Tour de France: Everybody said I'm done - Degenkolb revels in first Tour victory

Paris, July 15: John Degenkolb claimed his first Grand Tour win since 2015 as he triumphed in a chaotic ninth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday.

With 15 cobbled sections to overcome, the 156.5-kilometre ride from Arras Citadelle to Roubaix always threatened to be a dramatic one.

And so it proved as a number of the Tour's big names suffered falls, with BMC's Richie Porte abandoning the race after crashing 10km in, the general classification contender appearing to damage his collarbone.

But the pave stage proved no problem for Degenkolb, a winner of the Paris-Roubaix in 2015.

The German had the legs in a three-man sprint to the finish after he, Yves Lampaert and yellow jersey holder Greg Van Avermaet broke away with 16km remaining.

Van Avermaet remains in yellow but it was an emotional day for Degenkolb as he recorded his first Tour stage victory having come close to losing a finger in a training crash in Barcelona in 2016.

Degenkolb has previously won a stage of the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and won the points jersey at the 2014 Vuelta a Espana, but it was clear this triumph meant more to the delighted Trek-Segafredo rider, whose most recent Grand Tour win came in the final stage of the 2015 Vuelta.

"Pure happiness. Really - I was chasing the victory so long. It's really hard to describe," Degenkolb said after crossing the line.

"It was a really hard fight all day. It is also a victory of the team. We really had a plan to stay out of trouble all the time, and it worked out really well. It was unbelievable.

"This is a very big victory - since a long time... I have been through a lot of things it was such a hard time. I'm so happy to dedicate this victory to one of my best friends - he passed away last winter. This was really something for him.

"Everybody said I'm done, after this accident I will never come back. I said no, I'm not done. I have to make at least one really big victory for this guy. He was my second father. It was a horrible accident, and it is a huge loss without him. I'm so happy to get this victory now for him.

"There's no way to make it more dramatic, more nice, more fantastic. I'm totally overwhelmed."

FROOME OVERCOMES CRASH, URAN SUFFERS BIG BLOW

Chris Froome may be breathing a sigh of relief after he survived the stage despite suffering a crash of his own.

Mikel Landa and Rigoberto Uran also took tumbles, the latter losing nearly a minute and a half on the general classification group.

Neither of their falls were as serious as that of Porte, whose race was ended by a stage nine crash for the second successive year.

Romain Bardet endured a testing day as he sustained three punctures but, like Landa, lost just seven seconds on Froome and the GC contenders.

STAGE 9 RESULTS

1. John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) 3:24:26 2. Greg Van Avermaeat (BMC Racing) +0:00 3. Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors) 4. Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) +0:19 5. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS General Classification 1. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) 2. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) +00:43 3. Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) +00:44

Points 1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) 299 2. Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) 218 3. Dylan Groenewegen (Lotto NL-Jumbo) 132

UP NEXT...

Monday is a rest day before the riders tackle the first of three mountain stages, a 159km ride from Annecy to Le Grand-Bornard, which features three category one climbs and an hors category ascent.