LIONHEART Chris Froome was left battered, bruised and bloodied on a borrowed bike after crashing on the Tour de France.
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“I still need to get the yellow jersey to Paris tomorrow but the race is done and dusted”, Froome said. He’s descended in the rain using just two fingers to brake and in the middle of all that he managed to finish 12th on the only sprint stage he contested, despite admitting to feeling nervous back among the 60kph elbows and nudges.
Shortly after the 25-year-old Bardet then lit up the race with an attack on the tricky descent toward the foot of the final ascent to Le Bettex, Froome crashed on a right-hand bend.
Tomorrow’s route from Chantilly to the French capital will be largely processional as tradition dictates the Yellow Jersey holder should not be challenged during the final stage.
The 113km route from Chantilly will start in pedestrian fashion with Froome posing for photographs with his team-mates, sipping the obligatory glass of champagne.
The Briton has looked a cut above all of his rivals since early in the second week of this Tour, but Friday’s crash had been a reminder that nothing was won yet.
He is also the first to successfully defend his Tour title since Miguel Indurain in 1995.
He’s ridden every single one of the Tour’s biggest climbs without being able to get out of the saddle.
Froome’s win is the fourth by a British rider in the past five editions, following on from Sir Bradley Wiggins becoming the first Brit to win the Tour in 2012, when Froome finished second to his team-mate.
It seems it’s impossible to go a day without talking about what Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) has done, and stage 20 he was again at the front of the race, this time in service of his teammate Kreuziger.
“I finish very happy”.
However, his initial nine-second deficit became 19 when he was penalised 10 seconds for receiving a push from an Orica BikeExchange team-mate.
He said: “It was just my bike rider’s instinct”.
However, rain then began to fall heavily on the descent down the opposite side and with previously dry roads suddenly soaking, riders started skidding off at nearly every corner.
He had also suffered road rash on his back and, with the road damp and the downhill finish looking risky, he was mindful to stay safely around his team-mates.
For overall leader Chris Froome, Saturday’s stage 20, a 146-kilometer (90 miles) up-and-down jaunt Megeve to Morzine, was all about survival. He was caught before the summit by IAM Cycling’s Jarlinson Pantano and Izaguirre.
It was his best Tour yet after coming sixth in 2014 and ninth previous year, while he also won Friday’s 19th stage.
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“I’ve won it three times and I can’t say the novelty is wearing off”. To be honest, I wanted to finish in the highest position I could in line with my abilities.
