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news
Tour de France logo on yellow 3x2Tour de France Stage 10: Chris Froome takes first mountain stage
Chris Froome of Team Sky has tightened his grip on the 102nd edition of the Tour de France on the first day in the Pyrenees as he put his rivals to the sword and seized control of the race.
The 2013 champion attacked with 6.5 kilometres of the climb of the Col de la Pierre Saint-Martin remaining after some sterling work from Peter Kennaugh, Geraint Thomas - now fifth overall - and finally Richie Porte.
He crossed the line around a minute ahead of team mate Porte, who overhauled Movistar’s Nairo Quintana 300 metres before the line to deny the 2014 Giro champion extra bonus seconds.
The man who began the day second overall, Tejay van Garderen of BMC Racing, lost two and half minutes to Froome. He remains second, but is now 2 minutes 52 seconds down after the 167 kilometre stage from Tarbes.
Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador lost 3 minutes to Froome today, while the title defence of Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali is in tatters, the Sicilian finishing ceding the best part of 4 minutes to the stage winner.
With Sky's Thomas finishing sixth and Adam Yates of Orica-GreenEdge seventh, three British riders finished in the top ten.
On Bastille Day, Pierre Rolland of Europcar was the first French rider to finish, coming home in eighth, with a decade now having passed since David Moncoutie's Fete Nationale win at Digne les Bains in 2005.
Stage winner and race leader Chris Froome
What a stage! Through yesterday's rest day, we were very focused on today's stage. We didn't necessarily want to ride aggressively. We were happy to let a breakaway go, let other teams chase and be more defensive than usual. But when I heard the big names were struggling and getting dropped, I told Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas: “let's push.
I could feel our rivals were in trouble after the rest day so my team-mates set up the finale for me. I attacked when it was steep before the road was flatting out. It's the dream scenario. I couldn't have asked for any better one, especially with Richie coming second and taking the time bonus away from Nairo [Quintana].
Geraint wasn't far at the end, it means a lot for our team. But the race is far from over. In 2013, Alberto Contador took us on in the crosswinds and in the descents. We can expect this to happen again. We have to see how much we'll pay tomorrow for the efforts we produced today.
I wouldn't like to be where my rivals are on GC now after only one climb. But we know that Nairo can be strong in the third week of a Grand Tour. He can put us in trouble. We actually expected that he'd do so today. Movistar rode and I waited for him to attack. It didn't happen so I attacked him.
Even though it's at a different point of the race, the day after the first rest day and not the day before the second rest day, it's amazing to repeat the feeling of the Mont Ventoux when I won at the top of a big mountain with the yellow jersey, on July 14.
Tejay van Garderen of BMC Racing, who remains second on GC
Sky definitely put on quite the performance. I tried my best to stay with them. When it got too much for me, I tried to stay in my rhythm and focused on getting to the top. I don't think today was my best day. But it wasn't all bad. I am still keeping a good GC position.
In the overall standings, Froome leads van Garderen by 2:52. Quintana is third, at 3:09. Spanish national road champion Alejandro Valverde is fourth, at 4:01, and one of five riders still within five minutes of the overall lead.
The first mountain day is always tricky. We have done almost two weeks without climbing any real mountains. So it can be quite a shock to the system, especially after a rest day. I feel like it should go better from here. I am definitely still happy about where we are sitting.
Movistar's Nairo Quintana, now third overall
The outcome and my feelings are good but not excellent. We want to raise the tempo at the bottom of the climb to evaluate the level of our rivals. Froome's superiority is implacable. He's stronger than all of us. His rhythm uphill was too high for my abilities of the day.
The last climb was hard with a hell of a heat. I'll have to see how my legs and my body will recover from that. I want to keep my position [third overall] and try and build a strategy to make up for the time lost. My chances to take the yellow jersey are reduced a bit but I'll fight till the end. Two years ago we've seen that Froome was less strong at the end.
We have to see if one day, he's less inspired. He's human and vulnerable, like everyone. My dream in yellow isn't over yet.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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76 comments
It just when he attacks you see the difference and the HR. Again this is why I believe all data should be public so we can compare. Cycling is such a technical sport on stats that it should release it all.
