Few would argue against Sky being the strongest team at the Tour de France, as has been the case for a number of years now, but one of the themes of the 2017 edition so far has been the emergence of Romain Bardet's AG2R La Mondiale team as an influential force.
The French team caused mid-stage chaos in the Jura mountains last Sunday, briefly dropping Chris Froome on the descent of the Col de la Biche, and they were back at it today in the Massif Central.
With the stage finishing in Bardet's home region of Haute Loire, the Frenchman, who had also done a reconnaissance in the spring, set his teammates to work on the approach to the first-category Col de Payra Taillade, which peaked 31km from the finish in Le Puy-en-Velay.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The plan was to try and take advantage of a stage I knew well to try and put some of my direct rivals in difficulty," Bardet told reporters in Le Puy-en-Velay.
"The race is very tight so we have to exploit each opportunity and make a difference where we can. We knew the final part of the stage wasn't made for big attacks, so we had to really go full gas for the climb."
Almost immediately, there were splits in the peloton and Chris Froome and Fabio Aru, first and second overall ahead of Bardet, were both caught out. Aru would regain contact quickly but Froome, who also had to change his rear wheel, started the climb 45 seconds adrift and had to burn through teammates and his own resources to rejoin before the summit.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2v8v85o
No comments:
Post a Comment