Froome win on Ventoux
There were high athletic expectations of today’s 15 stage of this year’s anniversary edition of the Tour de France. It was a very very hot and long day in the saddle with 242.5 km on the road with the 21 km long ascent to the legendary Mont Ventoux.
A break of nine men with Peter Sagan generated a strong lead for nine minutes before Europcar increased the pace even though Pierre Rolland just did not reach the front group. Shortly after Team Movistar attempted to put pressure on the field after Valverde’s exit in the standings.
The first major attack came from Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who rode away with no response from the other riders with less than 13 miles from the finish line. This put pressure on Sky, who once again lead the pursuit, which caused some riders off the back of the now small favorite group to abandon while Chavanel was passed and dropped. Saxo-Tinkoff had four riders in the favorite group with nine kilometers to go.
Chris Froome had his lieutenant, Richie Porte, who now rode a killing pace at the front. This resulted in a massacre, and a few hundred meters later the group was reduced to Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Alberto Contador. A half mile later Froome mounted a monstrous attack and rode alone up to Quintana.
Behind struggled Alberto Contador and Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) to regain ground to Froome. On the last mile Froome hooked up with Quintana and rode alone across the finish line at the top of Ventoux.
Alberto Contador was distanced by Nieve and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), but was joined by teammate Roman Kreuziger, and together they rode across the finish line in fifth and sixth place.
Saxo-Tinkoff’s sporting director, Fabrizio Guidi said: “We have clearly witnessed a spectacular and very quick stage, and everyone could see that Froome was the strongest on the mountain today. But I think our guys did a good job. They supported Alberto, and we were in the majority until Froome opened with his fiery attacks. I do not think we could have raced the stage otherwise and have achieved greater success. The race is not over. This means that Froome should not lie down to sleep in the expectation that victory is at home. There are several good options and we are still racing for the overall victory.”
