I’ll stick to Aru like glue, says Froome
Briton desperate to lose no time on summit finish Kittel lands stage after another day on the flat
After two flat days in almost every respect, the fight for this year’s Tour de France should spark back into life today with the second summit finish of the race at the ski station of Peyragudes in the French Pyrenees. Team Sky’s race leader Chris Froome has promised to “stick like glue” to his nearest rival Fabio Aru (Astana), as he continues his attempt to claim a fourth title in five years.
It will, though, be impossible not to look backwards as well as forwards to Paris a week on Sunday as today marks 50 years since the death of British rider Tom Simpson on the scree slopes of Mont Ventoux in the 1967 Tour.
And while Tour organisers chose not to include the Giant of Provence on this year’s route, thousands of fans, joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins, are expected to pay tribute at Simpson’s memorial.
Wiggins’ presence in France naturally brings to mind his Tour triumph five years ago. By a neat coincidence, his win that year was effectively sealed at Peyragudes on stage 17, where he finished third behind younger team-mate Froome.
By then the pair’s relationship had broken down irrevocably. Froome had to be held back by Team Sky from trying to chase down that day’s stage winner, Alejandro Valverde, in part because a win for him might have threatened Wiggins’ yellow-jersey ambitions.
Given last year’s revelations about Wiggins’ use of therapeutic use exemptions at that Tour, Froome was asked yesterday whether he regretted sacrificing his own ambitions for those of the team that day.
“No, no regrets,” he replied. “That’s not who I am. I continue to look forward and in [that] moment I made the right decisions. I have mixed feelings about that day. Frustration at not being able to go for the stage win. But at the same time I had good legs, so I’ll be happy if I have the same sensations tomorrow.”
No restrictions will be placed on Froome this year. But the 32-yearold acknowledged that the GC contenders might all ride with one eye on tomorrow’s stage from Saintgirons to Foix, which has all the makings of a classic; just 101km long and featuring three enormous climbs, it looks ripe for attacks almost from the gun.
“Of course, it’s hard to hold anything back on a stage like tomorrow but at the back of our minds we will have Friday’s stage,” Froome said. “We’ve seen before that 100km stages can cause an upset.”
Yesterday’s ride – another 200kmplus flat monster – saw two of Froome’s rivals, Alberto Contador (Trek-segafredo) and Jakob Fuglbegan sang (Astana), go down. Astana had a miserable day with Dario Cataldo forced to abandon after being hurt in the same crash as Fuglsang.
The stage went, yet again, to Marcel Kittel (Quick-step Floors) who beat Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (Lottonl-jumbo) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) to the line in Pau after a heroic solo effort by Bora-hansgrohe’s Maciej Bodnar.
Today is one for the climbers, with Froome acknowledging that Simpson and Ventoux would be on his mind. “Certainly, Tom Simpson has left a legacy which a lot of us British riders in the Tour de France are building on,” he said.