After three tough days in the Pyrenees, Chris Froome (Team Sky) and the other podium contenders would have had the long haul from Murat to Rodez earmarked as a transitional stage, but at the modern Tour de France, it seems, such luxuries no longer exist.
The day began promisingly enough in that regard, when an early break featuring régional de l'étape Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) sallied clear amid soaring temperatures, but as the puncheurs’ teams laboured to peg them back in the finale, the yellow jersey and his rivals were compelled to assume their habitual positions at the front.
Froome was present and correct when the peloton fragmented on the sharp final rise to the finish on the Côte Saint-Pierre, and he went on to place sixth on the stage, seven seconds down on winner Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), and at the head of a small group that included Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
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“What started as easier day turned into a mad dash to line as the peloton panicked when it hadn’t caught the break,” Froome said. “It definitely ended being a selective day, a hard day, and there were tired legs given the last three stages we’ve done. Everyone was hoping for an easy day but it didn’t happen.”
The Tour reached the fringe of the Massif Central by day’s end. The roads in this region are both undulating and notoriously heavy, though the greatest obstacle of all turned out to be the extreme heat. The canicule sweeping across France exacted a toll on the peloton. In sepia-tinted eras, they might have stopped to cool themselves in the Agout river en route, but the television age offers no such respite.
“The heat was a big factor, it was 40 degrees,” Froome said. “We were sending guys back to the car to get drinks every 10 to 15 minutes and even that wasn’t enough.”
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