Froome shaken as Tour stirs on Bond mountain
Three-time champion loses yellow jersey Aru is new race leader as Bardet seals stage win
It was a day which may go down in history; the day the first crack in the hitherto impenetrable armour of Chris Froome appeared.
Alternatively, it could be forgotten by tonight if Froome bounces back with a strong performance in today’s now unmissable, short, sharp 101- kilometre Bastille Day blast from Saint-girons to Foix.
That is entirely possible given Froome’s pedigree. The Briton is still the favourite for this race, especially with the general classification to be decided with a time trial in Marseille a week tomorrow. But there was something in the air in the Pyrenees yesterday; a sense that something seismic had happened, that other teams sensed blood in the water for the first time in years.
It was difficult to look at it any other way. Froome surrendered his leader’s jersey to Astana’s Fabio Aru. The act was unprecedented. Never before had Froome lost the maillot jaune to a general classification rival. And certainly never in the mountains.
The three-time champion may have finished just 20 seconds behind Aru at the ski station of Peyragudes, and just 22 seconds behind the stage winner, France’s increasingly impressive Romain Bardet. He may be only six seconds behind Aru overall and still 19 seconds ahead of Bardet. Tiny margins. But at least we now have a race on our hands with Froome showing a chink of vulnerability.
Having benefited from the strongest team on the day – Froome was the only rider to have teammates with him on the final two climbs of the day – the 32-year-old laboured up the final 500metres, admitting that he had no excuses. “I just didn’t have the legs on the final kick,” he said.
To cap a tricky day for Sky, Froome’s team-mate Mikel Landa looked supreme and appeared to hit out at the team’s tactics, suggesting on Spanish radio that he might have won had he been allowed to go for it. Shades of Froome v Bradley Wiggins in 2012, when Froome was ordered to wait and help his team leader, allowing Alejandro Valverde to win unchallenged.
A video materialised on Twitter of Landa and the Sky team’s sporting director Nicolas Portal appearing to exchange heated words at the team bus. Landa later posted a playful picture of himself and Portal, in which he was using Portal’s lanyard as a noose. The message was clear: nothing to see here. And maybe that is right. But conspiracy theories will abound, not least because Landa is rumoured to be off to Movistar.
It should not be forgotten, though, just how strong Froome’s team is. They had ridden on the front all day; Christian Knees and Luke Rowe pulling for miles and miles, former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski continuing to show why he was an inspired pick as domestique de luxe for this Tour.
It was unfortunate for Steve Cummings that Sky appeared so inspired. It looked as if the reigning British champion might mark the 50th anniversary of Tom Simpson’s death on Mont Ventoux with a brilliant breakaway win to go with the ones he claimed in 2015 and 2016.
But having got himself into the 12-man breakaway and dropped them all on the Port de Bales, the Wirral rider was unable to hold off the Sky Express on the Peyresourde.
Landa took over from Nieve on the descent and started the final climb to Peyragudes. But when Aru launched his sprint in the last 200metres, Froome was powerless to respond. As the gradient soared to 20 per cent his rivals passed him one by one: Bardet, Rigoberto Uran, Louis Meintjes, Dan Martin. Landa pressed on to try to win back some of the bonus seconds from the top three, but could only finish fourth.
What a final week it now promises to be. Peyragudes was where the opening sequence of the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed. This was a day that left Froome and Sky shaken, but the Tour stirred into life.
The other teams sensed blood for the first time in years