Just days ago, Chris Froome stated that he was comfortable not having the yellow jersey on his back just yet, but since he’s been in possession of the maillot jaune, he’s held onto it like a wild dog with a t-bone steak.
Froome’s latest salvo took place on the closing climb of today’s 167km 10th stage of the 2015 Tour de France. On the final kilometers of the climb to Pierre St. Martin, Froome rode away from his rivals, distancing the rest of the ‘fab four’ by a solid margin. The only other G.C. contender to podium was Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, but even he was a step down from Froome’s teammate Richie Porte.
Vincenzo Nibali of the Astana team took the most damage today, and now sits nearly seven minutes back from the race lead.
“I’m not even a distant brother of the Nibali of last year’s Tour,” the Italian admitted. “It was a hard day, my legs were not responding, I just did what I could in the ascent.”
Bad Day for Contador
Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador, who came into the race as one of the favorites admitted to having a bad day.
Contador ultimately lost 2’51” to Froome and says that he did not feel well on the final climb.
“It was a complicated day. I knew it was going to be a climb, where you could lose a lot of time, if you weren’t in form and that’s what happened. It was the stage after the rest day, where one could lose a lot of time,” said the Spaniard. “I couldn’t breathe and I still can’t – so I couldn’t get rid of the lactic acid in my legs and I couldn’t follow the pace. It was a bad day, and we’ve seen that Froome was better than everybody else. I was unable to follow the pace, not only of Froome but also of other riders.
“This is cycling, you have good days and you have bad days. I wasn’t able to see much of the race but I saw that Froome was able to accelerate away, when he wanted. Movistar’s pace was not much of a problem to me, but the pace that Sky set was higher. At some point, I had to follow my own pace and find the rhythm and I’ve definitely had better days,” he concluded.
Despite sitting at more than four minutes off of the lead, Contador is not ceding the race to Froome just yet. “The Tour is a very long race and it’s true that today I wasn’t in top shape, nevertheless I can also be in a situation, where my shape is much more similar to the shape Froome had today, so I don’t take it for granted that he will win the Tour. We have just entered the mountains and the race is not concluded yet.”
Van Garderen Holds Second
Tejay van Garderen of the BMC Racing Team conceded 2:30 to race Froome on today’s stage, but still sits at second place in the General Classification, nearly three minutes back.
“Sky definitely put on quite the performance,” van Garderen said. “I tried my best to stay with them. When it got too much for me, I tried to stay in my rhythm and focused on getting to the top. I don’t think today was my best day. But it wasn’t all bad. I am still keeping a good GC (general classification) position.”
“The first mountain day is always tricky,” van Garderen added. “We have done almost two weeks without climbing any real mountains. So it can be quite a shock to the system, especially after a rest day. I feel like it should go better from here. I am definitely still happy about where we are sitting.”
Valverde Attacks for Quintana
Alejandro Valverde is likely out of contention for the G.C., but he had enough in the tank today for some well timed attacks that allowed his teammate Nairo Quintana to race to third place in the tenth stage.
Quintana’s efforts pulled him an additional 17 seconds closer to Tejay van Garderen in the general classification and also earned him the white jersey of best young rider.
“It was a really hard stage, with hellish temperatures and big pace all day, especially since we took command of the peloton,” said the Colombian rider. “We wanted to test our rivals’ condition, see how they were going, and we found a superior Chris Froome. He was really strong and we must accept that. We’ll try to find a strategy or some alliances to try and gain some time back or, at least, keeping our actual position. We must keep going day-by-day. We saw in previous races that he struggled a bit at the end in races finales and at the end of the three weeks; we will hope he cracks some day or that I find myself better than I did today. My winning chances? They shrank a bit today, but I keep dreaming about yellow, and will give my everything to snatch it.”
Ron is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.
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