“It really is a good place to be at the moment and I’m really happy to have the yellow jersey on my shoulders, tactically and obviously for the morale of the team”, Froome told a news conference on Monday.
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“Froome is quite strong, his team is quite strong but I m better than previous years”, said the 26-year-old Colombian. It’s not easy to ride away from everyone this year. Struggling to get to grips with what had clearly been a demoralising day for the “world’s number one team”, the Spaniard blamed race organisers for the amount of small villages the route passed through, with the wind combining to produce a hugely stressful day in the saddle.
Bardet is sixth overall, 44 seconds behind, Van Garderen is 11th with a gap of 1:01 and Aru is 13th at 1:23.
“They already have shown themselves as contenders”, Froome said of Yates and Martin.
Seen as the main threat to Froome’s ambition to secure a third Tour win, Nairo Quintana has been fairly discreet.
“If Froome unbeatable at the moment? I feel Nairo is, too”, said Quintana’s Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde.
The Aspin, which was included in the Tour for the 73rd time, was affronted from its longer southern slope, 12 kilometers at an average gradient of 6.5 percent.
The mountain finish to Mont Ventoux and the 37 kilometre time trial to La Caverne du Pont-d’Arc will both be crucial for Martin and his podium chances. Like Jan Ullrich in 1997 and Brice Feillu in 2009, the Dutchman won in Arcalis where Chris Froome retained the yellow jersey as he kept the situation under control even when the 20-man breakaway had more than ten minutes lead. For. He went on to claim his second title in three years.
Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford said the testing should close the debate as it would be foolhardy to even try to cheat in such a way. “Let’s see what can happen in the time trial where I have more weakness against him”. It’s not a hard task. To be honest, you just get on with it.
Nine stages gone, 12 remaining, three Britons dominating the Tour de France. “The way we work as a team, whoever’s up on that day we give that rider 110 percent”.
“Ventoux is the next big thing we’ve got our sights on now”.
“If someone is stupid enough to have the idea of coming here with a motor in their bike, for sure they’ll get caught”, Brailsford added. “The whole discussion about bikes and motors, given the level of testing, is something that we need to reconsider”.
Froome will by no means leave the Pyrenees feeling a third Tour win is a fait accompli.
South Africa’s Louis Meintjes is 39 seconds behind Yates in the race for the young riders’ white jersey, with Frenchman Warren Barguil nearly another two minutes further adrift.
“It’s going to be a tight race”.
Quintana is fourth, 23secs adrift, with Birmingham-born Irishman Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) third, 19secs behind.
Given that all Chris Froome’s stage wins in the Tour de France prior to this year had come either in uphill finishes or time trials, there were grounds for claiming that the double Tour de France victor was a cyclist with a relatively limited register based on sheer power on mountain tops and against the watch.
Four incredibly tough categorised climbs, the Souvenir Jacques Goddet, and a 184km stage that more closely resembled a saw than a road stage the Tour de France was welcomed to the Pyrenees with the hardest stage of the race so far. I’d like to think he was on his limit. “We waited for our guys to come back after the first climb and then we went after them”.
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When Froome won the Tour in 2013 and 2015, he was not only suspected of doping, but also criticized for riding in an overly calculated manner with little creativity.
