There was a insane wind and it was not planned to go in a break with green and yellow and Geraint and Bodnar. With each man having a team-mate alongside, the quartet worked together to pull clear, helping Sagan take his second victory of the Tour and Froome give himself a bigger cushion in yellow as his rivals were unable to respond.
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Froome and his lieutenant Thomas were the only riders to react and quickly bridged over to the front two. It just happened. It wasn’t planned at all.
World champion Peter Sagan won the windy 11th stage by easily edging Froome in a sprint finish.
“It’s unbelievable. I was close to giving in at this race after I had two bad crashes two and one years ago”, Matthews said.
“It was a really hard day but I relied on my team-mates all day, they were always at the front and that allowed me to go with Sagan at the end”.
“When the move did go with Peter Sagan, I was perfectly placed to go with him”. We wanted a bunch sprint finish but we’re such a strong group of guys.
Froome on Wednesday used an opportunistic attack in tandem with stage victor Peter Sagan to extend his overall lead to 28 seconds.
Spotting a chance to gain time on his rivals for the general classification, Froome followed with compatriot Thomas and the foursome soon opened up a lead that stretched out to a maximum of 26 seconds.
But it was another stroke of genius from Froome to snatch a handful of seconds from his yellow jersey rivals following his victory on last Friday’s seventh stage when he attacked on a downhill finish to gain 13sec plus another 10 bonus seconds.
“It was a stage for the sprint and wind specialists”.
French climbing specialists Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot have also circled this stage for special attention. But when Tinkoff, Etixx and Sky put the hammer down the leaders’ gap was halved within just a few kilometres. Strong winds complicated matters, however, as this tends to lead to splits in the peloton.
Colombia’s Nairo Quintana autographs a Colombian flag prior to the start of the tenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 197 kilometers (122.4 miles) with start in Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra, and finish in Revel, France, Tuesday, July 12, 2016.
Gusts were measured at more than 100kph on top of the mountain on Wednesday, with similar forecast for Thursday.
Ventoux is one of the most famed climbs in the Tour’s history.
After a flat stage to Montpellier yesterday which saw the usual script torn up and thrown out of the window today the rider’s turn their attention and tackle the most iconic climb the Tour de France has to offer: Mont Ventoux. Froome, a Briton, is defending race champion and a two-time victor who wears the yellow jersey for having the best total time. “It’s the right thing to do for safety”.
The defending champion, who is now clad in the Yellow Jersey, continued: “Everyone wants to see a great show but the most important thing for the riders is safety”.
Froome insisted the move wouldn’t detract from the importance of a finish on Ventoux, though.
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‘I don’t think it changes too much, ‘ said Froome.
