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Published on Monday, 15 July 2013 17:41

Rest Day 2 update: VaVaFroome. Sky's leader on another planet.

What can you say about Chris Froome's ride yesterday up Ventoux that hasn't been said in the 24 hours since he obliterated the field once again? He has now a buffer of over 4 minutes to Bauke Mollema, who he should have no fear of in the week ahead.

What an incredible week's racing it has been again since last Monday's rest day. It started with a bang for Tom Veelers on Tuesday as Mark Cavendish let him know that he shouldn't try any shenanigans on him in the dash for the line, sending him crashing to the tarmac with a thump after colliding with Cav's shoulder. In the hysteria about that incident it shouldn't be forgotten that a 'new' sprinting superstar surged past Greipel in the last 20 meters to take the stage in to St Malo. I say 'new' as people go on about Marcel Kittel as if it was his first year as a pro.. Anyone who follows their cycling close enough would know that he has been a superstar in the making for a few years now, just didn't get a chance to shine on last years' tour due to stomach problems.

Wednesday saw the natural order of things restored in the individual time trial, with world time trial champion Tony Martin crushing almost the entire field by at least a minute. Almost the entire field, but not quite, as Froome gave him quite a scare - even having the audacity to lead at the first two check points! But Martin's killer final third (averaged over 56kmph!) together with possibly Froome deciding he didn't want the media scrum that goes with winning the stage, saw Martin win by a comfy 14 seconds in the end. Ride of the day went to Thomas de Gendt who took 3rd, he was 90/1 to finish in the top 3 betting!

Thursday took the riders of the Tour on to Tours and we saw something quite extraordinary in the final sprint - Cavendish launched himself towards the line, was clear of Greipel and Sagan and traded at 1/100 to win the stage on betfair as some punters obviously thought 'game over'. But then they must have stared in disbelief like the rest of us (including Cavendish!) as Kittel came to the boil and launched himself past him on the line. A stunning victory for Kittel, his fourth on the Tour and the third in a row for German riders.

Friday saw an incredibly aggressive days racing on what was expected to be a boring flat stage! It all kicked off around the 56km mark when OPQS put the hammer down, along with Saxo on some cross winds and caused the race to split in to three groups. Most significantly at that stage was the fact that Marcel Kittel and Greipel had missed the split, so OPQS and Cannondale kept drilling it at the front to prevent them getting back on again, no matter how hard Lotto-Belisol and Argos-Shimano pushed it.

Then the second major drama of the stage happened when, as according to Mick Rogers, he looked at the way the peloton was, had a quick chat with Alberto and his team mates, and they went for it big time causing a split in the remnants of the peloton. There was one significant camera shot though as you could see Mark Cavendish just latching on to the tail of the split as in the background Froome pulls over and gives up trying to bridge. It turns out that apparently Kwiatkowski gave Cav a sling forward in order for him to catch the group! With Saxo turning the little group they had in to a team time trial they took it all the way to the finish where Sagan (once again in the right place at the right time for the split) lead out the sprint only to be easily passed by Cav to take the win. A tremendous performance by Saxo saw them pull back 1'09" on Froome for Contador and Mollema.

Big losers on the day were Movistar with Valverde having a mechanical at just the moment when Saxo started to pull hard. Almost the whole team (excluding Quintana who had stayed with Froome's group) came to try to pace him back on but failed miserably, eventually losing almost 10 minutes, ending Valverde's hopes, as well as losing their place as the leading team to Saxo-Tinkoff.  

Stage 14 in to Lyon on Saturday saw the breakaway I predicted, with two of my candidates, Albasini and Bak giving me reason to get excited as the finish loomed. Julien Simon tried his best to give the French their first stage win but it came down to a sprint finish after a tremendous battle inside the last few kilometers. Albasini bridged to Simon, then sat up and let Burghardt and Bakelants come back at him. Then he looked the winner in the sprint only for Trentin to power up the other side of the road and mug him on the line for Italy's first stage win since 2010.

Then on to Sunday and Ventoux. The French gave it a go, with three of my picks - Chavanel, Roy and Riblon in the break, but after Rolland failed to get across to the break, europecar, for about the first time in the whole tour, decided to show themselves at the front and kept the time gap low enough to ensure they would be caught on the lower slopes. Chavanel tried one last hurrah but suffered like a dog, then things kicked off behind him - Quintana attacked, Sky kept pace with Kennaugh doing a superb job before literally almost coming to a standstill when he pulled over. Porte took up pulling duties and blew the race to pieces - only Contador and Froome could stay with him. Then Froome spun away from Contador like he was a junior rider, bridged to Quintana in no time, before toying with him for a while, encouraging him to keep riding. He attacked once in a blur of spinning spindly legs but Quintana came back at him. He tried again with about 2km to go and that was it. Quintana cracked and Froome rode away to glory and a media frenzy as he was 'too fast'. Contador buckled too near the summit, with Nieve and Rodriguez fighting out 3rd and 4th behind Quintana. 

So an incredible week of action left us all breathless and looking for more. An interesting point about the GC is that if you took Froome out of the equation it would be one of the most exciting Tours in many, many years - only 50 seconds seperate places 2 - 5 and only 4'14" separate places 2-10. But Froome rightfully deserves to be leading by as much as he is - his two performances on the two summit finishes have been extra-ordinary. His performance in the TT was stunning, leading for most of the way. His team have been hit and miss, but they were there when it counted on Ventoux when his rivals were supposed to put him to the sword. 

Valverde is out of it now, but truth be told, never looked in it - Quintana is the team leader now and will be for many years to come you would think. A future tour winner right there. Evans has struggled, but is still in 16th place, commendable given the exertions of his performance in the Giro. Van Garderen has worked back a little form after his disastrous start. The Belkin boys have been sensational - what a way to pay back a new sponsors faith, to have two riders in the top five and a real chance of a podium place in Bauke Mollema. Saxo have been strong and intelligent, but Contador is not the Contador of old, thankfully you could say. Peraud has ridden solidly for AG2R and has slipped in to 9th place, and Jacob Fuglsang has also been sensational to be sitting in 7th place with just 6 stages left. 

So barring incidents and accidents, it looks all over. We may see Mollema slip down the order by the end of the week, but it also wouldn't suprise me if he stays in 2nd. There will be some reshuffling of the top 15 given the tough mountain stages to come, including the mountain TT, so it is all to play for from positions 2 onwards!

Here's to a great last week's racing.