TDF 2014 Stage 9 - Tony, Tony, Tony

Tony Martin, he's a no-brainer for the time-trial, but he's also up for a break when it takes his fancy.  The crafty Kraut sneaked away early and held off everyone to take another stage win for his team.  Oh and it seems he's now the King of the Mountains.

Now he's got the stage win out of the way, he'll be free to concentrate on his other job as frontman for Franz Ferdinand.

There was another Tony who did well today, Tony Gallopin.  He was among the guys chasing Tony M and although they never caught him, Gallopin did earn the Yellow Jersey for his trouble.

Stage 9 scores are in and it's finally a chance for the Smugblokes to be smug.  And who's that in second spot?  Earligold by name, but late to the party, it's Ed.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	1	239
Earligold	Ed Rawlings	2	224
Stans Finest	Mark	3	224
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	4	190
Drews Riders, Useless Generally Speaking	Drew Stephenson	5	184
Huntington Pharmacy	Late night meds from	6	168
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	7	157
Miffy`sMountain Goats	Helen S	8	150
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	9	147
School of Hardknotts	Jonathan Wilcox	10	142
Wilko	Oliver Wilkens	11	139
Olliepops	OJ	12	124
Rouleurs	tdm911	13	94
Haxby Group Pharmacy	Richard Harrison	14	90
Holy Toledo	Andrew Ramos	15	83
Expensive Bike Pumps due to Inflation	Vinny PL	16	72
ENRICO 666	Eric Mortier	17	71
Three Little Pigs	Isabel Harrison	18	67
2.35.24	Den	19	66
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	20	64
Evil Yorkshire Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	21	58
The Hopalongs	Dave	22	55
Charmers	Craigatron	23	35
The Doom of Froome	Warwick Anderson	24	34
A True Underdog Story	Patches O`Houlihan	25	15

Those Olliepops are still leading the overall, but if I were them (and I'm totally not) I would be concerned about Mungo.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Olliepops	OJ	1	2546
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	2	2463
Haxby Group Pharmacy	Richard Harrison	3	2339
The Doom of Froome	Warwick Anderson	4	2017
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	5	1855
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	6	1852
ENRICO 666	Eric Mortier	7	1827
Evil Yorkshire Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	8	1776
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	9	1718
Drews Riders, Useless Generally Speaking	Drew Stephenson	10	1717
Holy Toledo	Andrew Ramos	11	1704
Three Little Pigs	Isabel Harrison	12	1701
2.35.24	Den	13	1674
Huntington Pharmacy	Late night meds from	14	1651
Rouleurs	tdm911	15	1569
Stans Finest	Mark	16	1568
Expensive Bike Pumps due to Inflation	Vinny PL	17	1459
Wilko	Oliver Wilkens	18	1326
Charmers	Craigatron	19	1258
Earligold	Ed Rawlings	20	1257
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	21	1105
Miffy`sMountain Goats	Helen S	22	824
The Hopalongs	Dave	23	798
School of Hardknotts	Jonathan Wilcox	24	719
A True Underdog Story	Patches O`Houlihan	25	121

Stage 10 is just around the corner and it's a toughie and no mistake.  It's no coincidence that the KOM competition starts tomorrow, as the real mountains start tomorrow.  Is Nibali really up to the task, or has he just been lucky so far?  I reckon we'll find out tomorrow.  And it's Bastille Day, so expect a futile attempt at the stage win from a Frenchman.