2013 Cycling Thread

[Smallville22]

Froome and rivals braced for war on Ventoux

On the lunar landscape of the Mont Ventoux, Chris Froome faces the toughest threat yet to his Tour de France lead with his rivals, sensing vulnerability in the Briton's Team Sky, set to go for the jugular on the imposing ascent on Sunday.
Froome has never climbed the Ventoux, a 20.8-km uphill drag at an average gradient of 7.5 percent, in race conditions.
"It's a climb that is different from others. The truth is that it is extremely hard in the first part. In 2009 at the Dauphine, I had the feeling I was ****** my heart out. Then on the Tour a month later I was more in control," two-time winner Alberto Contador told reporters.
Contador sits in third place overall, 2:45 behind Froome, with second-placed Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands 2:28 off the pace.
Froome lost 1:09 to the pair on the 13th stage after being caught off guard by a ****** acceleration from Contador's Saxo-Tinkoff team.
His team's weaknesses were exposed on Friday and during last Sunday's second Pyrenean stage, when Sky were blown apart following Garmin-Sharp and Movistar's early onslaught.
Although Froome has not looked in serious danger so far in the climbs, he found himself isolated in the second Pyrenean stage. Should this happen again on Sunday - the longest stage at 242.5-km - there is no guarantee that the Briton, who has shown signs of nerves in the last couple of days, will not crack.
"Tomorrow is the day where there is a lot of people who have a lot of interest in the race because there is going to be two races - the breakaway can go to the line and someone can win the Mont Ventoux stage and then there's going to be a GC (general classification) race," said Garmin-Sharp sports director Charly Wegelius.
Just like in the Pyrenees, Garmin-Sharp could be the team to shake things up, with Americans Tom Danielson and Andrew Talansky, as well as Irishman Dan Martin, using their collective ***** to cause chaos - their strategy going into the Tour.
"We're obviously happy with how things are and we're taking it one stage at a time but fundamentally our overall view of the race did not change," said Wegelius.
The wind, however, could play a big part in the scenario.
"There are two parts in this climb," said Contador, whose never-say-die attitude has been keeping Froome on his toes despite the Briton's fine win in the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees.
"The first one (in the shade) is so steep you feel like you're stuck on the road. Then in the last five kilometres, you usually have wind and often it's headwind so it's best to sit behind someone else's wheel in that part."
Contador, not a rider who races for second, is likely to try his luck, as well as the Movistar team who missed the death blow in the Pyrenees after failing to ****** in the final climb when Froome was left with no team mate.
Their team leader Alejandro Valverde fell out of contention on Friday, but the Spaniard has promised fireworks, while Colombian climber Nairo Quintana, who is looking to secure at least the young rider's white jersey, is unlikely to stay quiet.
"Quintana will want to gain time, Saxo will think they are able to cause chaos in the Ventoux, although they have been less at ease than Movistar in the climbs so far," said Portal.
"We have to try and put ourselves in every other team's shoes to define our strategy and play it well."

 

[Smallville22]

