Romain Bardet on Sunday insisted he was happy with his team, despite missing an opportunity to put Tour de France leader Chris Froome in serious difficulty on a 15th stage won by Trek-Segafredo’s Bauke Mollema in a solo breakaway.
Team Sky’s Froome had a mechanical problem 50km from the end of the stage just as Bardet’s AG2R-La Mondiale team was pushing the pace on the front of the peloton.
The problem had initially seen Froome distanced before he finally had to stop to change a wheel, taking one from teammate Michal Kwiatkowski before continuing.
Photo: AP
At that point he was 50 seconds behind his main rivals for overall victory, but while Froome’s teammates dropped back to help pace him back up to the peloton, Bardet’s team failed to set a high enough pace to distance the Briton once and for all.
“We knew that after the climb it wasn’t ideal for big attacks, so we had to really dig deep on the climb,” said the Frenchman, who is third, 23 seconds back. “The team really worked hard and we can be proud of what we did. I’m doing my best, it’s really tough, it’s the biggest race in the world. You have to stay humble before the event, and I’m just trying to do my best and we’ll see where that takes me in a week’s time.”
For many observers, though, it seemed to be an opportunity missed for Froome’s main rivals, who could have worked together on the climb to prevent him regaining contact, something he himself feared.
“If I didn’t get back, I wouldn’t expect to be in yellow this evening,” Froome said. “I knew if I didn’t get back to the group before the top of the climb, we could be looking at some pretty big losses — so it was critical.”
Bardet was one of the riders to put in a dig once Froome had rejoined the leaders 30km from the finish, but that was without really committing.
Asked why his rivals did not capitalize on his misfortune, Froome said he felt they were more interested in getting rid of Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, who cracked on the climb and went on to lose almost four minutes.
“There was a lot happening in that front group, of course Nairo Quintana had been dropped. A lot of people in that group were happy to try to distance him,” Froome said. “Certainly in the final, once we hit the category 4 climb with 14km to go, Romain Bardet tried, Rigoberto [Uran] tried over the top — I wouldn’t say the GC [general classification] guys didn’t try today. They certainly did, also Romain Bardet on the main climb tried over the top, but with the climb being so far from the finish, I think everyone was hesitant to make such a big effort knowing there was a lot of road to cover.”
In the end, Quintana dropped from eighth to 11th, 6 minutes, 16 seconds behind Froome.
“The head is what guides you, but if the body doesn’t respond, it doesn’t respond,” the dejected Colombian said. “We’ll keep fighting and keep going forward, always without giving up.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but