After Froome and Sky blew the peloton to pieces on Stage 8, they swapped roles on Stage 9.
From the very first climb Sky were in a world of pain. Largely thanks to the work of Orica-Greenedge, Movistar and Saxo-Tinkoff.
Froome was quickly left with only his lieutenant, Richie Porte, in support. It wasn’t long before Porte too was dropped, leaving Froome all alone.
Then the pain was well and truly applied by the young Quintana who continually attacked Froome on the final climb.
For everything the experts have said about Sky and their dominance, it didn’t take long for that to be dispelled.
Sky simply aren’t the force they were last year.
Their monster efforts in Stage 8 well and truly showed on Sunday afternoon as they fell to pieces.
And perhaps the most disturbing part of the day for Froome was the form of his rivals. Contador sat with him the entire stage, saying he felt good but not strong enough to attack.
Evans, although dropped early, fought his way back to sit comfortably behind Froome and mark him whenever he chased Quintana.
Even Andy Schleck was alongside him. Contador is perhaps the biggest danger now. At 1:51 and plenty of climbs left the Spaniard could easily hit form and put the hurt into Froome.
Even Cadel Evans, although it would be a minor miracle, could put some time into the Briton.
Evans isn’t known for attacking but has made unbelievable comebacks before.
The 2011 climb up the Galibier comes to mind as well as the epic Stage 19 up the Alpe d’Huez when he chased and chased after a number of mechanicals.
Froome’s still a very good rider and he won’t surrender the yellow jersey very easily but one has to wonder how much is left in the tank after Stage 8 and 9.
Both Schleck and Evans won’t be marked as closely as Contador. Their distance from Froome means they will have a little more room to move.
One observation from Stage 9 was that when Froome was isolated he would only chase Valverde and Quintana due to their GC threat.
So it appears the formula is both complicated and simple. Firstly isolate Froome which is the complicated part depending on the ability of his teammates to stick with him.
Secondly attack the living daylights out of him. Last year this wasn’t done anywhere near enough to Wiggins.
They allowed Sky to control everything resulting in quite a boring finish to the tour.
If Stage 9 is anything to go by it will be a fight to the near death all the way onto the Champs-Elysees.
You never know if it so happens that mere seconds separate first and second we may see a repeat of Joop Zoetemelk and Bernard Hinault in 1979.
One thing is for sure, there’s still two weeks of racing left and plenty can happen in that amount of time.
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