Bardet, Aru and Uran miss chance of a lifetime

LE-PUY-EN-VELAY, France (Reuters) – Chris Froome’s closest rivals missed a unique opportunity to win the Tour de France after the defending champion was dropped off the favorites’ group at a critical moment in Sunday’s 15th stage, according to three-time champion Greg LeMond.

Froome suffered a mechanical problem when Romain Bardet’s AG2R-La Mondiale were going full out and had split the bunch before the key climb of the day.

But the Frenchman, instead of making a big effort himself, along with Italian Fabio Aru and Colombian Rigoberto Uran, stayed in his teammates’ wheels, eventually allowing Froome to come back.

The Briton stayed in yellow, 18 seconds in front of Aru and 23 seconds ahead of Bardet, with Uran in fourth place, 29 seconds off the pace heading into Monday’s rest day.

“Bardet, Aru, Uran, lost the chance of a lifetime,” said LeMond, who is on the Tour as an analyst for Eurosport.

“When Froome had his mechanical, Bardet should not have had his teammates working, it should have been him, Aru and Uran, if you want to win the Tour.

“AG2R had a great ride but, at some point, Chris is going to come back up, he had teammate Mikel Landa helping him. Unless you ride yourself at the front, you’re not going to distance Chris Froome. They lost the opportunity.”

LeMond, who won the Tour in 1986, 1989 and 1990, could not understand why Bardet, Aru and Uran did not collaborate to gain time on Froome.

“There were 30 kilometers to go and they all had an interest in distancing Froome. Personally, if I was one of them, I would have gone flat out, no teammates left,” the American said. LeMond questioned the riders’ desire to win the Tour. “Some people are winners and others less so. Killer instinct – you’ve got to go for it,” he said.

“All three of them missed an opportunity. You can’t ask your teammates to do everything. Riders don’t race like they’re going for the Tour win.

“AG2R rode like they were riding for the team classification.”