Froome strengthens lead with victory on Mont Ventoux

Britain’s Chris Froome soloed to a remarkable stage 15 win on Bastille Day atop Mont Ventoux to extend his overall lead in the Tour de France.
Team Sky’s Froome left his main rivals trembling in his **** to win the longest stage of the 2013 Tour ahead of Colombia’s Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and move more than four minutes clear at the top of the general classification.
A grimace turning to a triumphant grin, Froome crossed the line atop the famous moonscape of Mont Ventoux one minute and 40 seconds ahead of his big rival Alberto Contador, who finished sixth in the wheel of Saxo-Tinkoff team-mate Roman Kreuziger, to secure his second victory of the Tour after claiming stage eight at Ax3 Domaines.
Spaniard Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) took third place on the 242.5km stage from Givors ahead of compatriot Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), both 1’23 down on Froome. Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Belkin) came home in eighth place, six seconds behind Contador.
Twenty-eight-year-old Froome now leads Mollema by 4’14 on GC, with Contador in third place at 4’25 going into the second rest day.
“It’s the biggest victory of my career today,” said an ecstatic Froome. “This climb is so historic and even more so with this being the 100th edition of the Tour.”
With Quintana looking so strong, Froome said that his priority was not the win but increase his lead over his rivals: “It was my main objective today to make more of a buffer on the general classification rather than win the stage.
"I thought I was going to surrender the victory to Quintana because he was very good when I joined him on the front. But in the last 2km I saw that he was tiring and so I went for the win.”
Colombian climber Quintana struck the first blow for the race favourites in the claustrophobic forested section of the ‘Giant of Provence’, 12.5km from the summit of the legendary peak.
Quintana soon joined Nieve 55 seconds ahead of the main pack, which was being driven by Sky pair Richie Porte and Peter Kennaugh.
"Today's result is good," Quintana said. "I felt well all day, and even though we didn't win, the were at the front and we took back the white jersey we lost in the TT.
"I attacked because I saw many riders struggling and knew it was a zone where very few could keep a strong pace. The idea was to win some time and get close to the podium; I knew the white jersey would come with that ****** and I dreamt of winning the stage, too.
"Unfortunately, Froome caught me. He's way superior than the rest. The first ****** came from behind and took me out of focus. I followed his wheel in the distance and ended up bridging.
"He thought I was stronger than I was really feeling, and that's why he talked to me, telling we should keep pushing to leave Contador behind, and he'd let me win the stage.
"But I knew it was a bit of 'fake agreement', because I saw how strong he was and I had to fool him a bit to get that far into the climb."
With the likes of former Tour winner Andy Schleck and polka dot jersey Pierre Rolland already off the back, Australian veteran Cadel Evans, the 2011 winner from BMC, soon popped along with American youngster Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) as the pace kept rising.
Once Kennaugh peeled off to an almost complete standstill, Australian Porte took up the tempo treading for Froome – and to devastating effect.
Showing the form he had in the opening Pyrenean stage last Saturday, Porte’s acceleration with 8km remaining ended the chances of all Froome’s rivals with the exception of Contador.
Following a nod from Porte, Froome then made his decisive ****** with 7km to go, driving a rapid cadence to leave Contador pedalling squares. The Kenyan-born rider soon rode level with Quintana and the pair combined together until the final 2km when Froome decided to give his rival no gifts and roared off the front towards the finish.
Further back, Contador rode alongside Nieve in pursuit, but the two-time Tour champion soon dropped back to a chasing group that had formed around Rodriguez, Mollema and his Belkin team-mate Laurens Ten Dam.
Froome’s victory also saw him to the top of the king of the mountains standings on 83 points, although Spaniard Nieve, second on 66 points, will wear the polka dot jersey on Tuesday when the race resumes.
Quintana’s solid second place saw the 23-year-old return to the top of the white jersey standings, which he leads by 2’11 over Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).
A frenetic start to the stage saw numerous riders try their luck at breaking away – including world champion Philippe Gilbert and Germany’s Tony Martin, who finished second behind Spanish veteran Juan Manuel Garate the previous time the race finished on Mont Ventoux back in 2009.
Both Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) picked up points over the first of two lower category climbs before a break of 11 riders formed after 30km of fast racing at an average speed pushing 50kmh.
Polka dot jersey Rolland was quickly dropped from the leading group, which included five Frenchmen - Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Christophe Roblon (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Julien El Fares (Sojasun) – as well as the green jersey Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Spaniards Markel Irizar (RadioShack) and Juan Jose Lobato (Euskaltel), South African Daryl Impey (GreenEdge) and Dutchman Wout Poels (Vacansoleil).
Hell-bent on a Bastille Day win, Rolland did not give up and joined ****** with Marcus Burghardt (BMC) in pursuit of 10 escapees once the Team Sky-led peloton had called off the chase.
After a leg-sapping hour of riding “chasse-patate” between the leaders and the pack, Rolland and Burghardt returned to within 100m of the escapees before the break dug in to re-establish a significant gap. Sensing that he was persona non grata, Rolland dropped back into the pack, which was now riding at six minutes.
Perhaps responding to the break’s snub towards Rolland, Team Europcar came to the front of the pack to lead the chase, combining with Movistar to reduce the deficit to less than four minutes by the time the race ****** through the town of Nyons, 58km from the finish, which was reached a whopping 45 minutes ahead of schedule because of the relentless tempo.
Sagan picked up maximum points at the intermediate sprint to more into a virtually unassailable 104-point lead over Mark Cavendish in the green jersey standings.
Chavanel then broke clear off the back of the small Col de la Madelaine ahead of the final ascent to give the French crowds something to cheer at the base of Mont Ventoux.
Sagan the showman performed a wheelie just as the peloton swept him up inside the final 20km – by which point Rolland, shattered from his earlier effort to join the initial break, had been dropped by the pack, his black day complete on what should have been a day of celebration.
Riding his garish custom-made orange bike, Chavanel rode with a 1’25 advantage over the pack as Euskaltel’s Nieve made the first ****** off the front of the Sky-led peloton with 13.5km remaining. Moments later, Quintana made his move, setting in motion the chain of events that would see Froome put himself into a commanding lead in the 2013 Tour ahead of a ****** final week in the Alps.
The Tour continues on Tuesday with an undulating 168km stage 16 from Vaison-la-Romaine to Gap. A hilly 32km time trial on Wednesday is followed by the queen stage on Thursday, which concludes with back-to-back ascents of the famous Alped’Huez.

