Froome closing in on 4th Tour win

One series of giant Tour de France mountains out of the way. One more to come. And one fewer rival for race leader Chris Froome to watch quite so closely.

By sticking like flypaper to the enterprising Romain Bardet, despite the French rider’s efforts to distance him on the race’s highest peak, Froome took a big step Wednesday toward a fourth Tour victory this weekend in Paris. Italian Fabio Aru, on the other hand, fell behind on the barren slopes of scree and patchy grass in the thinning air of the Col du Galibier, one of the Tour’s most fearsome Alpine climbs.

A last burst of speed from Bardet toward the top of the mountain pass, which rises 8,668 feet in altitude, proved decisive. Froome stayed with the French rider, who stood next to him on the Paris podium last year, in second place. Aru did not.

Rigoberto Uran, the Colombian who is making a habit at this Tour of being in the right place at the right time, always in Froome’s shadow, zoomed down in that group too.

The bill, at the end, was costly for Aru.

Having started Stage 17 in second place overall, just 18 seconds behind Froome, the Astana team rider slipped back to fourth — 53 seconds behind the race leader, who is getting stronger in the last week of the three-week cycling marathon.

Uran leapfrogged from fourth to second overall. Bardet is still third. That podium could stick all the way to Paris on Sunday, as they both trail Froome by 27 seconds.

The Tour lost Marcel Kittel, the winner of five stages this year, after he crashed.

The Carolina Panthers brought back Marty Hurney to be their interim general manager, two days after owner Jerry Richardson fired Dave Gettleman. Hurney was the Panthers GM from 1998 to 2012.

Dallas police suspended an investigation into an incident at a bar involving Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. Police said the probe was put off “due to the lack of a complaint,” and that no other witnesses had come forward. The statement said investigators had made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the 30-yearold man who was punched in the nose Sunday night.