Poor positioning by Fabio Aru (Astana) on the tricky stage 14 uphill finish in Rodez has cost the Italian champion his overall lead in the Tour de France, with the coveted yellow jersey passing back to Chris Froome (Team Sky) once more.
French TV commentator and former pro Laurent Jalabert pointed out repeatedly that there was no sign of Aru near the front of the race as the peloton hurtled down towards Rodez and its short, punchy final ascent. As the camera swept back along the strung-out bunch, there was no sign of the Sardinian-born rider anywhere in the front 40 riders.
He next appeared on the TV screens crossing the line in 30th place, 25 seconds down on stage winner Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and, crucially, 24 seconds down on Froome. In less than a kilometre - just like at Peyragudes, where Froome had all but disintegrated on the final ascent to the runway finish line - the GC standings see-sawed back in favour of the Briton by a margin of 18 seconds. Still not much, but triple the size of Aru's lead for the previous 48 hours.
ADVERTISEMENT
There was much speculation on French TV, too, as to whether Astana team manager Alexandre Vinokourov had deliberately instructed Aru to stay well back in the hope that Aru would lose the yellow jersey by the minimum time possible. That way, so the theory went, Aru and the Kazakh squad would force Team Sky to spend more energy en route to the final showdown in the Alps and at the Marseille time trial.
If so, the unconfirmed tactic went decidedly awry, given how much time Froome gained on the Italian, and certainly Aru did not appear to be in any way delighted at having lost his lead.
Instead, after crossing the finish line looking more exhausted than might have been expected following his show of strength in the Pyrenees, and then learning how much time he had lost, Aru promptly rode all the way to the Astana team bus. He then only talked to journalists after he had begun his warm-down on the trainer.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2tWibgo
No comments:
Post a Comment