PARIS (AP) – Sharing beer and Champagne with teammates, Chris Froome celebrated his third Tour de France title in four years on Sunday.
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His team were in celebratory mood, wearing a custom jersey with their usual blue stripe replaced by a yellow one, whilst wearing yellow gloves and holding yellow handlebars.
Froome held on to his overall lead in the last competitive stage, won by Spain’s Jon Izagirre on Saturday.
“I think it’s a course (in Rio) that suits me well, there’s nearly a thousand meters of climbing and it’s nearly 60 kilometers in length”, said Froome, who will also compete in the road race in Rio. Those emotions coming down the final descent, the suspense of not putting a foot wrong and making sure we got down there safely.
“There was no surprise because Chris Froome won”. And he did it again when he went with (Peter) Sagan in Montpellier.
Froome will become the first Briton to win three Tour titles.
The 31-year-old Froome, the Kenyan-born British rider who won the Tour in 2013 and 2015, eased up just before the finish line in the 20th stage as his Sky teammates cheered. “Chris Froome was very good, his opponents less good”.
Jarlinson Pantano of Colombia finished second in the stage, 19 seconds behind Izagirre, while 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali crossed third, 42 seconds back.
Nairo Quintana is set for third place, four minutes and 21 seconds behind Froome.
“I think quite soon we will be contenders in the sprints and for the general classification”, said Bardet. “I already had pains yesterday, but somehow I’d reached the finish”, he told German public TV channel ARD, saying he’d wanted to complete the event but realized early in the stage that he had no chance.
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Froome had crashed on Friday but any suggestion that he might be vulnerable was dispelled by a show of force from his Sky team that rode on the front of the peloton all day. Police also warned they would be checking people’s identity and searching bags and vehicles, as well as scouring the entire 113 kilometre (70-mile) route of the final Tour stage from Chantilly just north of Paris.
