However, Yates has the potential to be Tour de France victor and the time has now come for him to play with the best over three weeks, meaning a stage win has to come second to GC considerations. Chris Froome was fined by the UCI race jury for pushing away an over-enthusiastic fan on Saturday.
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Once again, Chris Froome reached the first rest day of the Tour de France in yellow, but this year, his advantage is much thinner and his main rival Nairo Quintana is keeping his cards close to his chest.
The three-week race ends in Paris on July 24.
Is Froome set for a hat-trick?
Can anyone stop him from joining Greg LeMond, Louison Bobet and Philippe Thys as a three-time champion?
Froome is right to be wary.
In his two wins at cycling’s biggest event, in 2013 and 2015, the 31-year-old Team Sky leader had asserted his authority on the race in the first mountain-top finish. The next mountain day comes on Thursday, when the race finishes on Mont Ventoux.
“At some point in time, either the race gets taken on and (with) some of the other teams we have a battle with it, or we re going to continue to control the race until a couple of key showdowns”.
Since then the 35-year-old former Olympic medallist has taken prestigious breakaway wins in the Tour of the Basque Country in Spain and the Critérium du Dauphine in France.
“If Froome unbeatable at the moment?”
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.
All the way up to Arcalis, Froome was glancing over his shoulder, bracing himself for an acceleration from Quintana, but it never came.
Froome paid tribute to his great rival Contador.
Can Yates make the podium?
Yates had said he was coming to the Tour seeking only stage wins, insisting a general classification bid was beyond him.
“I’m still here for stages, I came to race for stages”, he said. ‘He’s a good lad, I’ve known him a while and he’s been winning races this year.
“I thought over the top let me just give it a go and see what I can do on the descent – I’ll see if I can catch someone out”, said Froome. I have to go day by day and see a possibility for attack.
But now another British rider is shadowing the double victor – and is just 16 seconds away from wearing yellow himself.
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.
“They already have shown themselves as contenders”, Froome said of Yates and Martin.
“I don’t think that if he drops off a little bit that he should sit up and go for stage wins”.
“I guess people just don’t quite understand how it is when you’re on the limit – it’s just not always possible to keep attacking”.
Is Cavendish keen for green? He held off his chasers to win the stage by 13 seconds-enough to take the yellow jersey for the first time in this year’s Tour.
Sagan, who attacked from the start in the Andorran town of Escaldes-Engordany, rode at the front throughout the 197-kilometer trek in rainy conditions, but was overpowered in the final sprint.
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“Peter is on a different level to everyone else and when he decides to do something he just does it”. To go from one end of the spectrum to the other like that made it quite hard out there.