 

[Smallville22]

Frustrated Froome: I'm not cheating, end of story

Chris Froome betrayed a hint of frustration after he was once again asked about doping following a dominant win on Mont Ventoux in Stage 15 of the Tour de France.
Froome extended his lead at the top of the general classification to over four minutes with a thrilling ascent on Sunday, powering away from his peers with a brilliant ******.
So good was Froome’s display in the yellow jersey that for some it brought back memories of Lance Armstrong’s feats en route to winning seven Tour de France titles, all of which have been revoked due to his extensive doping.
Scepticism is rife in a sport that has dealt with controversy after controversy in recent years, but Froome says he is growing tired with having to respond to repeated enquiries about performance-enhancing *****.
Last year’s winner Bradley Wiggins had to deal with much the same kind of scrutiny when triumphing for Team Sky.
"I just think it's quite sad that we're sitting here the day after the biggest victory of my life, a historic win, talking about doping," Froome said.
"My team-mates and I have been away from home for months training together and working our arses off to get here, and here I am accused of being a cheat and a liar.
"Lance cheated. I'm not cheating. End of story."
Sky’s team principal Sir Dave Brailsford also showed his annoyance at the prominence of the doping issue.
"Rather than asking us to come up with some way to prove we're innocent, why don't you collectively have a meeting and tell me what would prove it to you?" he said to reporters.
"It's a rest day, it's 10am, and the bottom line is I'm defending somebody who's done nothing wrong. I'm more than happy to try to find a way to convince you guys that we're doing nothing wrong but we need a little bit of help."
Team Sky have implemented a strident anti-doping policy and although questions have been asked of their refusal to publicly release the power data for their riders, Brailsford says the World Anti-Doping Agency is welcome to examine all their information at any time.
"They can have everything we've got," he said. "They can come and live with us. They can see all of our data, have access to every single training file we've got.
"They can then compare that data on a consistent basis. And they could then tell the world whether they think this is credible or not."

 

[Smallville22]

Sky 'ready to hand WADA all data' to prove they're clean

Facing yet another barrage of doping questions after Chris Froome's awe-inspiring victory up Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France, Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said he was ready to give the World Anti-Doping Agency all their team training data.
This year's race has been under extra scrutiny as it is the first Tour being staged since Lance Armstrong admitted that he had cheated his way to seven Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.
Although the American was stripped of all seven titles, the sport is still trying to salvage its image.
With athletics also under a cloud following the positive dope tests of former 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell and 2007 world 100 metres champion Tyson Gay at the weekend, Brailsford was adamant that Froome and other riders in his team were clean and said their achievements should not be undermined.
"Given what's happened with Armstrong, given what's happened with athletics I think just replying with the old way of thinking is not going to give us solutions," Brailsford said at his team hotel on Monday's rest day.
On Sunday, Froome accelerated ******** to leave rival Alberto Contador of Spain stuck on the tar on his way to victory in the 15th stage, triggering a collective gasp in the press room.
The Briton now leads second-placed Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands by four minutes 14 seconds and Contador by 4:25.
"You're asking me how I can prove to you that we're not doping basically," Brailsford said.
"You're all asking the same question obviously and we rack our brains every day, we see each other in the morning in front of the bus, at night after the stage and every day we get asked the same question.
"I think we'd encourage maybe WADA to appoint an expert and they can have everything that we've got, have a look at everything that we've got," said Brailsford.
"They could see all of our data, they could have access to every single training file, compare the training files to the ***** data, to weight, all that type of information.
"It seems to me WADA would be a good body. Then they would tell the world whether they think this is credible or not. That would be my best answer."
Froome, who has to face the media every day on the Tour, has expressed his frustration at being repeatedly questioned about doping in the sport.
"I just think it's quite sad that we're sitting here the day after the biggest victory of my life yesterday, quite a historic win, talking about doping," he said.
"Quite frankly, my team-mates and I, we've ***** on volcanoes to get ready for this, we've been away from home for months, training together, just working our arses off to get here and here I am basically being accused of being a cheat and a liar. That's not cool."
His fierce rival Contador joined the debate later on Monday, saying he was certain that Froome was a clean rider.
"He is a professional who has a high level all year around and it is because he has been working hard," the Spaniard said.

