The world champion won three stages, claimed the green points jersey for the fifth year in a row and was also named the race s most combative rider.
Advertisement
2016 Tour de France victor Chris Froome, of Team Sky.
“These new shoes also accompanied Froome in his triumphant ride here at the Tour de France. Vive (long live) le Tour et vive la France”.
“That’s just the way I am, I’m not necessarily a hugely outgoing kind of guy”.
“Just one more thing”, Froome added, before switching to French.
“It’s a big moment”, Bardet said. “It’s bike racing at its best”.
His ride earned Froome sympathy from the crowd as did his crash on the penultimate stage which left him with a bloodied knee.
“These events put sport into perspective but they also show why the values of sport are so important to free society”, Froome said on Sunday in a prepared speech.
“It’s been a really intense race”. But a crash on the first stage did affect him in the early weeks, but when the Tour entered the Alps Thomas along with Wout Poels and Sergio Henao all made sure Froome didn’t lose any meaningful time to his rivals. “They were with me for the entire Tour”. He let out a thin smile when he reached the finish as his Sky teammates cheered him on.
Although Wiggins had just become the first British cyclist to win it, there was only one glass of champagne and a flight to the Team GB holding camp in Surrey.
With Thibault Pinot out of form, the French hopes of producing a first home Tour victor in 31 years hung on Romain Bardet’s shoulders. And he did it again when he went with (Peter) Sagan in Montpellier.
It’s very satisfying and I’m very happy.
“The atmosphere on the roads has been fantastic”, Froome said.
The 31-year-old Team Sky rider won his third Tour title in three years – 2014 the only blot on the record when he crashed out – on Sunday. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven consecutive titles for doping.
The defending champion makes his move on Stage 8 with a surprise attack on the descent into the finish at Bagneres de Luchon. “He is the most impressive rider of the past two, three decades”.
“I don’t think I even gave it a second thought”. “I wanted to drop Nibali because I was anxious about him in a sprint”. Chris running up the Ventoux in the yellow jersey, without a bike, wasn’t something we had in mind.
The Bastille Day stage to the Giant of Provence was created to be the highlight of this Tour, but gale-force winds at the summit compelled organisers to move the finish line midway down the mountain to Chalet Reynard at short notice.
A minute of silence was held at the start of the stage to mourn the nine victims of Friday’s shooting in Munich.
“The Tour of Britain conflicted with the Vuelta, the national championships conflicted with my training for the Tour”.
Advertisement
The mostly flat 113-kilometer (70-mile) stage concluded with eight laps of a circuit in downtown Paris, finishing on the cobblestones below the Arc de Triomphe.
