Froome cracks as teammate Thomas expands Tour lead
SAINT-LARY-SOULAN, France — Four-time champion Chris Froome cracked in the feared 17th stage of the Tour de France through the Pyrenees on Wednesday, solidifying Sky teammate Geraint Thomas’s hold on the yellow jersey.
Colombian climber Nairo Quintana won the short but extremely difficult mountainous stage with a solo attack up the brutal finishing climb to Col du Portet.
Quintana, a three-time podium finisher in the Tour, finished 28 seconds ahead of Irish rider Dan Martin, while Thomas crossed third, 47 seconds back.
Froome finished eighth, 1:35 behind, and dropped from second to third overall, a distant 2 minutes, 31 seconds behind Thomas.
“Froomey said on the radio at maybe 5K or 4K to go that he wasn’t feeling super,” Thomas said. “That gave me confidence because I knew if Froomey suffered, everyone suffered.
“I didn’t want him to have a bad day like he did, but it just gave me confidence knowing someone of Froomey’s stature was struggling.”
Tom Dumoulin moved up to second, 1:59 behind Thomas, the Welsh rider who is seeking his first Grand Tour victory.
“Thomas has been the strongest and that’s the situation now,” Dumoulin said.
Froome is attempting to match the Tour record of five victories shared by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. But he appeared to be close to conceding this title attempt.
“We just got to look after (Thomas) now,” Froome said. “I’ve won the last three Grand Tours and G’s ridden an absolutely faultless race this year, so he fully deserves to be in the yellow jersey, and fingers crossed he finishes it off and gets the job done in Paris.”
Froome was first put in difficulty when fourth-place Primoz Roglic attacked with 2.5 kilometres to go, then was dropped for good when Dumoulin accelerated at the 2K banner. While Thomas followed Dumoulin, Froome quickly lost ground and had to be escorted up the rest of the way by Colombian teammate Egan Bernal, who kept turning around to check on his team leader.
Sticking his tongue out in apparent exhaustion, it was a strong signal that Froome has reached his limit after winning the last three Grand Tours — the Tour and Spanish Vuelta last year and the Giro d’Italia in May.
Froome also had to deal with the pressure of an asthma drug case over the last nine months. He was cleared of doping five days before the Tour.
It was Quintana’s second career stage victory in the Tour, having also won a leg in 2013. He moved up from eighth to fifth overall, 3:30 behind.
“I went through some difficult moments in the first part of this Tour and lost some time,” said Quintana, who is fifth overall. “But I still felt strong and had the energy to finish the race on a high.”
After a less arduous Stage 18 on Thursday, there is another mountainous leg in the Pyrenees on Friday. Then there’s an individual time trial on Saturday before the threeweek race ends Sunday in Paris.