Floundering Froome flags away winning Tour
Four-time champion Chris Froome cracked in the feared 17th stage of the Tour de France cycling classic through the Pyrenees yesterday, solidifying Sky teammate Geraint Thomas’ 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.
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. “For me, so far it has not been possible to gain time on him.”
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 Primoz Roglic attacked with 2.5 kilometres to go, and then was dropped for good when Dumoulin accelerated at the 2km 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 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.
To add insult to injury, Froome clashed with an overzealous policeman who reportedly mistook him for a fan on the way down the mountain.
Team Sky said police asked Froome, who had put a black raincoat over his racing uniform, to stop — causing him to crash.
The rider was not injured, Team Sky confirmed.
The incident comes a day after police used tear gas to disperse a group of protesting farmers that had blocked the road with bales of hay. Froome was among a large group of riders whose eyes needed treatment due to the tear gas.
The British superstar has been a repeated target of fans in this Tour after he was cleared of doping five days before the race began. He had been racing under the cloud of a potential ban for using twice the permitted level of salbutamol during his victory at the Spanish Vuelta in September.
He said he has been repeatedly spat at since the race started, and spectators have punched him and tried to make him fall off his bike.