Ex-ski jumper wins stage, Froome extends lead
FORMER champion ski jumper Primoz Roglic took a sensat iona l solo v ictor y on t he mou nt a i nou s 18 3k m 17t h stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday.
Chris Froome came home t hi rd to st retch his overa l l lead to 27 seconds as Rigoberto Uran moved up to second a nd Fabio A r u d ropped to fourt h, wit h Romain Bardet remaining third.
Slovenia’s Roglic, 27, was junior world ski-jumping champion in 2007 but switched to cycling in 2012.
“To win a stage, I’ve dreamt about it many times,” said Roglic, whose girlfriend and family were at the finish of the Tour’s “Queen stage”, which started in La Mure.
“It’s crazy, incredible. There are no words. Right now I cannot really form all these feelings. Later probably I will know how big it is,” he added before mimicking a ski jump landing as he climbed onto the victory podium.
He was part of an initial 33-man breakaway that was whittled down to just six riders when Roglic attacked solo 6.4km from the summit of the hors category Col du Galibier, which, at more than 2,600 metres above sea level, was the highest point of this year’s Tour.
He crested the climb, 28km from the finish in Serre-Chevalier, with a lead of just over a minute and half.
On the descent, Roglic easily managed his lead, while a fiveman chase group developed, including Froome.
‘Can’t be happy’
But the Italian Aru, who started the day second at 18sec, had been dropped by an acceleration from Bardet just before the Galibier summit and would go on to lose 31sec by the finish.
“I’ve lost [time] and I can’t be happy,” said the 27-year-old Astana rider, now 53sec back.
“But the Tour finishes on Sunday. It wasn’t a positive day, but this is cycling.”
Uran took second, 1min 13sec behind Roglic, to snatch six bonus seconds that moved him up to second overall, just four hundredths of a second ahead of Bardet.
“It was a good stage for me,” s ai d Uran, 30, who has remained something of a dark horse even as he steadily rose up the rankings.
Froome also took four bonus seconds for finishing third to help increase his lead, and he was congratulated by French President Emmanuel Macron at the finish.
“It’s a great honour to be congratulated by the president, it’s also a very good thing for the Tour and the sport that he came here,” said the 32-year-old Froome.
“My legs are better than in the Pyrenees. Today I felt good. I think also for [stage 18] – we have the finish on the Col d’Izoard, which will be very, very difficult.”
Bardet attacks
Up front, Roglic proved the strongest of the breakaway riders despite the presence of twice former Tour winner Alberto Contador, who couldn’t follow the Slovene’s acceleration on the Galibier.
Further down the mountainside, Bardet and Ireland’s Dan Martin put in a succession of attacks that split up the yellow jersey contenders.
Briton Simon Yates cracked f i r st a nd event ua l ly lost a couple of minutes to see his lead in the young rider’s competition ahead of South Afri- c a n L ou i s Mei nt jes c ut 2min 28sec.
Bardet went over the Galibier su mmit w it h Froome, Uran and Warren Barguil for company, while Mikel Landa, t he y el low jer s e y wea r er F r r ome’s S k y t e a mmate, caught them on the descent.
Behind, Aru kept losing time, with Yates dropping even more on the rapid drag downhill to the finish.
Earlier in the stage, Colombian climber Nairo Quintana had been distanced on the first category Col du Telegraphe, the twice runner-up continuing to struggle during this year’s Tour having raced in May’s Giro d’Italia.
He lost more than six minutes and dropped out of the top 10, with Contador moving back up to ninth and Barguil to 10th.
Meanwhile, German sprint k ing Marcel Kittel pulled out to before t he ha l f way point of the stage after crashing in the f irst 20km.
Kittel had won five stages during the race and held the sprinters’ green jersey, which has now passed to Australian Michael Matthews, winner of two stages himself.