Tour de France Stage 9: Dumoulin wins, Froome keeps yellow, Contador out (+ video)

Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin has won Stage 9 of the Tour de France at Arcalis in Andorra, on a day that Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador abandoned the race and Chris Froome kept the overall lead after neautralising attacks from some of his rivals.

Rui Costa of Lampre-Merida crossed the line second, 38 seconds behind Dumoulin, outsprinting Rafal Majka of Tinkoff, who also lost the leadership of the mountains competition to FDJ's Thibaut Pinot.

All three had been in a 29-man breakaway that had formed early on and that also included Tinkoff’s Peter Sagan, who picked up maximum points at the day’s intermediate sprint as he sought to close the gap on points classification leader Mark Cavendish of Dimension Data.

By the time the race hit the mountain principality’s capital, Andorra-La Vella, the break had split into smaller groups and it was there that Dumoulin, sixth overall in last year’s Vuelta, launched his solo attack ahead of the final Hors-Categorie ascent.

Afterwards, Dumoulin said: "This is a dream come true. It's been an incredible day. I'm so happy that I've won the queen stage! It's special. I've showed that I'm not only a time trial specialist, I can do more. A few days ago, had you asked me if I was going to win the queen stage, I would have said you're crazy."

He added: "It's nice to ride and make history. I don't think any Dutchman won a stage at each of three consecutive Grand Tours. That's very special."

With around 4km left of the 184.5km stage which began at Vielha Val d'Aran in Spain and with rain and hailstones falling as the race headed up the climb to the finish, Froome launched an attack, with Movistar’s Nairo Quintana getting on his wheel.

The select group containing the challengers for the overall reformed, and next to chance his arm was Etixx-Quick Step’s Dan Martin, nowadays a resident of Andorra, who lay fourth overall this morning just 17 seconds behind Froome.

The constant attacks coupled with the atrocious conditions saw the group whittled down on the final climb with riders dropped including Astana’s Fabio Aru, and just six men were left in it as Adam Yates led it across the line.

The Orica-BikeExchange man, who leads the best young rider competition, finished the stage in 10th place around six and a half minutes behind the winner, and was followed across the line by Froome, with Quintana and Movistar team mate Alejandro Valverde, as well as Martin and BMC Racing’s Richie Porte the other members of the group.

Froome said: "It was a tough stage and the weather conditions made it even tougher. It was super hot before we got rain on our head and ice falling from the sky. The temperature went down to 10°. We went from an extreme to another. It made the race harder but it's still a great day for us.

"I'm happy to still be in yellow. My team-mates did a good job from start to finish. We were put under pressure by Contador and Valverde in the first climb but we didn't panic. We went after them. I owe to my team-mates to still be in yellow.

"Several times before the Tour, I said this would be the biggest battle of my career and it's definitely the case," he went on. "It's not easy to ride away from everyone this year. The level is higher than in previous years.

"At the back of my mind, I was waiting for Nairo Quintana to attack until we reached the last kilometre. I was wondering if he was saving himself for a big move. As he didn't, I like to think that he was at his limit. He stayed on my wheel, glued," the race leader added.

The last time a Tour de France stage finished at Arcalis, Contador attacked and put time into his rivals on his way to winning the 2009 Tour de France.

However a combination of the injuries sustained in crashes on the opening two days of the race and a fever that set in last night saw the Spaniard abandon the race today with 100km still to ride.

Team owner Oleg Tinkoff confirmed after the stage that Contador will now target the Vuelta, although the rider himself was less committal.

"I couldn't continue," he said. "This morning I was feverish after the crash in the first day, I really didn't feel well and it pushed me to make this decision. I must have medical checks to see what's wrong to try and recuperate for the rest of the season."

Tomorrow sees the first rest day of this year's race ahead of Tuesday's 197km stage from Andorra-La Vella back into France, where it finishes in Revel.

Here's today's on-board footage.