1. Froome won the Tour de France at La Pierre-Saint-Martin, not in the Netherlands
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. When Chris Froome’s final margin of victory was confirmed at 1:12, many were moved to claim that the Sky rider had effectively won the race on stage 2 in Zeeland, where Nairo Quintana (Movistar) incurred his single greatest loss of time of the entire Tour, conceding 1:28 after getting caught out in the crosswinds.
The figures add up, of course, but a three-week bike race cannot be reduced to a simple mathematical equation. Nothing ever happens in a vacuum at the Tour. Swings in morale and confidence can feel as decisive as the seconds won and lost. Context is everything.
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Despite his later claims, Quintana would surely have settled before the Tour began to reach the end of a tense opening week in 9th place overall and just under two minutes off the yellow jersey. With his favoured terrain of the Pyrenees and Alps to come, Quintana was rightly billed as Froome’s principal challenger and a duel for the ages seemed in prospect.
The very first mountain of the race, however, would bring that illusion to an abrupt halt. Quintana’s Movistar squad made the running at the base of La Pierre-Saint-Martin on stage 10, confident that the Colombian was about to begin his comeback in earnest. What followed was a startling – and ultimately decisive – reversal.
Sky’s Richie Porte took over midway up the climb and set up Froome’s attack with 6.5 kilometres remaining. Only Quintana could follow the yellow jersey but he, too, would have to give best, distanced by Froome’s astounding cadence. By the summit, Quintana would lose 1:04 (plus a further 6 seconds in bonuses) to Froome, and to add insult to considerable injury, he would be caught and passed by Porte in the final kilometre.
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