Stage 20 is the last true stage of the Tour de France, and it’s a doozy.
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Froome recovered and defended himself on the summit finish below Mont Blanc.
If Chris Froome wins the Tour de France on Sunday, it won’t have been an easy ride to the Champs Elysees. “He can win more (Tours)”.
Supporters cheer Britain’s Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey as he rides during the eighteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, an individual time trial over 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) with start…
Tomorrow sees the riders tackle a 146km route from Albertville to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc, over four categorised climbs including the 1,732m Montee de Bisanne.
With the riders going out in reverse order, Dumoulin, who won the time trial on stage 13, again set the pace, some two hours before Froome set off.
“I’m OK. I’m lucky, nothing seriously injured”.
“Everyone is exhausted – not just me”.
“It’s the kind of day I’m grateful I have a four-minute advantage”, said the defending champion.
After the stage ended, Froome was seen with heavy bandaging on his right knee, while Thomas remained in 15th place overall.
Fortunately for Froome, he had teammates nearby. But he had teammates Wout Poels and Mikel Landa for company, and a four-minute cushion. All the guys. It was a great team effort. It feels good to be one day closer to the finish.
He was distanced by the leaders on the Col de la Forclaz midway through the stage before being helped back by two Orica-BikeExchange team-mates and a push from Team Sky’s Luke Rowe – although he was later penalised 10 seconds by the race jury for getting unfair assistance.
The Movistar rider is fourth overall, 4:37 behind Froome.
It was a awful day for the Netherlands. The double stage victor Thomas Dumoulin fell – a touch of wheels as the road went uphill – and was forced to pull out, which could have implications for the Olympic time trial in Rio.
For Nairo Quintana, the Colombian who was second overall to Froome in 2013 and previous year, it was another disappointing day, although he did gain time on both Mollema and Yates. “I’ll be stiff and sore”.
Tomorrow is a very tricky stage with a lot of tricky descents.
Despite the myriad crashes, Bardet fully deserved the accolades that came his way. But Bardet has shown repeatedly that he can descend better than most in the professional peloton and might be able to nick the few seconds required to bring him a stage win here. The move left him virtually in second place in the GC, but there was plenty of racing still to come. “We are humans and I only raced with my emotions today”. I keep the yellow jersey on my shoulders, but the next two days are really tough. So now it’s about looking after that advantage and not taking any risks. I knew this climb, and I knew my bearings, and I knew where I could attack.
“I’m not sure that we are riding above our best. I just raced today, without any plan”.
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“I want to enjoy this, and take it as it comes”, Bardet said. “I have many years left to realize that dream”.
