CHRIS FROOME has been caught-up in more doping slurs on the Tour de France – over using motors.
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Froome acknowledged that the day had a sting in its tail in the awful conditions for the first summit finish of the race. “I’m so exhausted that I can’t even speak”, he told the official Tour de France website. “One second there, we were pouring water over our heads and ice socks down the back, and then the next minute we literally had ice falling from the sky with the hail stones and the temperatures dropped right down to 10 degrees”.
“We will just take it day by day and if we have the legs, we keep rolling with it”. “It was pretty hard out there”.
Dumoulin finished with a timing of 5:16:24.
And it’s notable that the lead he does have is the result of a daring descent on stage 8, set up by a surprising attack over the top of the day’s final climb.
‘I don’t think if he drops off a bit he should sit up and go for stages. “You never know when it comes”.
“That was a tough old day out there”. He just stuck to my wheel like glue.
Brailsford insisted Froome’s equipment had come in for more scrutiny than anyone else’s on the Tour.
“It’s a very open race at this point but I’m very happy to have the lead going into the first rest day”, Froome said.
Spain’s Alberto Contador has ruled himself out of the road race at next month’s Rio Olympics, as he recover from injuries and illness that caused him to quit the tour on Sunday. Among the pre-race favorites, BMC’s Tejay van Garderen has already lost 1:01 to Froome, and Astana’s Fabio Aru trails by 1:23. “I believe Nairo is too”, Valverde said. By no means did I expect it to be easy and I was just going to ride away from everyone.
Martin moved to Andorra from his previous base in Girona past year to get better access to the high mountains in training.
The Giant – Alpecin rider was part of the breakaway group as the peloton made their way from Vielha Val d’Aran, the Dutchman surging clear on Andorre Arcalis.
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.
“I’m a time trialist so if I have a gap it’s hard to close it on me”, Dumoulin added.
The stage featured five demanding climbs, including an uphill, beyond-category finish in Arcalis. We went from an extreme to another. “In the valley, the heat was suffocating”.
Was he holding back with a view to making a charge on Thursday’s next crucial day for the overall contenders, that being stage 12 from Montpellier to the summit of Mont Ventoux, after which there is the 37.5km stage 13 time-trial from Bourg-Saint-Andéol the next day?
Stage eight on Saturday 9th July saw Chris Froome take the stage victory, and the yellow jersey, as he cruised home to his first ever downhill win from the top of the Col de Peyresourde.
“It was a tough stage and the weather only made it tougher”, Froome said.
The Spaniard has been in the wars in the opening week of the Tour and after feeling ill prior to the stage, he abandoned with 100km to race.
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If karma has a way of levelling things out then Froome must be in store for a nasty Sunday in Andorra because the wiry Brit’s day only got better after the incident.
