The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Froome on the verge of fourth victory
Leader takes third in time trial before today’s final stage.
MARSEILLE, FRANCE — Chris Froome stands on the doorstep of the Tour de France’s greatest champions.
Sewing up his fourth Tour crown with a cool-as-a-cucumber ride in a high-pressure time trial in heat-baked Marseille on Saturday means he needs just one victory more to join the record-holders who have five.
His winning margin in this 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 will 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 supersteep climb in the Pyrenees. He didn’t win any of the 20 stages before today’s Stage 21, which is traditionally a peaceful ride into Paris with only the sprinters dashing for the line at the end, for 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 win No. 5 — and of joining the company of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. They have been the leaders since Lance Armstrong’s string of seven doping-assisted victories was expunged from the history of the 114-year-old race.
“Today I did not take risks, I took all the bends carefully, you can lose everything on a day like this,” Froome said.
The time trial was won by Polish rider Maciej Bodnar, who covered the distance at an average speed of nearly 48 kph (30 mph) on the special aerodynamic bikes the riders used for the discipline. Froome has long excelled in it, winning Olympic bronzes in 2012 and 2016.