Rigoberto Urán (Cannondale-Drapac) won a dramatic stage 9 of the Tour de France in a photo finish ahead of Team Sunweb's Warren Barguil on a day that saw Richie Porte (BMC Racing) Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Robert Gesink (Lotto Jumbo) crash out of the race and Gesink’s team mate George Bennet move into the top 10 on GC.

So many things happened:
• Aru attacking Froome when he had a mechanical?
• AG2R attacked on the downhill
• Froome lost Thomas as they tried to cover the attack and the CG race was on
• Have to feel for Porte! and hope he has a speedy recovery
• Barguil... hand up at finish thinking he'd won after a massive day! Another photo and he didn't
• Urán wins with one gear!
• Contador's days as a GC threat over? Go stage hunting now...
• Astana pulling and working at the end that saw Froome claim some bonus seconds; shouldn't it have been Froome's job to do the work? Were they so sure Aru would out sprint Froome?
• Bardet, whose AG2R team drove a ferocious pace on the slippery, technical descent, went from seventh to third on the GC, 51 seconds behind Froome
• Arnaud Demare out of tour after not making time cut along with Mark Renshaw and 5 others

Kiwi watch
It was all about George last night; who now is focused on riding for GC after saying pre Tour he would be stage hunting only - This is what George had to say to his team’s media manager after his efforts on stage 9; “My instinct was to be in the breakaway,” Bennett said after the finish. “But I trusted in the tactics from Nico and Jan, to stay with the GC riders. In the end, it worked out like that."

“It is clear now that I am going to focus on the GC. Before, I was really in between. I also wanted to go stage hunting. I didn’t truly believe in riding for the GC before, but I do now. I am going full-throttle all the way to Paris.”

How riders manage the rest day is important – then its flat 178km stage to get things rolling again

(c) Amaury Sport Organisation

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