Froome approaches elite territory in Tour
MARSEILLE, France — Chris Froome stands on the doorstep of the Tour de France’s greatest champions.
Essentially sewing up his fourth Tour crown with a cool-as-a-cucumber ride in a high-pressure time trial in heatbaked Marseille on Saturday means he needs just one victory more to join the record-holding cyclists who have five.
His margin in this year’s Tour, 54 seconds over Rigoberto Uran of Colombia going into today’s processional final stage, is narrower than Froome’s previous wins in 2013, 2015, and 2016. It would be the first he has won by less than one minute.
Over the three weeks, Froome executed fewer of his trademark devastating accelerations in the high mountains. He ran out of gas and temporarily lost the race lead on a super-steep climb in the Pyrenees. He didn’t win any of the 20 stages before today’s final one, which is traditionally a peaceful ride into Paris, with only the sprinters dashing for the line at the end to earn the bragging right of winning the stage on the Champs-Elysees.
But Froome at 90 or 95 percent of his previous best still proved plenty.
Certainly good enough to be able to start dreaming of a fifth Tour title — and of joining the exalted company of Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx. They have been the joint leaders since Lance Armstrong’s string of seven doping-assisted victories was expunged from the history of the 114-year-old race.
“It’s a huge honor just to be mentioned in the same sentence as the greats,” Froome said. “I have got a newfound appreciation for just how difficult it is for those guys to have won five Tour de France. It certainly isn’t getting easier each year.”
Yet he made the deciding time trial look easy enough. To boos and whistles from the partisan crowd backing Romain Bardet, the French cyclist who was only 23 seconds behind him in the overall standings, Froome set off last from the Stade Velodrome football stadium. Bardet had set off two minutes ahead of him.
Froome rode so strongly that by the end, he had Bardet in his sights. The French rider wilted on the twisting, tricky course with long, wind-affected straightaways by the sea and a short sharp uphill to NotreDame de la Garde cathedral, the dominant landmark in France’s second-largest city.
The suspense was quickly over. By the first time check, after just six miles of riding, Froome was already 43 seconds faster than Bardet. The only question became whether Bardet would even be able to save a place for himself on the podium.
He did, by the narrowest of margins. Just one second was all that separated his third place from Mikel Landa of Spain, Froome’s teammate in fourth.
“It’s just an amazing feeling,” Froome said. “It was so close coming into this (time trial). This was my closest Tour de France, the most hard-fought between the riders … I didn’t think it would come down to this (time trial) in Marseille. There was a bit of pressure but, for me, it’s always a good thing having pressure.”
The time trial was won by Poland’s Maciej Bodnar, who covered the distance at an average speed of nearly 30 mph on the special aerodynamic bikes the riders used for the discipline. Froome has long excelled in it, winning Olympic bronze medals in 2012 and 2016.
Froome’s teammate, Michal Kwiatkowski, placed second, one second slower than Bodnar. Froome was third, just six seconds off what could have been a stage win to adorn his Tour crown.
Uran was much faster than Bardet over the 14-mile stage, despite overshooting a left-hand bend before the stadium finish and ricocheting off barriers. A two-time runner-up at the Giro d’Italia, he vaulted over Bardet in the overall standings and into the runner-up spot.
And with that, the 104th Tour had its podium. All that’s left for the 167 remaining riders — from 198 who started on July 1 — is to cross the line in Paris.