“If anything, I feel this year has demonstrated how much I still have that hunger and that desire to win this race”, he said. “It was quite unsafe in that last 10km but the whole day was just so fast”, Porte said.
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Braislford realises that while Froome has a strong lead, behind him there are riders who, even if they don’t believe they can win the Tour, will be fighting in the Alps for the best possible position in four-day block of mountain racing that includes on time trial on Friday.
Team Sky rider Froome is a two-time Tour victor and during his victories in 2013 and 2015 he had to contend with consistent allegations of doping.
He tried to pick up time gaps on the weather-shortened stage 12 to Mont Ventoux, only to suffer a weird crash in the chaotic scenes on the mountain and being reduced to running uphill on foot until help could get through.
“But I think it s also a great day for a breakaway because everybody s exhausted and it s before the rest day and nobody will really want to chase”.
Quitting the race before the Alps was always a likely scenario for Cavendish once he had completed the stages that he could realistically compete in.
The Manx missile left his team Dimension Data’s rest day hotel with the look of a man who had checked out, but refused to say where he was heading. He has been a great team leader over the past two weeks and a great ambassador for everyone involved in this team and for the greater cause we ride for. “I’m asked why guys didn’t attack two stages ago [at Culoz] but Fabio Aru, Alejandro Valverde and Romain Bardet did. I was anxious because he was running alongside me and the pole was getting closer and closer”.
Although Froome and Sky put on a commanding performance on Sunday’s four-and-a-half hour trek through the Jura mountains, the Briton argued he lacks real reference points for how he and the other top rivals will fare on the Alpine climbs to come. “We need to wait for the right time, for the moment that will allow us to be efficient when we make a move”. “The first I knew of it was when I was waiting to give the flash interview at the finish”.
Fellow British rider Adam Yates, 23, has said he would be willing to attack the lead if the opportunity presented itself. “I’m the underdog, Quintana has won [a] grand tour”.
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A minute of silence was held at the start of the stage to pay tribute to the 84 victims of the truck attack in Nice. “I wouldn’t expect him to attack in the big mountain stages”.
