Tour de France champion Chris Froome is to make his Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic debut and race for Team Sky on the roads of London and Surrey on Sunday on July 31st.
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Froome stood on the top step of the podium on the Champs-Élysées Sunday evening ahead of France’s Romain Bardet, who was 2 minutes 52 seconds back, and Colombia’s Nairo Quintana, who trailed Froome by 3:08 overall. “It’s an absolutely unbelievable feeling”.
Froome built his success on an impressively strong Team Sky, arguably the best assembled in recent Tour history, being able to rely on domestique de luxe Wouter Poels in the mountains.
“I feel so privileged to be in this position where I’ve always had team mates around me in the race”, he said. Alberto Contador crashes on the first two days while Richie Porte also loses ground.
It was a coming of age for Bardet, who won a stage for the second year in a row and demonstrated impressive progression after finishing sixth in 2014 and ninth last year.
And he will now have his eyes set on five-time winners Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil and Indurain.
Yet he still won the sprinters’ green points jersey, for the fifth year in a row, at a canter.
Despite cycling as a British rider, 31-year-old Froome was born in Kenya, and has been an inspiration to many young African cyclists with ambitions of emulating their hero.
It might have been Froome s Tour but Peter Sagan was also a shining light.
Froome marked a processional ride from Chantilly to Paris with beer, rather than the traditional champagne, as race leader on Sunday, flanked by a full quota team he described as the strongest the squad has assembled for the race. They controlled the race from the start, reducing the British rider’s rivals to also-rans as Froome joined American Greg LeMond, Frenchman Louison Bobet and Belgian Philippe Thys as a three-time Tour victor.
That should only help him as he tries to master the unpredictability of a one-day race.
“I took the decision to ride the time trial about six months ago and I’ve been working a lot on my time trialling this year with that in mind”.
Australian Chloe Hosking had earlier won the women’s La Course by Tour de France, the annual curtain-rasier to the final men’s stage.
Greipel had been yet earn a victory at this year’s edition of the race, leaving his personal record of winning at least once in every Grand Tour he has started since 2008 at risk. Yates was the first ever British victor of the white jersey.
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Froome took the yellow jersey with a daring downhill attack in Stage 8, padded his lead with a late breakaway in Stage 11, and overcame a motor bike crash on the legendary Mont Ventoux and a fall on a slippery descent in the Alps with two stages to go.
