Kenyan born Chris Froome enhanced his reputation as one of the best Tour de France riders when he virtually secured his third title, holding on to his overall lead in the last competitive stage, won by Spain’s Ion Izagirre on Saturday.
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Treacherous conditions battered the riders in the penultimate race of the Tour from Megeve to Morzine, but the 2015 champion kept his cool on rain-soaked roads to maintain his huge lead over second place Romain Bardet. He let out a thin smile when he reached the finish as his Sky teammates cheered him on.
The Vuelta, and the other grand tour race, the Giro d’Italia, are not really on the Team Sky rider’s radar even if only six men have managed to win all three of them. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven consecutive titles for doping.
The Tour concludes Sunday in Paris with a mostly ceremonial finish on the Champs-Elysees.
He began the day sporting bandages on his knee and elbow from that spill, and would not have relaxed for a moment knowing he had to face the technical descent into Morzine before any celebrations could begin.
“Right to the last finish line I had a lot of stress and a lot of emotion today”, said the 31-year-old Briton.
On the final descent, which had a vertical drop of more than 2,300 feet, Froome was extremely careful.
“There was no surprise because Chris Froome won. But for me it was not the same as in previous years”, Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. And he did it again when he went with (Peter) Sagan in Montpellier.
He told ITV Sport: “That was very satisfying, I must say”.
Brailsford added: “In the first week and then into the Pyrenees, when the time gaps were very small, Chris gained his time by attacking on the downhill, in the crosswinds, and that was exciting”.
Jarlinson Pantano of Colombia finished second, 19 seconds behind Izagirre, while 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali crossed third, 42 seconds back.
Up until 2016 our team’s focus in the Tour has been on stage wins and attention on the overall has been something that’s existed only in forecast projections with the young talent that we have spent our resources scouting.
“I think it’s a course that suits me well”, he said of the battle against the clock. “I wanted to drop Nibali because I was anxious about him in a sprint”.
Greipel, who pre-Tour was pegged as a favourite for the sprint stages, has been denied any wins so is undoubtedly keen to deliver in Paris.
“We’ll be there about a week before the race to start training a bit more again”, Froome said.
Cut and bruised from his crash towards the end of yesterday’s stage, Froome completed the stage around four and a quarter minutes behind Izaguirre, looking happy and relieved as he finished.
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Any suggestion that Froome might have been vulnerable after his crash on Friday was dispelled by a show of force from his Sky team that rode on the front of the peloton all day.
