CHRIS ON BRINK OF TOUR WIN
CHR IS F ROOME i s set to win his fourth Tour de France title after edging even further clear of his main rivals in Marseille. Froome finished third in the time trial, won by Poland’s Maciej Bodnar, with Froome’s Team Sky team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski second.
With today’s final stage into Paris traditionally a procession, Froome will be able to celebrate on the roads into the capital as his lead grew to 54 seconds over former team-mate Rigoberto Uran.
Frenchman Romain Bardet began the stage in second – 23 seconds down – but faded badly and only retained a podium spot by one second ahead of Team Sky’s Mikel Landa.
Froome, 32, was booed by some of the patriotic French crowd as he started the time trial at the Velodrome.
But he said: “It just was just an amazing feeling to finish in this atmosphere in this stadium.
“Three weeks of racing are almost at an end. We’ve still got to get to Paris but this is an amazing feeling.”
Bodnar completed the 2 2 . 5 km c ourse in 28 minutes 15 seconds to win by just one second from his compatriot Kwiatkowski, with Froome a further five seconds back.
The Brit’s third place yesterday means he will become only the seventh man to win the Tour without picking up a stage victory.
He had warned this year’s Tour de France would be his toughest yet and as he pre pare s to celebrate victory he has been proved right.
“Tactically, he has raced brilliantly,” said Sky team principal Sir Dave Brailsford. “He looks assured on every terrain. Coming into this race, he knew it would be the toughest for him to win and it has proved to be the case if we go by the time gaps.
“I think it would probably be his best win.
“He’s used his experience an awful lot. I think you’ve seen a calm, knowledgeable guy who’s got so many miles in the yellow jersey now. That’s all come in to play in this Tour.”
There were plenty of other moments when Froome might have panicked.
He crashed on stage two, had to dodge a stray parasol on stage six and went off road on stage eight.
The biggest crisis came on stage 12 to Peyragudes, where he ran out of steam at the foot of the steep airstrip and lost the yellow jersey to Fabio Aru.
“I don’t think he or we really saw that coming,” Brailsford said.
“But he wasn’t worried and didn’t panic.”
Froome’s margin of victory will be the closest of his four to date, tighter than the 72 seconds by which he won from Nairo Quintana in 2015, having fallen ill late in the Tour and seen his lead whittled down in the Alps.
Last year Froome won by four minutes and five seconds from Bardet.
But the margin is immaterial as Froome heads towards four Tour titles, just one behind the record jointly held by Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
And Merckx does not expect Froome’s run to end any time soon. “He has never attacked but he will win the Tour because he defended well,” t he Belgian said.
“He did not do anything exceptional but there is no one to beat him. “He deserves his victory. If he can carry on focusing solely on the Tour, wh y should it change in the future?”