Yesterday, at the finish of the climb up to La Rosière Espace San Bernardo, it appeared that Movistar were no longer part of the GC conversation. Done, dusted and doomed.
Mikel Landa almost 3 minutes behind and Nairo Quintana over three and Valverde at four minutes and change. So much for the pre-race strategy of three captains all making Chris Froome and Team Sky miserable.
In fact, Sky appeared more dominant that ever. In Chris Froome’s attempt to win four grand tours in a row and his record-tying fifth Tour de France, his most dangerous rival is his own teammate Geraint Thomas. Today, on the legendary Alpe d’Huez, the Welshman won his second Alps stage in a row, took the ten second time bonus for first and is now 1:39 ahead of his more famous captain.
Yes, Movistar will hope that somehow, someway, both Froome and Thomas have a bad day in the Pyrenees — and hope that Landa’s back injury somehow heals completely by then. He’s the only Movistar rider that’s even remotely in striking distance.
The list of true rivals grows shorter and shorter by the day. Even before Alpe d’Huez reared its awful head, EF-Education First’s Rigoberto Uran was forced to abandon the Tour due to injures he sustained in a crash on the cobblestones. (The same stage where Froome escaped injury and Landa did not.)
Richie Porte is long gone, Uran is out, Quintana’s dream cracked, Martin blew up on the Alpe and then suddenly, five kilometers from the summit, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) went down in a haze of blue flare smoke, boisterous fans and a police motorbike that might have knocked him down.
The Italian was tight on Froome’s wheel at that moment, feeling strong, ready to attack and seconds later he had a fractured T10 vertebra. Froome has crashed twice without the slightest injury yet when his competitors go down, it’s minutes lost and significant physical damage.
Take Porte, Quintana and Nibali out of the Tour and you wonder who’s really left to challenge the one-two supremacy of Sky. Only a resilient Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) who despite the exhausting Giro he rode in May, seems fresher than most. However, he’s still 1:50 of the pace of Thomas who seems to have a snap in his legs that the Dutchman doesn’t possess.
Perhaps the only other candidate would be Frenchman Romain Bardet. He had an off-day on stage 11 but bounced back strongly on the Alpe. He animated the race with multiple attacks and he’ll do the same in the Pyrenees. Again, the math is not in his favor and given relative team strength, 3:07 is a big ask for Bardet and AG2R.
It’s become a severally restricted GC battle before the race even hits the Pyrenees. It seems reasonable to assume that eventually the Giro efforts will catch up to Dumoulin. Equally reasonable to think that unless something magical happens quickly, Bardet will ride for a podium, but not the top step.
Perhaps we’re about to be treated to a Sky versus Sky battle, Froome against Thomas battle. We must have read a dozen quotes over the years that all speak to Froome’s ruthless ambition. Thomas is a nice guy and you know what they say about nice guys not finishing first.
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