 

[Smallville22]

Contador will fight until the end

Alberto Contador has already won the Tour de France twice and the Spaniard is not ready to settle for second this time even though he enters the final week of the race trailing overall leader Chris Froome by more than four minutes.
Contador, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009, sits in third place overall 4:25 behind the British rider and 11 seconds adrift of Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands.
He lost a considerable amount of time in the two mountain-top finishes at Ax-3-Domaines and on Mont Ventoux, as well as in the first individual time trial as Froome showed he was unbeatable on a single climb.
The terrain is changing, however, as the race enters the Alps, with Thursday's 18th stage to l'Alpe d'Huez and Friday's 19th stage to Le Grand Bornand putting multiple ascents on the menu.
Froome was quickly isolated from his team-mates in the second Pyrenean stage after repeated attacks from rival teams, who failed to capitalise.
"My goal is to win but it is true that the leader is a level above and he cannot be beaten face to face but it will be a very demanding last week with more tactical options because there are back-to-back climbs and for me finishing second or 10th is not important," Contador said.
Contador, one of five men with titles in all three grands tours (France, Italy and Spain), has already set his sights on a particular stage.
"There is a stage where I want to see what can happen, where I could seize an opportunity," he said, without identifying the stage.
"The rest will depend on how the race pans out but if I see an opportunity I will go for it."
While he could make his move in the stage featuring two ascents of l'Alpe d'Huez, Contador is surely thinking about the 19th stage, which has two out-of-category climbs - Col du Glandon and Col de la Madeleine - in the first part and two first-category ascents - Col de l'Epine and Col de la Croix Fry - in the second part.
Tactics would consist of isolating Froome from his team mates on the first climbs and gaining some distance on him on the flat parts, as Contador's Saxo-Tinkoff showed they could do when they trapped the Briton behind with an acceleration away in last Friday's flat stage.
"They found Sky's weakness," Irishman Dan Martin, who won the second Pyrenean stage, told Reuters.
Martin said Sky's rivals had made an error that day in attacking Froome only on the climbs.
"That's a mistake they made the day I won: I was expecting a lot more attacks in the valley. They are not going to drop him in the climbs," he said.
Contador has already shown that he has the tactical nous to overthrow Froome, even if, with a four-minute deficit, the odds are stacked against him.
In last year's Vuelta, Joaquim Rodriguez had the race firmly in his hands when Contador launched a surprise long-range ****** that gave him the overall lead after the 17th stage and eventually the title.
"There are two important differences. Firstly, the leader is further away and that makes everything more difficult. Secondly, he (Froome) has been stronger, while in the Vuelta we basically had the same level."
This is not enough to discourage Contador, who appears a much quieter person since he lost his 2010 Tour de France title following a doping test.
"It is true that year after year you evolve and perhaps I'm calmer than some years ago," he said. "I may be calmer in the important stages."

 

[Smallville22]

Fry all set to make British debut in Utrecht

Cyclist Joe Fry is aiming to channel any nerves at representing Great Britain for the very first time into a positive performance at the European Youth Olympic Festival.
The 16-year-old has been chosen as part of a 44-strong British team in Utrecht testing themselves against more than 2300 athletes from 48 other countries on the continent. Riding on two wheels since the age of seven when he switched sports from playing tennis, Fry is one of six British cyclists in the Netherlands and will compete in the road race and time trial events. Three of those cyclists, Fry included, come from the RST Racing Team and he is determined to use that to his advantage at the 12th edition of the Festival in Utrecht. "I do get a bit nervous before racing," said Fry. "It will be the biggest race of the year, the hardest I have ever competed in. It will be the first time I have competed for Great Britain. "Just thinking about it makes me a bit nervous and then when I get to the start I will be even worse. But I try and have a bit of a laugh with my teammates and just try to relax and take my mind off it. "We are always talking to each other and making sure everyone is OK. Everyone knows each other in cycling, it's a really good social sport although a tough one. "It would definitely be an aim of mine to go and win but just to be on the podium would be brilliant or helping out my teammates to get a win or a good result." Despite his nerves, Fry, who is a member of the British Cycling Olympic Talent Programme, has already bagged wins in the National Youth Circuit Series on the Isle of Man this year. And looking to emulate the likes of swimmer Rebecca Adlington, who went from the Festival podium to medal success at two Olympics, Fry wants his appearance to mark the start of his own journey. "I want to do cycling as a career so this is a good step towards that," added Fry. "It's amazing to be given all the coaching and be able to wear the kit that you see all the pros wearing. "I am really excited for it. I've been talking to all the other teammates that are going. It's going to be brilliant and a really good experience."

