The setting for the finish of stage 12 of the Tour de France, a vertiginous altiport runway in Peyragudes, proved to be as apposite as it was breathtaking. Part of the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, was shot here, and that message of hope rang out as Chris Froome (Team Sky) slipped out of the maillot jaune and the Tour was turned on its head.
Hope, of course, for Froome's rivals – Fabio Aru (Astana) now leads the race, while Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) won the stage and is poised in third place at 25 seconds – but also hope for spectacle, hope for something different.
For the 214 kilometres that preceded that vicious drag to the line, the first of two stages in the Pyrenees followed a script most of us can reel off by heart. It was essentially one long Sky lead-out train, with Luke Rowe and Christian Knees leading the race over the Col de Menté before the climbers peeled off one-by-one over the Porte de Balés and the final hike to Peyragudes via the Col de Peyresourde.
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With so little suspense or excitement all day – only the briefest of early attacks from Alberto Contador caused ripples in the press room – Froome’s disintegration in the final couple of hundred metres came as quite a shock. Rarely has he looked as uncomfortable as he did here, losing an alarming amount of ground in such a short space of time, and slipping to second overall at six seconds.
The three-time champion, divested of the yellow jersey and therefore the need to hang around at anti-doping or the media mixed zone, pedalled his way up to the Team Sky bus, where a huge scrum of reporters had gathered. When he stepped off the bus to sit down on a chair to answer questions, the ensuing surge was such that he stood up again and went to his turbo trainer to warm down instead.
Ten minutes later, he came over to the waiting media, and they didn't make the same mistake twice.
Ambush territory
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