If Velon were serious we should have instant data feedback on each rider available to commentators and viewers to see exactly what is happening !
Some may cry it gives opposition an advantage but it would be the same for everyone.
I don't have any views either way about whether people are doping. I simply don't know, so it is pointless getting worked up about it.
Yesterday's result was very interesting and somewhat shocking. But it wasn't simply a case of Froome shredding all his rivals. At least some of his rivals seem to be seriously under performing, which makes the comparison between the four / five 'Beatles' look a bit strange.
Nibali has been crap from the off this year, the only time he has looked remotely like the 2014 rider was on the cobbles. Contador looks like he has left his legs in Italy after the Giro.
TJvG was close to Froome on the Dauphine although never looked able to stay with Froome's accelerations, and he has faded in the Tour before. I suppose the main surprise was that Froome was able to take so much time out of Quintana, but if you turn that round, how come Quintana only took 30 seconds out of Gesink and a minute out of new pro Adam yates on the climb? Quintana only took just over a minute out of classics specialist Tony Gallopin too. Maybe gallopin should be accused of doping. Or maybe Quintana's good time trial performance is 'proof' of doping?
It is pointless just trying to look at results in isolation and use that as 'proof' of doping.
Sky were superb yesterday and got the tactics bang on, Froome incredible as was his team,but one swallow doesn't make a summer!! let's see what what today brings, bigger longer climbs, and yesterday must have an impact on Sky's performance today ? we'll see, but so far been a great tour to watch and hopefully some of the big contenders will start to earn their corn because if they don't Froomey will putting 2 minutes a day on them? either way looking forward to the next week and a half.
ah sorry mate I thought you meant from yesterday's climb !
well as posted on the leak thread another vid is out and shows the same thing, where he launches an attack power goes up a lot but HR does not.
Whatever you may think of Froome, if that is clean he is one truly remarkable athlete to put in intense effort and for HR to stay the same. Unless something real dodgy is going on.
Is it possible to go at 800W at the same HR as 400W clean ?
Even for a super athlete ?
Well done to Froome and Sky. Hope they continue with the amazing performance.
It is still too early to call a winner. Anything can happen still.
Froome est Extraterrestre...?
A fascinating twist, power data leaked not hacked:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vayer-says-froomes-supposed-ventoux-data...
Looks like Froome has climbed down a bit from his original independent testing ?
Froome: "I’m open-minded to potentially doing some physiological testing at some point after Tour or at whatever point suits"
Seen the first couple of big digs against Quintana - HR rise and fall look pretty normal, interesting to see how long even the very best take to reduce HR after an attack up a mountain when you've spent half the day in saddle.
Ah yes ! Quite so, see what you mean. Sorry for confusion. Yesterdays would be interesting..
Sounds like quibbling to me - back when I was wearing my sys admin hat and having to worry about such things, the industry rule of thumb was 90+% of hacks were inside jobs - things have probably not changed much. If it was internal or someone external with (possibly temporary) access, it would make more sense of the legal comments.
Where does it stay the same ? The big kicks i've seen so far (all the Vuelta and half the Ventoux) have resulted in an HR rise, albeit with a lag as would be expected. Some of the Vuelta ones are small, the Ventoux ones so far are bigger and the recovery is much, much slower - not entirely suprising. The power levels thus far (which I presume are the uncorrected ones on the Ventoux with the SRM) seem believable, although as i've not watched the end of the Ventoux yet perhaps i've missed something 'mutant', as Vayer would say.
Edit : should also say, I wonder if the Vuelta ones are uncorrected as well. Stages quote 4-5% higher readings with (unspecified) "non-round" rings.
Are his stats out for the climb then ?
The stats are displayed real-time as an overlay on the video - not seen the raw data yet.
A few things here, and I'm not saying Froome is clean or not, but I am watching on the basis he is cause otherwise, why watch?
In the LA days of doping, an unbelievable performance was someone blasting out of the lead group and then maintaining that accelerated pace pretty much to the line, an accelerated pace that many scientific analysts have shown to be impossible unless doping, and int he case of LA, doing it pretty much every day and not letting up regardless of what the competition was doing.
Yesterday, yes Froome sprinted away, but then the gap only grew gradually, and at one point quintana actually narrowed it very slightly.
