Froome (busted spoke) avoids disaster
If Chris Froome rides into Paris next Sunday with the Tour de France’s yellow jersey still on his shoulders, it will be impossible to argue that he didn’t earn the win.
In another day of drama Sunday in a 104th Tour full of twists, Froome broke a backwheel spoke at the worst possible time on Stage 15 — just as his top rivals were picking up speed in front of him going into yet another punishing climb. By the time Froome had stopped, taken a wheel off his teammate Michal Kwiatkowski and got going again, they were long gone, already about one minute down the road.
Like a hound chasing prey, Froome hared off after Romain Bardet, Fabio Aru and Rigoberto Uran — the three riders all within 30 seconds of Froome in the overall standings of the Tour that, after a ho-hum beginning, has become thrillingly close.
Froome said the backwheel problem seemed to be a broken spoke. “The wheel wasn’t straight anymore,” he said.
By recovering from the misfortune, Froome now takes the jersey and an 18-second lead over Aru into today’s rest day, the last of two at the Tour, ahead of a crucial final week of racing in the Alps and with a time trial in Marseille.
The stage itself was won by Trek-Segafredo rider Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands, with a courageous solo breakaway at the front of the race.
The arduously bumpy 189.5-kilometer (117-mile) stage went from the cattlemarket town of Laissac-Severac L’Eglise, past rocky outcrops and patchwork fields on the high plateaus of central France’s Massif Central mountains.
The top four in the standings remained unchanged: Aru, 18 seconds back in second place; Bardet 23 seconds behind the leader in third; and Uran, 29 seconds off the lead, in fourth. Irish rider Dan Martin moved up from sixth to fifth.