Chris Froome used the first tough mountain stage to take command of the Tour de France on Saturday, leaving two-time champion Alberto Contador and other challengers in his wake on a grueling climb in the Pyrenees to seize the leader’s yellow jersey with a dominant win on the eighth stage.
Froome entered the Tour as the favorite after finishing second last year behind countryman and Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins, who is not defending his title because of an injury. After Froome’s performance on Saturday, the race looks like it is his to lose.
“I must be among the happiest men in the world today,” Froome said. “There’s a long way to go until Paris. There are two weeks left, but we want to keep the yellow jersey.”
Photo: Reuters
Froome leads Contador by nearly two minutes, with former champions Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans much further back, ahead of another tough mountain stage yesterday.
“More than anything, today we’ve got a bit of a psychological advantage over the others,” Froome said. “It’s quite hard to think about this, standing in yellow today. This is incredible.”
In the overall standings, Froome is 51 seconds ahead of teammate Richie Porte and leads third-place Alejandro Valverde by 1 minute, 25 seconds. Meanwhile, Contador is 1:51 behind in seventh spot; Schleck is 4:00 back in 21st and Evans is 4:36 adrift in 23rd.
This is the 100th edition of the Tour — and the first since Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven straight titles (1999-2005) for doping. Froome’s ride on Saturday resembled Armstrong at his best, when the American used to punish his opponents early in the race to take control.
Froome was asked after the stage to vouch that he is riding clean.
“One hundred percent,” he said.
“It’s normal that people ask questions in cycling,” Froome said. “I certainly know the results I’m getting, they’re not going to be stripped ... I think the sport [has] changed. If you look at it logically, the sport is in a better place now than it has been.”
The 28-year-old Froome attacked early into the day’s second big climb up to Ax 3 Domaines and only Porte, who finished the stage 51 seconds behind in second, was anywhere near him.
“The team was absolutely perfect today,” Porte said. “I’m absolutely finished, but it was an incredible day.”
Contador grimly held on as long as he could, and was dropped by Froome long after 2010 champion Schleck and 2011 champion Evans had already been left behind.
“I tried to find my rhythm because it was a bit too fast for me,” Schleck said.
Froome took the yellow jersey from South African cyclist Daryl Impey, who crawled over the line 7:50 behind in 35th spot.
“It’s very good that Chris has it, we are friends and we’ve often trained together,” Impey said. “I didn’t think it was possible to stay with them. I defended it as best I could — I had a pretty good climb up the hill, but then you can’t do it anymore.”
Contador finished the stage 1:45 behind Froome, Schleck trailed by 3:34 and the 36-year-old Evans was 4:13 adrift.
Given that Froome may attack again in yesterday’s second tough bout of Pyrenean climbs — featuring four straight category 1 ascents — he could be well on the way to victory by today’s rest day.
“I think we’re well poised,” Froome said. “We’re going to have to fight for it, but I’m confident in the team we have.”
Saturday’s 195km trek started from Castres and stayed flat for a long time before spiking upward. The Col de Pailheres came first — a ferociously tough ascent for about 15km at a gradient of 8 percent — and then a shorter, but even steeper ride to the finish at the ski resort of Ax 3 Domaines.
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