(CNN) Risking it all on a breakneck descent of the Col de Peyresourde, Chris Froome took yellow in the Tour de France Saturday. They set up a faster tempo in the final climb, before Froome attacked near the summit.
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The peloton snakes through the Pyrenees during Stage Eight of the 2016 Tour de France, with several Team Sky riders in the lead.
With Froome in yellow, Yates is on the same time as third-placed Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha.
“I needed this stage to win the Tour de France”, said the American legend. “Well this year we’ll make them unpredictable and make people guess what we’ll try and do next and use the element of surprise as part of our repertoire”.
Froome’s main rival Nairo Quintana finished the stage in 13th place on the same time as Martin and is now sixth overall at 23-seconds.
Maxing out at 2,115 metres above sea level and going for 19 kilometres and 7.4 per cent, it will be more of a leg burner early in the day with climbs to come and used to help establish the breakaway, given it is so early in the stage, reached with 90 kilometres to go.
And after his win, Froome called on fans lining the route of the Grand Tour to behave and not put the riders’ safety in danger.
“I didn’t have much left to be honest so let’s see how tomorrow is going to be”.
“Sometimes we’re too predictable so today we made a decision to change things a bit”, said Froome’s team manager at Sky, Dave Brailsford.
Van Avermaet, riding for BMC, leads Adam Yates of Britain by 5 minutes, 50 seconds. “It really did feel like just taking the race home and enjoying it”.
After Mark Cavendish won the opening stage here, this is only the second Tour in which two different Brits have worn the yellow jersey, following Chris Boardman and Sean Yates in 1994.
All three were caught by the peloton on the first category Col de Val Louron-Azet and Pinot was soon dropped as well.
Froome put in a couple of digs near the top as the pack began to splinter, and Tinkoff’s two-time Tour victor Alberto Contador was among those who could not keep up.
“We never saw him in a race doing that – maybe [Tour de] Romandie but there was no TV on him”, Sky director sportif Nicolas Portal said after the stage.
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At times it gets frustrating, and the last thing you need is some fan who looks like a chicken getting in your way.
