Froome edges nearer Tour de France legends
With his fourth win, Chris Froome moved to within one title of race legends Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Before the 1961 Tour, Anquetil, who had won it in 1957, famously declared that he would claim the race leader’s yellow jersey on day one and wear it until the finish line.
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It was a noble boast as the field contained previous winners Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes.
Anquetil’s subsequent performance matched his bravado. Three more titles followed in 1961, 1962 and 1963.
Froome has emulated Anquetil by winning a third consecutive crown. However the soft spoken Briton eschews braggadocio.
Before the first stage in Dusseldorf on 1 July, Froome stressed the competitiveness in the 2017 fest.
“I don’t think this year’s course necessarily suits me as well as previous Tour de France courses have,” he told CyclingTips. “I say that because of the lack of mountain top finishes and also the lack of time trial kilometres. Having said that, it means that it’s going to be a lot closer race and lot more exciting for the fans.”
Froome’s Sky teammate Geraint Thomas won the 14 kilometre first stage in 16 minutes and four seconds. Froome was sixth in 16 minutes and 16 seconds.
It was 32-year-old Thomas’s first stage win in 10 years on the tour. And the first time he had worn the yellow jersey.
“I grew up watching the Tour de France and that’s what got me into cycling. To be putting on the yellow jersey is the stuff of dreams.”
Thomas wore yellow until the end of the fourth stage. When the Tour finished the fifth stage in La Planche des Belles Filles, Froome had seized the lead from Thomas.
The 32-year-old kept it until the end of the 12th stage in Pau when Fabio Aru got ahead of him. The Italian led by six seconds. Nineteen seconds behind Froome lurked the 26-year-old Frenchman Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran was 10 seconds adrift of Bardet.
The uncertainty Froome had identified was evident for all to witness. Aru held off Froome for two more stages before the three time champion reclaimed the lead in the 14th stage between Blagnac and Rodez on 15 July.
Once regained, Froome would never relinquish it. With less than 30 seconds separating Froome from Bardet and Uran, the 22.5 km time trial in the penultimate stage in Marseille was the last chance for a change of fortune.
Froome crushed his rivals. Maciej Bodnar of the Bora-Hansgrohe team will go down in the record books as the stage winner. Froome finished third, six seconds behind the 32-year-old Pole and more importantly 25 seconds ahead of Uran and nearly two minutes in front of Bardet.
After 3,437km up and down the mountains and along the fields and glades of France, the game was as good as up. The partisans would have to wait at least another year for a local boy to do well. A Kenyan-born Briton was again king of France.
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