Froome earns safe passage over cobbles
ALOT was made of Chris Froome’s apparent lack of race - craft for cobbles during the build-up to this year’s Tour but on a bike designed specifically for the job the 2013 champion delivered a masterful display here in northern France.
Aided by rear suspension and a quite brilliant minder in Geraint Thomas, Froome navigated the seven sections of pavé on this dramatic fourth stage, at 223.5km the longest of the race, with great skill and composure.
Froome might have surrendered the overall lead to Tony Martin, who broke away in the final three kilometres to take the stage win and the maillot jaune for the first time in his career after so narrowly missing out on the opening three days. But this was another triumph for Froome and Sky, with the team leader protecting the time advantage he established over his main rivals with those fine performances on days two and three.
Vincenzo Nibali, last year’s champion and a specialist on these roads where the classics are run, was seen as the main threat in northern France. After all, he took two and a half minutes out of Alberto Contador on the cobbles 12 months ago.
But Froome and Thomas were magnificent, and the way they emerged from the last of the seven sections of cobbles at the front of the peloton was just as big a statement as that ascent of the Mur de Huy on Monday. Froome felt so strong he even attacked briefly on the smoother surface with some 9km to go.
The rain that was forecast never materialised but there were crashes as teams jostled for position towards the front of the pack, Great Britain’s Alex Dowsett hitting the tarmac and ending the day in the local hospital after finishing 26 minutes adrift of the leaders. Dowsett is a haemophiliac but after six stitches in his arm he tweeted he was OK.
At the front of the peloton Thomas has been riding magnificently. So much so that he stands ninth overall, one place behind Contador and ahead of both Nibali and the Colombian climbing specialist Nairo Quintana. But nowhere on this Tour has he been more impressive than when he responded to Nibali’s final attack on the last section of cobbles, accelerating to close the gap and taking Froome with him.
‘ On a day like today you couldn’t wish for a better rider,’ said Sky boss Dave Brailsford, who also expressed his satisfaction that the special bike had ‘worked well’. Typically modest afterwards, Froome said: ‘ It wasn’t about showing how strong I am on the cobbles but about staying out of trouble.
‘It was a bonus to come out of the last cobbled section on the front with Geraint, and the legs felt good.’
Today’s stage to Amiens offers Mark Cavendish another chance for the win he sorely missed on stage two. Patrick Lefevere, his boss at Etixx- Quick Step, said he was ‘the saddest man in cycling’ that night. Having been blamed for denying Martin the yellow jersey on Sunday after sitting up in the sprint, he at least had the pleasure of seeing his team-mate take yellow this time; and that after Martin had to switch to a team-mate’s smaller bike when he punctured on the last cobbled section.