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Tour de France standings 2017: Chris Froome loses yellow jersey to Fabio Aru at Peyragudes

Chris Froome cracked in the final meters of Stage 12, flipping the Tour de France on its head.

Jul 13, 2017, 3:07 PM UTC

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Stage 12 of the Tour de France appeared to be a day without drama, then it cracked wide open in the final meters to the finish line in Peyragudes. Isolated, yellow jersey bearer Chris Froome fell off the back as Romain Bardet and Fabio Aru battled on gradients over 16 percent. Bardet took the stage, but Aru got the yellow jersey. Both got time bonuses, putting them in position to take down Froome in Paris.

Froome and Team Sky had seemingly neutralized their rivals. Eight kilometers to the finish, a strong solo breakaway by Stephen Cummings was finally caught. An elite lead group then formed — Froome, Aru, Bardet, Rigoberto Uran, Daniel Martin, Simon Yates, Mikel Landa George Bennett, Louis Meintjes, Alberto Contador, and Mike Nieve. With Nieve and Landa by his side, Froome was the only member of that group with teammates, putting the yellow jersey in perfect position to win the stage and buffer his lead.

Nieve was able to pull the group with no concern about his own placement in the general classification, driving a hard pace that was impossible to attack. Contador was the first to crack under the tempo, falling off the back just before the top of the Col de Peyresourdes with five kilometers and a Category 2 climb to go to Peyragudes.

Then Landa took his turn pacing the riders to the finish line. Unlike Nieve, however, Landa was less than faithful to Froome, bolting away from his team leader and leaving Froome to fend for himself. For the first time in a long time, Froome didn’t have the strength. He finished seventh on the stage, while Landa finished fourth.

Martin began the final finishing moves, making an acceleration with roughly 500 meters to the line. Aru followed then passed him, then had Bardet on his wheel. Bardet then chugged his way through Aru, proving once again that when gradients are at their absolute steepest — whether going uphill or down — the Frenchman may be the best in the world.

The stage began with a clean breakaway of 11 riders that held a gap until blowing up on the Hors Catégorie climb to Port de Balès. The riders were Cyril Gautier, Diego Ulissis, Nils Politt, Koen de Kort, Imanol Erviti, Stefan Kueng, Tomas de Gendt, Julien Simon, Jack Bauer, Stephen Cummings, and Michael Matthews. With 5.5 kilometers to the summit, De Gendt went solo and Cummings followed. Then Cummings left De Gendt and began the only threatening solo bid for the stage.

In the peloton, the attacks on Port de Balès were largely toothless. Brice Feillu and Maxime Bouet made moves, but were hauled in. Warren Barguil broke off the collect his King of the Mountain points then promptly allowed himself to be swallowed back up by the peloton. The stage would save its firework for the final kilometers.

Roughly 13 kilometers before the finish, on the Col de Peyresourdes, Chris Froome’s teammates led him to overshoot a tight corner and into a row of campers. Fabio Aru followed right behind. Fortunately for them, the peloton waited, even though at that point it’d be hard to blame it for taking advantage of Sky’s mistake. Alas, the unwritten rules overruled everybody’s race instincts.

Yuh know, sportsmanship is a fine thing, but at some point shouldn’t someone other than Froome try to win the race? If they had, Froome’s Tour might have effectively been over. Aru is now six seconds ahead of Froome, who is now in second place. Bardet is 25 seconds out of yellow.

Uran, who nipped Aru at the line for second, is in fourth at 55 seconds back from the yellow jersey. He and George Bennett were given 20-second penalties for reasons yet unknown.

As is, the Tour just got A LOT more interesting. Not only did Froome appear weaker on a Tour stage than we’ve seen him in years, but there now may be some discontent among Sky’s ranks. It will certainly be an interesting dinner tonight among Landa and his teammates, who might be wondering now what designs the Spaniard has for his own ambitions, this Tour and beyond.