Per Cycling Weekly’s Gregor Brown, Cavendish previously denied there were plans for him to leave the Tour during the final rest day. The Colombian has finished second to Froome in the two Tours he has won – in 2013 and 2015 – after making a late charge that ultimately came too late into the race. “It’s unbelievable. After so many times finishing second…”
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However, the Tinkoff and Katusha teams of Sagan and Kristoff had other ideas and chased hard.
“Then it was a insane finale, very technical, everyone wanted to be in my wheel”. “I just thought about following others”.
“As it stands I’ve got nearly three minutes on Quintana (2:59) and close to two minutes on Mollema (1:47)”.
“I definitely feel as if there has been a huge shift this year”, said Froome. “It’s another day we can tick off and everyone is pretty grateful we’ve got a rest day tomorrow”. I wouldn’t look at him in the same light as Quintana. “But it’s unrealistic and not a guarantee for success”, Unzue said. He outsprinted Alexander Kristoff and the green jersey of Peter Sagan to cross the line first in the bunch sprint at Parc des Oiseaux in Villars les Dombes.
Dennis, 26, who won the opening stage time trial at the Tour previous year and wore the race leader’s yellow jersey for a day, was sitting 126th overall at more than two and a half hours behind leader Chris Froome.
“I believe in destiny”, he said.
25 kilometres separate the top of the first climb, to the start of the second categorised climb of the day, the third category climb of the Col des Mosses. “I didn’t win but that is the sport”.
Froome himself has described his team as the “strongest Sky have ever brought to the Tour”. “It was quite risky in that last 10km but the whole day was just so fast”, Porte said. He can do everything. “He chooses when he wants to go in the breakaway, how he wants to ride the finish”. “I m actually surprised he didn t attack on that last climb and ride away solo, but he still managed to win the stage”.
Chris Froome insists he still has the hunger and desire to keep on dominating the Tour de France for years to come.
Four challenging days in the Alps separate him from the podium of only his second Tour, and Yates is prepared to take his chances. “It was a bit sketchy”.
“Obviously, if I’m going to attack I need a good reason for it, I’m not just going to attack for the sake of attacking”. Even Froome admitted that his team’s strength “must be demoralizing for people to have to think of attacking, knowing that this caliber of riding will be chasing them”.
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“To say I’ve won and I don’t have any rivals, that’s rubbish”.