Nibali just looked like he couldn't be arsed once he was initially dropped (even being shouted at by a team mate at one point) and so his time drop may have been less if he hadn't lost interest, and Contador just doesn't look like Contador
Also, as I understand it, times for climbs have dropped (once tailwinds etc have been taken into account) since a decade ago.
If Froome does something similar today, and then again the next day, then suspicions will rightly be raised further, as one of the biggest things about the period of rampant doping was not necessarily the out and out speed but the ridiculously quick recovery times.
A whole team performing well after a rest day could mean doping, or it could just mean that the team has an extremely good rest day routine.
I will now sit back and wait for the backlash from those who have lost all hope or sense of reason.
Well on Froome he seems to have no doubts does he ? Froome very much splits people and lets see what happens today, will be a key test up the Tourmalet.
Indeed - should be an interesting day all round. Half way through the Ventoux video on Vimeo at the moment, nothing odd yet (apart from the amount of power produced whilst in the pack)... second half when I get some time out from work.
could you post a link to this please. i haven't seen the video
Sure
https://vimeo.com/133412409
What we should see today in a monster stage and one of the highlight mountains is that every other team takes a back seat.
No other team should help out Sky and could be a chance for a breakaway because of that.
I wished I could watch this stage in full because it will tell us a lot not only about Sky but the state of mind of the other teams.
All of what you have said is equally applicable to LA and US Postal using the same calculations.
I am always reminded of what Walsh said when he became suspicious of LA. HE was in the media center watching him a climb and he did exactly what Froome did and said it was unbelievable and the doubts grew from there.
So perhaps it would be worth hearing what he said about Froome yesterday then ?
Since the doc he has always said he thinks no doping but not holding the same standard as LA.
He was suspicious of LA not because of evidence (that came later) but because of what he did. I was in a talk from Walsh where he made this point and once he started to write about his concerns the likes of Andreau, O'Reilly and others came forward.
Evidence was not mentioned. You said he was suspicious from watching him climb and said it was unbelievable and "the doubts grew from there". Not quite his commentary on Froome the other day. Or indeed from any of the other people involved in the sport. Clearly the Prophets powers have faded.
When it comes to Sky and Froome he's hardly impartial is he? Had no issues calling-out the Astana train in the Giro though! And why no suspicion about G's ride yesterday?
Excellent ride today by Sky, just sat in and let Movistar bang out the miles then attacked when Movistar were blowing out their backsides.
As far as some of the comments made by other so called cycling fans, if you don't like it don't watch it, simples.
Did anyone actually pay attention to what played out on the road that led to the win, or did everyone just tune in for the last 5k?
The only things doing damage to the sport of cycling are journalists who don't like British riders doing well and online bedroom scientists.
Movistar did sky's leg work today. Contador and nibali's mental strength was already gone before lining up at the start and quintana is an unrealised young talent whose grand tour achievements don't reflect the hype surrounding him just yet. It's also very early days in the tour and were not in the Alps yet. If or when quintana wins a stage or two, will people accuse him of doping? Doubt it
Exactly! To many people watch the highlights and jump to conclusions, also so many don't understand stage racing.
The big story of yesterday wasn’t that Froome won (that was expected) but that Ritchie Porte came 2nd, that happened because Movistar got it completely wrong and were all knackered before they even got to the climb, Quintanas lack of legs wasn't surprising in the context of the entire stage.
Skys tactics were spot on (maybe they're taking tactics enhancements drugs..?), also worth mentioning that Nibali looked very iffy in the Dauphine (he had 1 good stage) and Contador faded noticeably in the last 2 stages of the Giro so I’m not surprised neither of them turned up.
Btw Froome isn’t on drugs he’s just a freak of nature, just look at the guy.
Either that, or it's the nose ring.
Movistar did most of the work and shelled most of the riders. Contador has a giro in his legs. Froome sat on Porte's wheel then attacked and won. Sky worked from like 6 k out, no more. So is it that Froome was incredible or Quintana was lacking?
I can't see Sky doping, they'd be utterly ruined if they ever got found out. Or they may have some mega undetectable PED. But it all gets found out eventually, doesn't it?
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