Team Sky rider has shown nothing to suggest he will lose the lead
Friday 2 October 2015 11:41, UK
I have seen a few people saying that the Tour de France is not over yet and while, strictly speaking, that is true, there can be no denying that it is as good as done and dusted.
Chris Froome has been superior to his rivals on every stage so far bar stage 12, which was a dead heat between all the pre-race favourites, and we are yet to see any sort of weakness from him that would suggest his 2min 52sec lead can be overhauled.
There has been talk that he will pay for the huge effort he put into winning stage 10 later in the race, but I’m not so sure.
Froome has repeatedly proven that he can hold his form throughout a three-week grand tour and I don’t see why he won’t do it again here.
I have also heard suggestions that Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali will get stronger as the race goes on, but again, I don’t agree.
They each put in arguably their best performances of the race on stage 12 and each attacked Froome, but Team Sky had little trouble chasing them down one by one and for them to drop the race leader in the Alps next week, it would require another huge improvement.
For me, the only rider who can beat Froome is himself, because it is far easier to lose a race than it is to win one.
He has to ride safely and take as few risks as possible, particularly in the wet and on descents, because an innocuous and unnecessary crash could blow the race open again.
And he needs to avoid making tactical mistakes, which was a pitfall he fell into on stage 12, when he attacked his rivals and, in doing so, dropped team-mate Geraint Thomas.
The pair had the stage perfectly under control at that point, so I didn’t understand why he needed to accelerate and leave himself isolated. OK, Thomas brilliantly caught back up, but if he hadn’t and Froome had punctured, he would have been in serious danger.
It was unlike Froome to do something rash like that and he needs to understand that it was an error he can’t afford to repeat.
As for scepticism over his performances, I think it’s nonsense. Yes, his win on stage 10 was emphatic, but you only have to look at the results that day to realise that it was caused as much by his rivals riding badly as it was by Froome riding well.
Take Tony Gallopin, for instance. He is an admirable rider and appears to be in excellent form, but he is not a pure climber and has no business finishing ninth on a summit finish like he did on that stage, eight seconds ahead of Tejay van Garderen, 29 seconds ahead of Contador and over two minutes up on Nibali.
That proved that pretty much all of the pre-race favourites had a bad day and Froome simply didn’t.
The next few stages of the Tour are rolling days, and we then get into the Alps proper next Wednesday.
The standout stages on paper look to be the finishes on La Toussuire on stage 19 and Alpe d’Huez on stage 20, but I also think stage 18 into Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne could be pivotal.
It has a flat finish, but there are seven climbs that day and I think one or two surprises could be lurking.
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