Tour De France 2013 Stage 9 Results: Winner, Leaderboard and Highlights

Daniel Martin took home the Stage 9 victory on Sunday in an absolute nailbiter, finishing the stage ahead of Jakob Fuglsang at the 2013 Tour de France.

ITV Cycling announced Martin as the winner of the stage immediately after he crossed the finish line:

Stage 9 Results

RANK	RIDER	TEAM	TIMES	GAP
1.	Daniel Martin	Garmin-Sharp	04h 43' 03"
2.	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	04h 43' 03"	+ 00' 00"
3.	Michal Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma-Quick Step	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
4.	Daniel Moreno Fernandez	Katusha Team	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
5.	Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver	Katusha Team	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
6.	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
7.	Wouter Poels	Vacansoleil-DCM	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
8.	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
9.	Daniel Navarro	Cofidis, Solutions Credits	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"
10.	Maxime Monfort	Radioshack Leopard	04h 43' 23"	+ 00' 20"

Martin and Fuglsang battled for the ninth-stage win, as the two held a commanding lead over the rest of the pack as they reached the final summit of the stage. The gap between the two and the other cyclists was at 44 seconds, per the Inner Ring:

As Martin and Fuglsang continued to push toward the finish line, the gap started to narrow. With 10 kilometers left, the rest of the pack was only around 25 seconds behind the leading duo. Andy Schleck led the chasers, and Christopher Froome, Alejandro Valverde and Bauke Mollema, among others, were also in the hunt.

With the distance to the finish line dwindling, however, it was clear that either Martin or Fuglsang was going to come out on top, per the Inner Ring:

Even though the final stretch was downhill, Martin and Fuglsang were both peddling as hard as they could to try to gain an outright lead. Neither of the two leaders could break away from the other late, and while Martin was a little behind at the very end, he sprinted past Fuglsang, who couldn’t catch up.

It was the first stage win of the Tour de France for Garmin-Sharp, as well as the first victory for Martin. It was a hard-fought race, and as the Inner Ring tweets, Martin definitely deserved to finish before any of the other cyclists:

Froome still holds the yellow jersey with an 85-second lead over Valverde. Martin moves into the top 10 in overall individual time classification with the victory, and he sits in eighth place, two minutes and 28 seconds behind Froome for the lead.

The cyclists will have Monday off, as it’s the first rest day. Stage 10 will take place on Tuesday with a 197-kilometer stretch from Saint-Gildas-des-Bois to Saint-Malo. 

General Classifications After Stage 9

RANK	RIDER	TEAM	TIMES	GAP
1.	Christopher Froome	Sky Procycling	36h 59' 18"
2.	Alejando Valverde	Movistar Team	37h 00' 43"	+ 01' 25"
3.	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling	37h 01' 02"	+ 01' 44"
4.	Laurens Ten Dam	Belkin Pro Cycling	37h 01' 08"	+ 01' 50"
5.	Roman Kreuziger	Team Saxo-Tinkoff	37h 01' 09"	+ 01' 51"
6.	Alberto Contador	Team Saxo Tinkoff	37h 01' 09"	+ 01' 51"
7.	Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas	Movistar Team	37h 01' 20"	+ 02' 02"
8.	Daniel Martin	Garmin-Sharp	37h 01' 46"	+ 02' 28"
9.	Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver	Katusha Team	37h 01' 49"	+ 02' 31"
10.	Rui Alberto Costa	Movistar Team	37h 02' 03"	+ 02' 45"

*Full classifications and results can be found at LeTour.com.