History repeated itself on stage 13 of the Tour de France on Friday as Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) launched a long-distance mountain attack that threatened to destabilize the GC and allowed the Spaniard to enjoy a day off the front of the bunch.
Contador could not win the stage, finally taking third, but his move had distinct echoes of other death-or-glory moves that he has carried out in the past. One Spanish TV crew even asked him, jokingly, if he would always attack like that on stages beginning with F - starting with the Fuente De attack in the Vuelta in 2012, continuing with that of Formigal in 2016 in the Vuelta, and today in the Tour de France, to Foix.
This latest reckless attack began 75 kilometres from the finish, close to the top of the Col de Latrape. Contador bounced off the front of the peloton, quickly sweeping up to Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) and quickly shadowed by Sky's Mikel Landa.
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Chris Froome's prediction that the Trek-Segafredo leader would make such a long-distance move proved 100 per cent correct, therefore, even if the Spaniard's GC position at more than seven minutes back means the battle for the overall is no longer one that Contador can win.
Contador's seeming affinity with the role of kingmaker remains intact, however, as he worked with Landa to open up their lead of well over two and a half minutes. Landa was, at that point, all but able to don the maillot jaune virtuel, although a concerted counter-charge behind, partly by Sky teammates Michal Kwiatkowski and Froome in person as they tried to test leader Fabio Aru (Astana), meant Landa's GC gains were finally limited to moving up from seventh to fifth overall.
But when Barguil reconnected with Landa and Contador, near the summit of the Mur de Peguere, partly thanks to a stronger-than-expected ride by reviving GC challenger and joint attacker, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), that at least all but ensured the break of the day would stay away to the finish.
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