Mountains expected to reveal true contenders
NUITS-SAINTGEORGES, France — After a stage decided by millimeters and sprinters, it’s time to see some significant gaps between the leaders in the Tour de France.
The race heads into the mountains this weekend, and yellow-jersey clad Chris Froome is looking forward to taking measure of his challengers.
“This weekend, we will see exactly where everyone’s at,” the threetime Tour winner said, explaining the top 10 riders are still too close together for him to clearly identify one sole rival.
Today’s eighth stage starts in Dole and finishes at the Rousses ski station in the Jura Range, close to the border with Switzerland. Three climbs on the 116-mile route will serve as a warm-up ride for the extremely tough ninth stage in the Alps on Sunday. It will have seven climbs, including three with the “hors categorie” (beyond rating) classification.
Today’s last climb “could shake things up a bit,” said Froome, adding “the bigger obstacles will come on Sunday. It should be a big weekend of racing. That’s what we spend all season training for.”
Froome remained 12 seconds ahead of Sky teammate Geraint Thomas and 14 seconds ahead of Stage 5 winner Fabio Aru. Dan Martin was fourth, 25 seconds behind, and Froome’s former teammate, Richie Porte, was fifth and 39 seconds back.
“Fabio Aru is certainly threatening,” Froome said. “But I certainly wouldn’t say he’s any more of a threat than Richie Porte.”
Back down in the flats on Friday, the winethemed seventh stage was won by Marcel Kittel in a photo finish.
He almost made his move too late and edged Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway by six millimeters to win his third stage of this year’s race and second in two days. Michael Matthews crossed third.
It was Kittel’s 12th career win in the Tour, tying him with Erik Zabel for the record among German cyclists.
Kittel clocked slightly more than five hours over the mostly flat 132mile leg from Troyes in champagne country to Nuits-Saint-Georges in the heart of the Burgundy winemaking region.
“It was super, super close,” Kittel said. “When there’s a photo finish, you have your doubts. I was lucky.”