Aru kicks the living daylights out of Froome

TOMORROW never dies – but on the Pyrenees altiport where a James Bond movie was shot, Chris Froome’s stranglehold on the Yellow Jersey dramatically expired.

After Froome cracked on the brutal uphill finish here, this could turn out to be the day Team Sky met their Skyfall on the Tour de France.

And fittingly, he now needs to find 007 seconds to overturn new leader Fabio Aru’s slender advantage.

In a monumental surprise, Britain’s three-time champion faded badly on the lung-bursting 500-yard ramp to the summit here and trailed in seventh, 22 seconds behind stage 12 winner Romain Bardet.

Looking shaken and stirred, honest Froome didn’t duck the issue. He said: “No excuses – I just didn’t have the legs on the final kick to finish it off. It’s as simple as that.

“My team-mates had done such an amazing job, but the finish is brutal.”

Froome normally relishes summit finishes like a dragon devouring maidens. He has collected three Yellow Jerseys, and has spent 51 days wearing them on Le Tour, because he has been the fastest man in the world going uphill.

That aura as king of the mountain goats has now been torn to shreds – and his rivals smell blood.

Instead of parking the bus until Paris, Froome will have to attack – probably before the 14-mile time trial in Marseille.

Just one problem: Aru and Bardet, who is only 19sec behind Froome overall, will believe he is beatable now and they will attack him, too.