Froome poised for fourth win
MARSEILLE: Chris Froome kept his composure in a hostile environment as he virtually secured a fourth Tour de France title after extending his overall lead with a good showing in the 22.5km time trial through the streets of Marseille yesterday.
The Briton was booed by the crowd in the Stade Velodrome — where the penultimate stage started and ended — and also in the Old Port and on the climb up to Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde, as he took third place behind two Poles. Maciej Bodnar (BoraHansgrohe) won in 28min 15sec ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski.
Froome finished 6sec off the pace and 5sec behind his Sky teammate, Kwiatkowski, who has been instrumental in his leader’s ride to what should be his third consecutive, and Team Sky’s fifth, victory in the last six years.
Providing Froome avoids any calamities on the 103km trek from Montgeron to the capital he will take his Tour haul to four in the last five years — just one behind cycling greats Miguel Indurain of Spain, Belgium’s Eddy Merckx and Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil.
Despite the boos, Froome was gracious.
‘‘The atmosphere here is incredible. It’s huge,’’ he said.
‘‘I think it was normal with a Frenchman in second place behind me on the start line, racing in Marseille and finishing in a football stadium. Certainly I have no complaints.’’
While Froome won at least a stage in 2013, 2015 and 2016, he has been unable to raise his arms in celebrations this year as he has not won a single race in 2017.
‘‘It’s a threeweek race and we rode it as such,’’ he said.
‘‘This year was harder than the previous years. That’s something I would not have imagined was possible.’’
Froome (32) is now expected to become the first rider to win three Tours in a row since Indurain whose winning sequence of five began in 1991.
American Lance Armstrong won seven Tour titles from 19992005 but was later stripped of them for doping.
Colombian Rigoberto Uran (CannondaleDrapac) overcooked a lefthand corner in the finale but stayed on his bike and leapfrogged Romain Bardet into second place overall to wrap up the Tour with a 54sec deficit.
Bardet had a mediocre time trial and the AG2RLa Mondiale rider, runnerup last year, salvaged a podium finish by 1sec to finish third, 2min 20sec off the pace, with Froome’s Spanish teammate, Mikel Landa, fourth.
‘‘I gave everything but I was not feeling well today. I rode this time trial with my head, not my legs,’’ Bardet said.
Nairo Quintana, who was targeting a Giro d’ItaliaTour double this season, will finish outside the top 10 after taking second place in Italy.
Briton Simon Yates secured the white jersey for the best under25 rider.
France’s Warren Barguil, who won two stages, will claim the polka dot jersey for the mountains classification and was voted the most aggressive rider in the race.
The top three riders in the general classification were all within 29sec of each other going into yesterday’s stage but there was little suspense as Froome is a much better timetriallist than Uran and Bardet. He was already ahead of his rivals at the first checkpoint.