Froome Heading Into TDF History

Last updated : 25 July 2015 By Covsupport News Service

Chris Froome needs only to stay on his bike in order to become the first British rider ever to win two Tour De France races

The Team Sky rider went into the final day in the Alps and a stage of the hors category of the Col de la Croix de Fer and a finish on Alpe D’Huez which was hosting the Tour De France for the 29th time with a lead of 2.38 over Nairo Quintana of Movistar

A landslide meant a change to the route which was now 110kms long and straight away, Ramunas Navardauskas of Cannondale Garmin and Alex Geniez of FDJ were away and soon joined by Edet and Bak.

The quartet took a lead of 7.50 with 75kms left over the yellow jersey group and 6.58 over a group who were attempting to bring back the four escapers in Andrei Grivko (Astana), Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Warren Baguil (Giant-Alpecin), Rafal Majka (Tikoff-Saxo), Winner Anaconda (Movistar), Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Agron18), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Bob Jungels (Trek), Romain Sicard (Europcar), and Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Garmin).

Onto the 29km climb to the Col de la Croix de Fer which the riders had taken on yesterday but this time it was in the opposite direction.

Geniez had a puncture but was able to get back to the front group which were 4.30 ahead with 62km remaining.

On the D926, Geniez shed his fellow escapers, whilst down the road, Valverde of Movistar put in an attack with 58.2kms to go. Team Sky did not react to the already fast pace and Valverde was able to gain some ground but not too much as Richie Porte was working hard on behalf of the race leader.

With 56.1kms, Nairo Quintana found a small gap down the left and put in an attack. Again, Froome failed to react and the Young Rider jersey wearer was away, getting up to Valverde.

However, Porte was bringing up Froome and minimising the time differences.

Geniez took the points on the climb and back down the road, Froome now on his own went with Nibali after Quintana who was only ten seconds ahead.

Going into the final twenty four kilometres and Geniez was comfortably ahead of Edet and Bak as the race went into the Allemont in the Isiere department.

Geniez took the sprint at Bourde-D’Oisans, which meant that Peter Sagan could not be over-taken in the Points Jersey competition and took the jersey for the fourth successive time, and started on Alpe D’Huez with its twenty nine hair pins with 13.8kms to go.

Nibali had a technical fourteen kilometres out and soon had three team mates bringing him back towards Froome, who was now leading the KOM competition and his group which were 3.28 behind.

Quintana put in another attack with 12.5kms remaining but Richie Porte was with him whilst Hesjedal tried to launch something.

Quintana tried again and again Porte and Pouls were on his wheel as Hesjedal joined Thibaut Pinot of FDJ, who were behind Geniez.

With Pinot unwilling to work with the Cannondale-Garmin rider, Hesjedal put in an attack as did Quintana with 9.4kms to go.

Pinot brought back Hesjedal and then dropped him as Quintana caught up to Winner Ancona.

Geniez was finally caught with 7.8kms left and it was his team mate in Thibaut Pinot who was away Hesjedal.

Quintana put twenty six seconds into Froome, but with only 6.9kms left, the road and time was running out.

Through Irish corner and Dutch corner, the riders tried to fought their way through the crowds with Ancona bringing up Quintana who went after Thibaut Pinto with 4.5kms left.

Froome, who was booed and spat on, was still going keeping the distance to Quintana to less than ninety seconds.

Pinot led Quintana by 26 seconds with two kilometres remaining with Quintana only 1.15 ahead of Froome, who was now riding his way to victory of the 102nd Tour De France.

Pinot riding under the flam rouge on barrier roads and cruised home to win in 3.17. 21.

Nairo Quintana finished second twenty seconds down with Hesjedal in third. In came Chris Froome, some 1.38 down in fifth place to ensure that he took the General Classification victory by a margin of 1.12.

“It was a very hard stage,” said Thibaut Pinot. “But I am so happy to have ridden myself into history. “I was so stressed I did not know how much of a gap I had. When I saw the car, I knew it was time to collect my win.

“This has been a crazy, very up and down Tour De France. I have had some amazing days and some very low days. Today, I fought really hard and got the stage win.”

   Nicholas Roche of Team Sky said to Ashley House:”It has been great. “As a team, we spent a lot of energy from day one and I think it worked to perfection. We did really well in the Pyrenees and Chris did a fantastic job and we have had some great moments including today.

“We rode quite smart even on the first day and it was Movistar who put the hammer down and next day it was Tinkoff-Saxo. Two days ago it was Giant and Lotto and everyday we try and manage ourselves as much as possible. The key to our success was sharing the load amongst ourselves. We have seen Walt have two bad days but come back in the mountains very strong. Today, we gave Chris a bit of time to recover and it is all about taking care of each other.

“It is a lot of stress and responsibility when we are going down the descents with the yellow jersey in tow. If I miss a turn it could affect the whole preparation but today we are going to have a nice dinner and a good chat and it will be a fantastic moment because everyone has done such a great job. With Chris finishing it off, it has been a very tough, very intense but a great tour.”

Chris Froome said: I can’t quite come to terms with it just yet. There were so many emotions going through my mind going up that last climb.

"There were moments when I felt that I could be danger but always having my teammates with me, Richie until the end, I thought of all the sacrifices, all the team camps, time away from my wife and my family and everything went through my head.

"I was on my limit going up that last climb but I just had to find something else just to keep pushing. That was only 110km but it felt like 300. It was such a hard stage.

"It’s unreal, absolutely unreal. I’m sure that I haven’t quite taken it all on board yet but it’s an unbelievable feeling to be still here wearing this jersey.”