Ireland's Martin wins dramatic stage, Froome stays in yellow

Ireland's Dan Martin won a dramatic stage nine of the Tour de France in the Pyrenees on a day Britain’s Chris Froome had to dig deep to retain his leader’s yellow jersey.

Garmin-Sharp’s Martin won his first stage on the Tour, outsprinting Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) in a two-man shootout at the end of the 165.5km stage from Saint-Girons to Bagneres-de-Bigorre.

But the story of the day was race leader Froome having to ride the best part of 130km in isolation after all his Sky team-mates – including the Australian Richie Porte – were blown off the back of the main pack in a brutal opening hour of racing.

Porte was dropped on the second climb of the day, the Col de Mente, and finished the stage 18 minutes in arrears to plummet out of the top twenty.

A series of attacks from Garmin ahead of the first of five climbs opened the race from the outset, with Jack Bauer, David Millar, Tom Danielson, Ryder Hesjedal, Andrew Talansky and eventual stage winner Martin all heavily involved.

The Saxo-Tinkoff and Movistar teams of Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde also rode an aggressive stage, piling the pressure on Froome from the beginning – pressure which intensified after the unexpected cracking of Froome’s main lieutenant, Porte.