In Modane for the start of the Tour de France’s penultimate stage of 2015, Movistar sat in the enviable position of having two riders on the podium and leading the best young rider and team classifications. Half way up the Col de la Croix de Fer, it appeared the team would be taking a conservative approach on the road to the Alpe d’Huez finish to preserve the bounty awaiting them in Paris.
Alejandro Valverde, distinguishable from his teammates with a red and yellow sash around his midriff to signify his status as Spanish national champion, stopped admiring the view on the Croix de Fer and danced his way out of the yellow jersey group.
Valverde’s acceleration would soon be followed by Nairo Quintana who bridged across to his teammate and the duo quickly went about building their advantage of the chasers, including an isolated Chris Froome.
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This particular roll of the dice from Movistar didn’t pay off, with the move over by the summit of the hors catégorie climb, but was a signal of intent from the team to take the fight to Sky and Froome.
“We had our last shot at the final victory [we] tried a long attack on the Croix de Fer and also at L'Alpe d'Huez, but it was actually a stage where Froome had domestiques on top of their game and our final chances to turn things around were done," Movistar’s team manager Eusebio Unzué said of the final opportunity the team had for overall victory.
Quintana was able to extract over a minute on Froome up the Alpe but taking 2:38 on the 13.8km climb for victory was always going to be a tough ask.
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