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The Roar

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Give Chris Froome the title now, le Tour is over

14th July, 2015
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Chris Froome.(Source: Team Sky)
Expert
14th July, 2015
20
1072 Reads

On Stage 10 of the 2015 Tour de France, and the race’s first foray into the mountains, Chris Froome dominated with Team Sky, taking the race by the scruff of the neck and gaining at least a minute on all the other general classification contenders.

So the question now has to be asked. Is the 2015 Tour de France as good as finished just after the first rest day if Chris Froome can stay upright?

His attack on Stage 10 was a coordinated one, lead out by Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte. No one had a chance of staying with the 2013 Tour de France champion.

As long as Froome and his team can keep that sort of form over the next two weeks the Tour’s final result is a mere formality. No one even looked close to being able to challenge Froome as he rode away with the stage to the top of La Pierre Saint Martin.

Another big point to think about here is the fact that he and his main mountain goat Richie Porte in particular look incredibly fresh. For 99 per cent of the first week of the Tour, Porte has been off the back of the peloton every day saving as much energy as possible to be able to unleash in the mountains which he did yesterday, overtaking Nairo Quintana after setting Froome up for victory and riding away to make it a 1-2 on the stage for Sky.

Yet another point to take into account here is that, Froome’s biggest rivals, forming part of the ‘big 4’ in Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali were both distanced with a fair chunk of the climb still to go. In fact Nibali cracked with around 10km remaining. Contador fell back when Porte came to the front and put the hammer down.

Froome, after his incredible attacking rampage to the finish of Stage 10, sits in an impeccable position on the general classification. In second place is the American Tejay Van Garderen who finished in 10th place on the stage and now sits at almost three minutes down on Froome in the overall standings. Quintana is in third, over three minutes back, and his teammate Alejandro Valverde comes next at 4:01 down on the Maillot Jaune.

The other members of the ‘big 4’, Contador and Nibali sit 4:04 and 6:57 down on Froome respectively in sixth and 10th position.

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With these sort of gaps opening up on the Tour’s first foray into the Mountains, and Sky keeping Froome out of trouble and riding a very solid race during the first week all the way, never really looking challenged they sit in a very confident position.

Of course it can never be assured that the Tour is over with over 10 days, and six mountain stages to go but that is the volatile nature of the Tour. You can never be sure of anything.

Another thing you can be sure of is that there will be a lot of General Classification contenders who are going to go on the attack every time this race goes uphill and that Sky will have to get their tactics 100 per cent correct in working out who to chase and who to let go in what is going to be a very demanding second half of the race for them as they attempt to hold onto the yellow jersey.

In saying that after Stage 10 I am almost prepared to award the final yellow jersey to Chris Froome right now such was the dominance of both he and his team.

So what do you reckon Roarers? Is the 2015 Tour de France already in a semi-finished state or will the other general classification contenders be able to his back against the might of Froome and Team Sky?

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