Friends Froome and Porte fast forming a formidable duo at Team Sky

By Felix Lowe / Expert

Team Sky’s embarrassment of riches is there for everyone to see, with Chris Froome and Richie Porte leading the field after the first mountain-top finish of the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné.

A Froome-Porte one-two is something we’re getting quite used to witnessing this year.

On the third and final stage of March’s Critérium International, the Briton beat the Australian to the summit of the Col de l’Ospedale to take the win and secure a one-two in the same order in the General Classification.

The two riders are now sitting pretty at the top of the overall standings after five stages of the Dauphiné, with Froome taking the race’s first mountain-top finish at Valmorel to move to 52 seconds clear of Porte with three stages remaining.

Tour de France reigning champion Bradley Wiggins may be down and out – but a second successive Sky one-two on the Grande Boucle cannot be ruled out, with both Froome and Porte in the form of their lives this season.

A friendlier one-two it would be too – with best friends Froome and Porte sharing a strong bond in stark contrast to Froome’s icy relationship with Wiggins, which could be described, at best, as ‘professional’ (although some critics would even debate that).

After Alberto Contador had put in a stinging attack on with little over a kilometre to go on stage five’s final climb, Froome was happy to let the Spaniard clear safe in the knowledge of two things: first, that he had the legs to reel him in before the finish, and second, that the Spaniard, at his current level, did not have the power to sustain his acceleration through to the line.

Froome duly closed in on Contador and the pair caught RadioShack’s Matthew Bushe, the last remnant of the day’s break, with just 500m remaining.

The expected three-way sprint for the win never materialised; Froome simply blaze his way to the line to beat Contador by four seconds and throw down a second successive psychological marker over his rival ahead of the Tour.

One day earlier, Contador – apparently suffering from allergies – toiled on the flat 32.5km time trial, conceding a huge 2:44 to Froome.

To make matters worse for the Spaniard, Contador had one of those board-shorts-pulled-down-by-a-wave moments when being overtaken by Porte, his former understudy at Saxo Bank, with four kilometres of the ITT left to race.

If Contador is allergic to anything, it’s the sight of the back wheels of Messrs Froome and Porte.

Despite his second place on the stage, the multiple Grand Tour winner is languishing in unlucky 13th place on GC, 2:49 down on the seemingly irrepressible Froome.

One ray of light for Contador will be the form of team-mate Michael Rogers – a former Sky team-mate of both Froome and Porte.

Alongside compatriot Porte, the Australian veteran was Sky’s key domestique last summer, his knack of banging out 500 watts on the front of the diminished peloton ahead of each vital mountain rendez-vous integral in setting up Wiggins’s win ahead of Froome.

Although questions were raised after Rogers joined Saxo Bank in the wake of Sky implementing their notorious zero tolerance policy, the addition of the former triple world time trial champion was a shrewd piece of work by manager Bjarne Riis.

If anyone knows how to beat Sky at their own game on the roads of France in July, it’s a man who’s been there and done it alongside them.

‘Inside Man’ Rogers is fourth on GC in the Dauphiné – and one of three Australian riders in the top four alongside Porte and the impressive youngster Rohan Dennis of Garmin.

23-year-old Dennis – a first-year professional – was expecting to ride his debut Dauphiné in support of team leader Andrew Talansky – but with the American struggling with illness, Dennis has found himself propelled into the hot seat at Garmin.

Following his third place in the Tour of California time trial, Dennis took second place in France (47 seconds down on Germany’s Tony Martin) to move into the yellow jersey on a day he was actually targeting the white.

The lanky rider from Adelaide could only sport the Maillot Jaune for one stage but he limited his losses to just within a minute on the final ascent to Valmorel on Thursday.

Now in the white jersey as the race’s best young rider (he leads Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski by 1:04), Dennis is third on GC at 54 seconds and sandwiched between compatriots Porte and Rogers.

Friday’s 143km stage six features four climbs but concludes with a long plateau and then a 20km downhill into Grenoble. Barring any surprises there should be little change on GC ahead of the final decisive weekend.

Two consecutive summit finishes at Superdevoluy and Risoul will confirm whether or not Froome enters the Tour de France as the man to beat – and if so, whether he does with Porte right by his side.

Saturday’s stage seven starts with the ascents of both Alpe d’Huez and the Col de Sarenne – both of which will be tackled in the Tour in six weeks’ time (on the same day, with the former ridden twice).

As Contador stressed after his poor performance during the time trial, “the Dauphiné is the Dauphiné and the Tour is the Tour”. The 30-year-old’s allergies should have cleared up by the time the peloton takes to Corsica at the end of the month.

What’s more, Contador has never performed particularly well in the Dauphiné time trials – while two of his three legitimate Tour stage wins have come in ITTs.

