The final days of the Tour de France have always been about the haves and the have nots. After two and a half weeks of accumulated fatigue, some riders retain their vim better than others, and prosper accordingly. Those running on fumes tend to suffer. It is, after all, an endurance event.
On Wednesday's tough summit finish at Finhaut-Emosson, Chris Froome (Sky) certainly seemed to be drawing on deeper reservoirs of energy than most of his rivals for the yellow jersey. When Richie Porte (BMC) attacked as the road steepened in the final two kilometres, only Froome could bridge across, while Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) were distanced.
Froome crossed the line alongside Porte to add another handful of seconds to his overall advantage – he now leads Mollema by 2:27, while the fourth-placed Quintana trails by 3:27 – but Tours are not won by working the clock alone: breaking the morale of rivals is a useful part of a yellow jersey's armoury, too.
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It must certainly have been dispiriting for Quintana, the man expected to mount the most serious challenge, to find that Froome's domestique Wout Poels, having controlled the yellow jersey group most of the way up the final climb, was still strong enough to manage the race when the flurry of attacks began in the closing kilometres.
The depth of the Sky team has been a constant since the squad began its remarkable sequence of Tour success in 2012, but its superiority this year has been particularly striking, with Poels, Geraint Thomas, Sergio Henao, Mikel Landa and Mikel Nieve providing Froome with a level of support simply unavailable to others.
"I think one of the big differences with our team, when I compare it to other teams, is that all eight teammates of mine are focused on one goal. If you look at other teams, they've got a sprinter, they've got two GC riders, they're trying to put guys in the break for stages," Froome said after the finish on Wednesday. "There's a lot of different things happening but I've got eight guys, nine including me, dedicated to one goal and that makes a big difference."
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