Eddy Merckx sent a warning to the rest of cycling yesterday, saying he did not see anyone beating Chris Froome for “the next few years” at the Tour de France after the Team Sky rider showed his all-round class with a perfectly judged time-trial win in the French Alps.
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Froome, 31, bagged his seventh career stage win by 21 seconds with a time of 30min 43sec on the hilly route from Sallanches to Megeve.
The Briton ended 21 seconds ahead of Dumoulin, with Porte and Italy’s Fabio Aru ending 33 seconds down. It’s definitely going to have to be a stage where we stay on our game. I keep the yellow jersey on my shoulders, but the next two days are really tough.
“I’m happy it’s a good time trial, I’ve got good sensations, it was pleasing”.
The Dutchman placed second behind Froome in today’s stage and previous year, he lost the Vuelta a España overall lead on the final mountain stage to Italian Fabio Aru (Astana). Positions second through sixth began the day separated by exactly two minutes, and though there was no change in the standings, at day’s end they were separated by just 1:08.
Dumoulin has said before he believes he will one day challenge for Grand Tour success but he’s not quite ready yet.
Froome took the yellow leader’s jersey by winning Stage 8 with his lightening descent of the Col de Peyresourde near the finish.
A Dutch television station required his presence for its post-stage analysis show, however, and then after talking his way through his 21-second defeat to Froome in his native language there, Dumoulin assented to doing it all over again in English for the Eurosport cameras nearly immediately afterwards. “I started off steady and really controlled that first part then gave it everything I had”, said Froome.
“I think that was a big part of today’s stage – selecting the right equipment”, Froome said.
Froome increased his overall lead to 3 minutes, 52 seconds over Mollema, with Adam Yates of Britain third, 4:16 behind. The other aspect was pacing. “Overall he is the best at the moment and when you are the best of the moment you have to win”.
“I didn’t expect to be feeling like this, it’s not fatigue that I’m feeling, but my body isn’t responding”, complained the Movistar team leader, who was 10th fastest on a time-trial that should have suited him.
“He’s complete. He’s a good time triallist, he’s good at ascents, he’s overall”.
“Today wasn’t great but also wasn’t bad”, was Yates’ assessment of his performance on the uphill course, not a true mountain test but nevertheless containing one steep climb.
The Australian, who left Team Sky for BMC in the winter, saw his yellow jersey hopes wrecked when he lost one minute 45 seconds to a late puncture on stage two to Cherbourg, but has rebounded strongly and appears to be the best of the contenders in the Alps. It’s the third week of the Tour de France. It’s pretty normal to be exhausted, I suppose. “That’s the plan but like you see today, it will be a hard fight in Rio, I guess”.
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After winning the Tour of Turkey in 2014, and the San Sebastian single-day classic a year ago, Yates is already being tipped as a future victor of a major tour.
