Tour de France on TV

Tag: Chris Froome

  • Chris Froome looks on his last legs

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    Alex
    in

    Maybe it’s all that running he did earlier in the season – efforts which have reportedly earned him an invite to take part in a 10km run in Barcelona. The final climb of stage 17 was a proper almost-come-to-a-standstill Vuelta climb. The overall contenders maintained an impressive pace up there and while the main four…

  • Team Sky have an absolute bloody nightmare

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    Alex
    in

    The peloton is long. Containing getting on for 200 riders, it is a long way from the front to the back. It is even further from the back to the front, particularly when the damn thing’s going flat-out. This normally only happens at the end of sprint stages. It happened right from the off on…

  • Chris Froome outsprints Nairo Quintana

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    Alex
    in

    I love a one-on-one sprint between two climbers. They’re so ill-equipped. It’s like watching a number 11 batsman trying to make the crucial runs that will win a Test match; a taste of the amateur world dropped in at the very pinnacle of the sport. The key, of course, is that every bike race ends…

  • Chris Froome’s pacing strategy reaps second-place rewards

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    Alex
    in

    Well that was spectacular. Nairo Quintana took the stage and regained the race lead, but it was Chris Froome’s bizarre, ‘okay, you have a head start’ ride that was the most memorable. The final climb had barely started when Froome was 45 seconds adrift. Assigned two team-mates to pace him up the lower slopes, the…

  • Andre Greipel holds his bike in the air in celebration

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    Alex
    in

    Greipel wins! Take that, pedals! For a Tour de France that has at times felt surprisingly familiar, there was one last thing to tick off. Since 2008, Andre Greipel has won at least one stage in every Grand Tour he’s entered. He left it late this year. Indeed, it wasn’t until the very moment that…

  • Jarlinson Pantano never knows when he’s beaten

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    Alex
    in

    Or maybe he does. Maybe he worked it out at the finish when he came second. Jarlinson Pantano was dropped at least three times on the final climb by Julian Alaphilippe. Each time he hauled his way back. Eventually he grew weary of being weary and returned the favour by attacking Alaphilippe. Shortly after, Vincenzo…

  • Romain Bardet stays upright – Chris Froome doesn’t

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    Alex
    in

    The only thing falling harder than the rain was the riders. Grand Tour cycling is athletically and mentally tough, but the possibility of crashing is an additional brutality that occasionally rises to unwelcome prominence. Chris Froome was one who fell, his front wheel apparently growing weary of traction. It would take too long to list…

  • Chris Froome is slightly further ahead

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    Alex
    in

    This is, increasingly, what the Tour de France amounts to. You should never, ever discount a twist in the mountains, but if there is a script, the final time trial stuck to it. I’ve not much to report really. Chris Froome won; Tom Dumoulin was a very respectable second; Fabio Aru and Richie Porte were…

  • Everyone goes past Nairo Quintana

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    Alex
    in

    Many have wondered when we might finally get a devastating Nairo Quintana attack in the mountains. The answer, you’d assume on today’s evidence, is never. The not famously selfless Alejandro Valverde will be livid. Just 18 seconds behind his team-mate at the start of the day, he launched a ‘softening up’ attack on the final…

  • Chris Froome running towards the finish line halfway up Mont Ventoux

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    Alex
    in

    Crowd knobheads have given us many memorable moments in the Tour de France, but surely few can rival the sight of Chris Froome, in the yellow jersey, running up Mont Ventoux with no bike anywhere in shot. Someone – or more likely a great many people – got in the way of one of the…