Mine to lose now says Froome
CHRIS Froome is odds on for a fourth Tour triumph after surviving the longest trek of this year’s edition.
The Team Sky rider leads by 23 seconds from Frenchman Romain Bardet and 29 seconds from Colombian Rigoberto Uran going into today’s penultimate stage, a 22.5km time trial in Marseille.
He is expected to extend that lead, with only tomorrow’s procession into Paris to come. “It’s definitely a fast course, there’s a small climb out the back of Marseille,” he said. “It suits me well, it’s quite a power time trial.
“Certainly at this point it’s my race to lose. I have to make sure I do everything right, follow the right processes and hopefully not have the bad day. I’ve got the legs, and hopefully everything else will be all right.” It was third time lucky for Edvald Boasson Hagen as he won stage 19 yesterday.
The Norwegian has been on the wrong side of two photo finishes in this Tour but made sure of victory in Salon-deProvence as he attacked out of the breakaway with three km to go and raced solo to the line, with Nikias Arndt, Team Sunweb, second, five seconds behind. “I’m really happy,” Boasson Hagen said. “It’s been close many times, but I managed to make an attack so we didn’t have a photo finish.”
Team Sunweb’s Michael Matthews simply needs to make it to Paris to clinch the Green Jersey as points classification leader.
“The last two nights since I got the jersey I really couldn’t sleep,” said Matthews, who will be the third Australian to win the award.