Can a dark horse like Yates stop Froome’s Tour cruise?

CHRIS FROOME’S ability to improvise in the first two weeks Tour de France means that he is the outstanding favourite to win a third title in Paris next Sunday.

Without a major summit finish in the opening week, where in the past he has laid a solid foundation, he attacked instead on the fast descent into Luchon last Saturday. When crosswinds threatened to split the race on the flat stage into Montpellier he attacked in the closing kilometres to steal some vital seconds on his rivals.

Then on Thursday when he crashed into a motorbike on Mont Ventoux and then was hit from behind by another, he abandoned his smashed bike and ran.

The spectacle of Froome running up Ventoux could be the abiding image of this Tour and among the most surreal of any in the race’s 113-year history. But it also underlined his determination to win. Even without a bike, his first instinct was to carry on racing, sprinting through banks of spectators whose faces registered confusion and shock — they thought they were there to watch a bike race.

It was an absurd and comical incident, best explained by Geraint Thomas’s when, at the finish, he was shown a picture of his 31-year-old team-mate running the final kilometre. ‘Well, he’s from Kenya,’ said Thomas. ‘You’d expect him to be good at running.’

Froome will see the funny side eventually but others focused on what it said about him. David Millar, the retired rider, posted on Twitter: ‘Thank you @chrisfroome – Not caring what people think & doing what you have to do, that’s panache.’

Panache is something Froome and Team Sky have been accused of lacking in the past but this year it is almost as though he is on a one-man mission to win over those critics.

Despite it all he is, with a week to go, in a commanding position. Froome leads the Dutchman Bauke Mollema by a minute and 47 seconds, and Adam Yates, the young Brit, by a further 58 seconds. Nairo Quintana, who was expected to push Froome all the way to Paris, as he did last year, has so far fared badly. The Colombian is fourth, almost three minutes down.

Yet there is still a long way to go and many tough stages ahead. Anything can happen. Last year Froome fell ill in the final week — he has been coughing after stages in the last couple of days, leading some to wonder about the state of his health this time. There is the constant risk of crashing too. In 2014, defending his first title, a touch of wheels saw Froome fall and break a bone in his hand. Last year at the Vuelta he clipped a roadside barrier and broke a bone in his foot.

At the finish of Saturday’s troublefree 14th stage, Froome dismissed the notion that the race is his to lose. ‘People are saying the Tour is over but that’s absolute rubbish,’ he said. ‘The stages in the final week are tougher than any we’ve had before. And with Nairo’s history he is still a threat. I have to treat Mollema as my biggest rival but Movistar [the team of Quintana and Alejandro Valverde] are dangerous and Valverde is going extremely well.’

He didn’t mention Yates, whose presence in the top three after Saturday’s time trial is the big surprise. Yates is a climbing specialist who should relish the four stages in the Alps from Wednesday to Saturday, though he has continued to insist that a stage win is his priority. Then again, he said he’d lose four minutes to Froome in the time trial and in the event conceded less than two.

‘I could have a bad day and lose minutes,’ said Yates of the Alps.

Yates rides for the Australian team Orica-BikeExchange, having as an under-23 rider opted out of a British programme that focused heavily on track racing. He went to a French amateur team before being snapped up by Orica along with his twin brother, Simon, who did come through the British system and was world points race champion on the track in 2013.

Sky reportedly offered Simon a contract but not Adam, and the twins from Bury opted to stay together and join the Australians. Now Adam is seven stages away from an extraordinary achievement, a prospect that seems to leave him completely unfazed. ‘It is what it is,’ is his mantra.

‘There’s no pressure,’ Yates added. ‘If I have the legs I’ll keep rolling with it.’