Froome kept his lead intact during the final day of climbing – and descending – in the Alps on Saturday and heads to the mostly ceremonial finish on the Champs-Elysees with a comfortable advantage of 4 minutes, 5 seconds over Romain Bardet of France. “It’s an absolutely fantastic feeling”.
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Ten days after the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people, Froome – a Kenyan-born British rider who often trains on the French Riviera – reminded everyone what the Tour stands for.
“I ve always had my team-mates around me. It’s going to be an extremely tough event”, Froome said.
“With the look of the team we’ve got, the inclusion of Steve Cummings [who was added when Pete Kennaugh pulled out because of poor form], we can be competitive and to have a result there would be phenomenal”.
Froome’s three victories in four years follows Sir Bradley Wiggins becoming the first Briton to win the race in 2012.
“Kellan, I dedicate this victory to you”, Froome said from the winner’s podium. Followers on Twitter and Facebook received the most up-to-date news on the team’s performance at the Tour, as well as training tips and motivating photos and video.
Quintana claimed he was suffering from an allergy but his baffling contentment at finishing third – his worst Tour finish – spoke volumes.
“We’ve tried many times and we walk away from the Tour with two stage wins, with Thomas De Gendt and myself”. Peter Sagan in the green points jersey showed his strength by leading the front group off the descent of the Col de la Colombiere with just two more climbs to complete before the descent into Morzine.
Wiggins predicted big things to come from Adam Yates, the 23-year-old British victor of the white jersey as the Tour’s best young rider.
“My focus definitely is on the Tour de France given it’s just such a special race”, he said.
Now in its fourth year, the Classic race is considered the festival’s flagship event and will see more 150 of the world’s top pro cyclists ride through London and Surrey.
Pinot and Contador, who has won the Spanish Vuelta three times and the Giro d’Italia twice, dropped out early on.
The Tour finished with a record 175 riders reaching the line in Paris while Australia s Chloe Hosking won the women s 89km one-day race around Paris that preceded the arrival of the men s peloton.
A very attack-minded cyclist with excellent climbing qualities and a natural instinct for racing, Bardet is tipped as a future Grand Tour victor.
The first saw Yates knocked off his bike by an inflatable arch 1km from the finish of the seventh stage.
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In the 12th stage ending on Mont Ventoux, he crashed when he was involved in an incident with a TV motorbike and even ran up the road after his bike was broken.
