Froome in control but BMC wins time trial
Print Edition
Chris Froome stayed firmly on track for the Tour de France title when he retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after the ninth stage, a 28-kilometer team time trial won by the slimmest of margins by BMC Racing yesterday.
Heading into today’s rest day, Froome has the edge over his main rivals, who were hoping to take advantage of the Briton’s supposed weaknesses in the tricky opening block of racing.
The 2013 champion will now be keen to all but wrap up the race as it goes into the mountains — the Pyrenees in the second week and the Alps in the third.
Yesterday, BMC Racing clocked 32 minutes 15 seconds to beat Sky by one second and Froome now leads American Tejay van Garderen by 12 seconds overall.
“We knew we were on a good one, on a perfect day we would have taken yellow too, but still a great win,” said BMC Racing leader Van Garderen.
“In a perfect world I would have taken the jersey,” added Van Garderen, who was hoping to become the first American since the disgraced Floyd Landis in 2006 to be Tour overall leader.
Movistar took third place, four seconds behind, as Colombian climber Nairo Quintana limited the damage caused by Froome and Van Garderen, even gaining ground on Spain’s Alberto Contador and struggling defending champion Vincenzo Nibali of Italy.
Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxo team was fourth, 28 seconds adrift, and Nibali’s Astana outfit ended up fifth, 35 seconds off the pace after a demanding time trial that ended up the Cote de Cadoudal, a brutal 1.7-km ascent at an average gradient of 6.2 percent.
Contador, looking to achieve a rare Giro d’Italia/Tour double, is fifth overall 1:03 behind Froome, while Quintana, regarded as the Briton’s toughest opponent in the climbs, is ninth and 1:59 off the pace.
Sky had a five-second edge at the foot of the final climb to the finish in Plumelec but Ireland’s Nicolas Roche cracked under the pace set by Welshman Geraint Thomas and his teammates had to slow down to wait for him.
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