There were rumours that last year’s Tour de France was so bereft of challengers to Sky’s Christopher Froome because the usual suspects felt that he could not be beaten. Has anything really changed 12 months on?
Compare the Kenyan-born Briton’s record from 2013 from his first race until the Tour with the same period this year and things look frighteningly similar.
In 2013, Froome was first at the Tour of Oman and won Stage 5. This year Froome won the overall and Stage 5 once again.
Last year he won the Tour of Romandie and snagged the opening prologue. This year? He won the GC there again and also claimed Stage 5, a team time trial.
Last year he won the Criterium du Dauphine overall and took the flag on Stage 5. This year he produced a startling result in the prologue to claim Yellow early on and then consolidated that with a win on Stage 2, edging out Alberto Contador in the final metres.
“It was really tough between the two of us,” said Froome after the stage. “I’ve tried to attack him a couple of times but he was very strong.
“Everyone here is almost at the same level as at the Tour de France. Today it was our first duel with the two of us in form, so I’m delighted to win in these circumstances.”
Froome’s rides on Stages 1 and 2 were quite remarkable. The time trial win saw him beat Contador by eight seconds and drew gasps from the commentators. On Stage 2 we saw a “breathtaking” attack from Froome with five kilometres to go that had he and Contador sprinting for almost one kilometre.
It was like they were going for the line on a flat stage.
Similarily, Contador was described as looking “as fresh as a daisy” by the commentator on Eurosport just after the attack, which he withstood gallantly. Ultimately, it was another win for the Briton and another warning shot across the front wheels of his rivals.
Froome will have to deal with a clearly resurgent Contador at the Tour de France this year. The Spaniard is enjoying his best pre-Tour period since 2003, having won Tirreno-Adriatico and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and finished second at the Volta Algarve and Volta Catalunya.
“In terms of efficiency, I’ve never done so well so far,” he said when asked about his successful early season. “I’ve had great opportunities to perform in time trials and mountain stages, and I’ve seized them thanks to the completely different off-season I’ve had compared to the three or four previous years.”
The three or four previous years followed his positive test for Clenbuterol, and coincided with his leanest period in terms of trophies. For anyone new to the sport, it might be hard to believe just how dominant the slight and slender Spaniard was up until September 2010.
He had worked to master the art of time trialing and welded that to a raw talent for going up hills like a rocket, transforming himself into the preeminent stage racer of his generation.
It wasn’t so much a question of if he would win the next Grand Tour he entered but of how many he would win in his career. But every cyclist knows that you are only as good as your last result, and whatever Contador has done in the build-up to this year’s Tour, it is clearly working.
On the evidence so far he is the only viable challenger to Froome for this year’s title. Yet he still looks a little fragile, which may be down more to Froome’s current mastery of the finish line than anything else.
Froome’s performances are often described as incredible, but then so too was Contador’s reaction to yesterday’s attack.
I have no intention of leaving any room there for reading between the lines, so let’s state that we cycling fans have a bit of history with incredible performances, and that is just the way things are. Froome himself recently called for more testing for riders training alone or out of competition in the pre-Tour period, which is an encouraging sign and indicative that he too wants to silence the doubters.
Sadly, many cycling fans just do not trust test results. This is one reason why the arrival of The Tour, the greatest bike race on earth, comes with a sliver of doubt threaded through the frisson of excitement.
So can Contador beat Froome, in the hills at least? And if so, will Froome’s dominance in the time trial be enough to snatch the win? Will Sky regret leaving out Bradley Wiggins, if indeed they do?
We saw yesterday that Froome had to chase at times as he was isolated. Right now he has the strength to chase anything, but a three-week stage race is different to a seven-day event.
We’ll see soon enough. There is a feeling that this Tour needs to deliver a close race. The previous two have been somewhat of a procession for Sky, with Wiggins winning in 2012 and Froome last year.
Without challengers, without chinks in the armour and without any trace of a sense of humour, Sky are running the risk of taking all the fun out of the great old race.
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