But Froome’s consistently strong performances bode well for the Kenyan-born Brit.

The 28-year-old is following the Wiggins template of winning multiple stage races ahead of tackling the Tour: this year he has already notched wins in the Tour of Oman, Critérium International and Tour de Romandie, and a second place in Tirreno-Adriatico.

In Porte, Froome not only has an ally and a friend, but a competitive rider who himself has won a stage race this year (Paris-Nice) and finished second in two others (Critérium International and Tour of the Basque Country).

If things continue the way they are going in France – and given Sky’s training methods and strengths, you wouldn’t bet against it – Froome will have another win and Porte another second place ahead of the major target of the season, the Tour.

At the moment, no one else is coming close to matching the Sky duo.

Contador is riding into form but still somewhat short of his best; Alejandro Valverde won the Vuelta a Andalucia in the spring and had a consistent classics campaign, but is still playing catch up; Joaquim Rodriguez has seen his season stuttered by numerous crashes and enters unfamiliar waters (his only previous Tour appearance came in 2010, when he finished seventh) down on form on confidence.

There’s always Australia’s Cadel Evans – but time will tell how the 36-year-old BMC veteran’s body reacts to what was a particularly brutal Giro d’Italia.

At the moment, the safe money’s on a ruthless performer who, after all, perhaps already beat his main rival last week when it was revealed that, for the first time in history, the Tour’s reigning champion will be unable to defend his title.

The Crowd Says:

2013-06-08T07:36:44+00:00

Justin Curran

Roar Rookie


"Everyone' is not handing the yellow jersey to Froome purely on the basis of the Dauphine. Try handing it to him based on his performance at the Dauphine, as well as winning the Tour of Oman, the Criterium International, and Tour de Romandie, not to mention coming second at Tirreno Adriatico. Recent history would suggest that with those kind of early season results, Froome will be very hard to beat at the tour.

2013-06-07T13:25:09+00:00

Abdu

Guest


Can Thomas De Gent time trial? He's one to watch...

AUTHOR

2013-06-07T07:01:32+00:00

Felix Lowe

Expert


Three Aussies in the top four!

2013-06-07T07:00:21+00:00

Abdu

Guest


It seems like everyone has handed the yellow jersey to Froome on the basis of the Dauphine? If so, I guess Rohan Dennis is going to podium as well... Contador is mentally stronger in a GC than Froome, and that is where things will get tough for the Kenyan, sorry Brit. Bertie will have 100% commitment from his team, even then he still won in 2009 despite Armstrong doing everything he could to sabotage him. No one seems to recall that, seems only Wiggo counts. I recall hearing of Juan Pelota commandeering a team bus to ferry his mates after one stage and leaving Bertie to find his way back to the hotel with a Siogneur in the last car... Froome needs to keep looking over his shoulder at Rigoberto, and Richie may be his best mate but would jump at the opportunity to be team leader if Froome faltered. Outside of those two horses, no one's thought about TJ the gardener. Imagine him to full potential with Cadel riding for him (as he well might). Cadel is so quirky that he may well do that. Tommy V is looking good, except for the fact that he's got Pierre Roland breathing down his neck from inside the team too. The V has worn the jersey before, and he knows how to get his team mates working for him. Valv-piti and the Movistar boys could provide a podium place too. I haven't even started talking about Garmin either, they can deliver a GC winner too.

2013-06-07T06:46:19+00:00

rohan

Guest


I count 3 Aussies in the top four. But none of them in GreenEdge.

2013-06-07T03:52:37+00:00

Lee Rodgers

Expert


and well done to the Aussies!

2013-06-07T03:49:42+00:00

Lee Rodgers

Expert


Excellent write up Felix, yet again! Very interesting this, Froome's preparation seems to be spot on, but I think most would agree that Contador is the more naturally talented of the pair, and surely be a few percent better in July. Sky's massive advantage, as noted in the article, is the depth of their squad - it's scary, really. Leopard-Trek were supposed to be the first SuperTeam but no doubt about it, Sky have cracked it. Conty will have to ride super intelligently to not get pulled apart, a tough task in the Tour. Looking forward to this one ;-)

2013-06-07T02:23:57+00:00

Justin Curran

Roar Rookie


Hard to go past Froome for the yellow jersey in Paris next month. Nobody seems close to him. I fear we are in for another one sided tour like last year. Maybe we will see another Sky one, two with the best of the rest scrapping it out for third. With Contador and Rodriguez seemingly out of form, maybe Cadel might be a chance for a podium finish?

2013-06-07T00:16:30+00:00

jameswm

Roar Guru


Two Aussies in the top 4 in the GC? And neither is called Evans.

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