Chris Froome will win the 2017 Tour de France, barring a disaster in the next three days.
Tour de France standings 2017: Chris Froome will win the yellow jersey barring disaster
The Tour de France is all but over. Warren Barguil won Stage 18 with a courageous effort, but Chris Froome was the biggest winner, all but securing the yellow jersey through Paris.
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
The yellow jersey bearer finished fourth on Stage 18’s mountain top finish in Izoard. More importantly, he will remain No. 1 atop the general classification. The only other day on which his rivals could possibly take significant time from him will be Saturday’s time trial. Unfortunately for them, Froome is among the best in the world against the watch.
Warren Barguil won the day with a courageous solo effort that gave him his second Tour stage victory and cemented one of the most impressive King of the Mountains campaigns of recent memory. He chased down Colombia’s Darwin Atapuma on a blistering Hors Categorie climb up Col d’Izoard, going solo with roughly five kilometers to the summit. He just has to cross the finish line in Paris to win the polka-dot jersey.
The day began with a breakaway of 54-plus riders with no one threatening in it — the highest placed man on the general classification was Brice Feillu at 30 minutes back of Froome. Riders attacked off the front throughout the relatively even-terrained run up to Col de Vars, but never managed to get away. The breakaway had more than eight minutes of the peloton at one point, and gradually gave ground from there.
Team Sky drove the peloton until Col de Vars, at which point AG2R took the reins. Their aim, as it has been throughout the Tour de France, was to wear down Sky and isolate the yellow jersey so that Romain Bardet could outclimb him, one-on-one. Sky stayed strong but they had to work much harder than they would have liked. AG2R quickly picked up the pace, reducing the time gap to the stage leaders to four minutes by the start of the final climb up Col d’Izoard.
AG2R stayed up front on the early slope, Bardet with three teammates and Froome just behind with four. AG2R remained well-positioned until there were under seven kilometers to go, at which point Mathias Frank and Alexis Vuillermoz fell off the back, leaving Bardet on his own to deal with Froome and three of his teammates — Mikel Nieve, Michal Kwiatkowski, and Mikel Landa — and all but assuring he wouldn’t be able enough time take Froome’s jersey in Paris.
Rigoberto Uran, in second place on the general classification stayed on Bardet’s wheel, apparently content to hold his podium position and leave Froome be. The only decisive attack among the general classification contenders came from Landa, who left his teammate behind to pursue his own overall dreams.
That was just fine to Froome, who let Landa go, staying back to mark Bardet and Uran. Bardet made a desperation move, with three kilometers left in the stage — he had to, at that point — but it was fruitless. Froome made a more meaningful attack on a brief descent on the climb, forcing Uran and Bardet to gap and asserting himself as the Tour’s strongest rider.
The biggest heartbreak of the day was Atapuma
Seemingly spurred on by Colombian Independence Day, he entered the Col d’Izoard in a leading breakaway group of 10 riders that included Tony Gallopin, Daniel Navarro, Alexey Lutsenko, and Nicolas Edet. Lutsenko and Edet were the first riders to break free from that group, then Lutsenko went solo with roughly 14 kilometers to the summit, gaining as many 50 seconds on the closest riders.
Atapuma began his assault with under 10 kilometers to go, standing up on his pedals to leave behind Gallopin and Navarro. His form was strong as Lutsenko wavered badly. Atapuma caught Lutsenko quickly, with 6.5 kilometers to go. The stage victory appeared to be his ... that is, until Barguil did to him what he had done to Lutsenko.
The Frenchman set off from the yellow jersey group with roughly six kilometers to the summit and more than a minute to the stage leader. Barguil joined Atapuma with 1.5 kilometers to the finish, and the two managed to ride together for sometime before Barguil surged again and handily won the stage.
For his efforts, Atapuma got a well-earned second place and was awarded the most aggressive rider of the stage. Nonetheless, he had victory in his sights.
Fabio Aru cracks
Aru took the yellow jersey from Froome on Stage 12 and held it for two stages. Now he likely won’t finish on the podium after the new top four on the general classification — Froome, Bardet, Uran, and Landa — distanced themselves from the Italian rider on Col d’Izoard.
Landa jumped ahead of Aru on the standings, the former in fourth and the latter now in fifth. Aru almost certainly won’t finish any higher in three days. And while it’s tough to call a potential top five finish in the Tour de France a “disappointment,” for a few days it really did seem like he might be in yellow jersey form.
Stage 18 results
1. Warren Barguil, Team Subweb - 4h40’33”
2. Darwin Atapuma, UAE Team Emirates - +0:20
3. Romain Bardet, AG2R La Mondiale - “
4. Chris Froome, Team Sky - “
5. Rigoberto Uran, Cannondale-Drapac - +0:22
6. Mikel Landa, Team Sky - +0:32
7. Louis Meintjes, UAE Team Emirates - +0:37
8. Dan Martin, Quick-Step - +0:39
9. Simon Yates, Orica-Scott - +0:59
10. Alberto Contador, Trek-Segafredo - +1:09
General classification after Stage 18
1. Chris Froome, Team Sky - 78h08’19’’
2. Romain Bardet, AG2R La Mondiale - +00’23’’
3. Rigoberto Uran, Cannondale - +00’29’’
4. Mikel Landa, Team Sky - +01’36’’
5. Fabio Aru, Astana - +01’55’’
6. Daniel Martin, Quick-Step - +02’56’’
7. Simon Yates - Orica-Scott - +04’46’’
8. Louis Meintjes, Team Emirates - +06’52’’
9. Warren Barguil, Team Sunweb - +08’22”
10. Alberto Contador, Trek-Segafredo - +08’34”
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