the historic double with the Tour but the Italian efforts penalized the action of the Spaniard who finished fifth just under 10 minutes behind Chris Froome. Now, having said goodbye to the Tour, Contador is already thinking about the Vuelta rather than the Rio Olympic race and the Vuelta. The Pistolero falls but doesn't give up. On the contrary, Oleg Tinkoff, the Russian patron of Contador and Sagan's team, is increasingly inclined to leave cycling after seeing his hopes of winning the Tour wiped out again this year.
