And so to the Alps. When the Tour de France route was unveiled last October, Christian Prudhomme's great hope was that the spoils would only be decided in the four arduous stages between the rest day and Paris, a grandstand finish of the kind that, in truth, has rarely been seen over the years at this race.
Instead, with Chris Froome seemingly impregnable atop the overall standings and his Team Sky guard swatting aside all-comers, it is difficult to shake off the sense that the race for yellow might already be run. Yet, there is a discernible sense of déjà vu, too, about the lie of the land as the Tour reaches its final rounds.
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) lies in an impressive and deserved second place overall, but Nairo Quintana (Movistar), despite his subdued showing to date, remains the most realistic threat to Froome's pre-eminence for now. The prize fight topping the bill is still the third instalment of Froome versus Quintana. A year ago, after all, Quintana reached the same point in the Tour with roughly the same deficit (2:59) to Froome and broadly similar terrain (four days in the Alps) in which to make up the ground, and he came closer than even he might have anticipated to pulling off a remarkable heist.
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Like in 2015, Quintana's deficit to Froome after two weeks can be broken into two main parts. On each occasion, there has been one, large chunk of time conceded on unfriendly terrain – the crosswinds on stage 2 a year ago, the Ardèche time trial this time around – and a smaller, but probably more deflating, loss on a set-piece summit finish – at La Pierre Saint-Martin last season and at Mont Ventoux here.
Certainly, it must have piqued Quintana's pride that his attack on Mont Ventoux was not pegged back by Froome in person but by his aide-de-camp Wout Poels, and for many climbers of the Colombian's reputation, that slight would have been an almost irreparable psychological blow.
But then Quintana suffered a similar indignity last year when he was caught and passed by Froome's lieutenant Richie Porte near the top of La Pierre Saint Martin, yet still had the resolve to come back and take the fight to Sky in the final days – albeit a mountain pass or two later than perhaps he ought to have done.
A diminished Quintana or a different Froome?
Four-day week
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