Australian Richie Porte, Froome’s former lieutenant at Team Sky who now rides for BMC, also attacked several times but on each occasion sat up as if waiting for his ex boss.
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The 25-year-old moves second overall, and his win today also means that France will avoid going an edition of the race without a home stage win – something that has only ever happened twice before, in 1926 and 1999. His second stage win of this Tour takes him to seven in his career.
Despite the circumstances, Froome caught up with the group of favourites in the brutal final climb to Le Bettex with the help of teammate Wouter Poels. It rained for most of the last two hours of the race, making the freshly-paved roads rather treacherous.
“Mika told me we should try something in the descent from Domancy and we just went”.
Britain’s Chris Froome won the stage-18 time trial to edge closer to winning his third Tour de France title Thursday. “I’m okay, I’m lucky nothing is seriously injured”. It wasn’t easy for them.
“I knew the support vehicle was quite a way back and my bike wasn’t rideable, so I owe a lot of thanks to Geraint that I could ride to the finish. Overall he is the best at the moment and when you are the best of the moment you have to win”.
The gap Froome has over Mollema now stands at three minutes and 52 seconds with just three stages of the race remaining, while Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) is four mins and 16 secs adrift in third.
With twenty kilometres to go, Costa’s lead was less than minute on wet roads which saw Navarro and two other riders go down with 12.2kms to go.
The other difference is that in a odd decision to drive through the night with my two young children, I’ll be on the side of the road on that last climb, possibly wearing a mankini, and possibly ruining the best-laid plans of Dave Brailsford as I accidentally barge the entire Team Sky team off the road in an attempt to get on television.
A 10.6-mile uphill individual time trial from Sallanches to Megeve, with a climb to Cote des Chozeaux. It was on the whole day.
“But Froomey doesn’t do chill and the next thing I knew he was on the floor and he said ‘I need a bike, I need a bike!'”
Aboard a bike with a different seat height and round chainrings (he favors asymmetric ones) Froome never looked entirely comfortable on the climb.
The race jury, however, ruled that he should not lose time over what organisers called an extraordinary incident. I was neither the only rider to crash.
He’s ridden every single one of the Tour’s biggest climbs without being able to get out of the saddle.
The Col de Joux Plane and the tricky descent from its summit to the finish could be critical.
How I race is something I will decide after speaking to our sports directors before the stage.
“For me, Porte is the main guy”.
There are calculated risks, but I think it is better to make time up on the Joux Plane than when descending it. It demonstrates that the Tour isn’t over until we cross the line in Paris.
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Whether I do is another question. His training pre-tour was staggered to ensure top form, but unfortunately that has not come to fruition.