 

[Smallville22]

Laidback Martin prefers to do it the old fashioned way

His Tour de France already a success thanks to a spectacular stage win in the Pyrenees, Dan Martin is gearing up nicely for the final days of the three-week race - the old-fashioned way.
"He's old school," his Garmin-Sharp team mate David Millar says.
Martin, who won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic this year, is the antithesis of the Team Sky rider: he refuses to train at altitude while the British team have two sessions a year way above sea level.
Sitting in the lobby of his team hotel in Orange after a training ride on the Tour's second rest day on Monday, the 26-year-old Irishman said he was not willing to make a lot of sacrifices for his sport.
"I'm probably going to shoot myself in the foot, Jonathan (Vaughters, the Garmin-Sharp team manager) is not going to pay me anymore," he told a small group of reporters.
"Cycling is a hard sport and if I have to make too many sacrifices I can no longer do it. I've found a happy medium.
"It's not that I'm going to get ***** every week but if I want a **** I'll have a ****.
"To me, altitude training does not really work so I'm not going to go and stay in altitude for three weeks in isolation, like in a concentration camp-like environment," he said.
"It's just my personal opinion; it's the way I live my life."
Martin, who was 11th overall eight minutes 28 seconds behind leader Chris Froome of Britain going into Tuesday's 16th stage, prefers to stay close to home in Girona, Spain.
"The physical effect of the altitude is balanced out by how psychologically happy I am in my environment at home," he said.
"I'm so much more relaxed there. That mental break of isolation counteracts the benefits of altitude. What I found works for me so I guess I'm not going to change and try something different for the sake of it."
The method has been working wonders for Martin this season as he won the oldest one-day classic in Liege and the Tour of Catalunya.
The stage win in the Pyrenees on the Tour means that Martin is already happy with his performance in France, although there could be more to come.
"I'm taking a stage (win) over top 10 in GC (general classification)," he said as the race enters the Alps, a terrain Martin believes suits his climbing abilities.
"The Alps are going to suit me a lot better. We saw in the Pyrenees that I'm strong when there are multiple climbing efforts (during one stage)."
Martin and his Garmin-Sharp mates will be looking to blow up the race, exactly as they did in the Pyrenees when they went on the offensive while other teams, such as Movistar, played too defensively to unsettle Froome.
"You see a bit of negativity. That's modern cycling," Martin said.
"At the end of the day if I finish ninth in the Tour de France nobody is going to remember my season for this. I will always remember from this Tour the stage win, not if I finish nine, 10, 15th. I like winning, I like racing."

 

[Smallville22]

Costa goes solo for win before late Froome-Contador drama

Yellow jersey Chris Froome survived a scare in stage 16 of the Tour de France, riding off the road on the final descent into Gap to avoid a sprawling Alberto Contador after Portugal’s Rui Costa had soloed to victory.
Both Froome and Contador remounted and finished the 168km stage in a group of the race favourites – but it was a tense finish for the race leader after a series of attacks from his Spanish rival on the final climb of the day, the Col de Manse.
Movistar rider Costa – winner of last month’s Tour de Suisse - secured the second Tour stage win of his career after attacking from a 26-man breakaway at the start of the decisive climb.
Two years after soloing to victory in stage eight of the Tour in Super-Besse, 26-year-old Costa repeated the feat with his Movistar team’s first win of the 100th edition of the race, crossing the line 42 seconds ahead of a chasing quartet of riders.
Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) led the group of favourites over the line 11 minutes 10 seconds down on Costa, with Team Sky’s Froome overcoming the late drama to retain his 4:14 lead over Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Belkin) in the overall standings.
"In my view, it was a bit dangerous of Alberto to ride like that on the descent. It wasn’t good," said a shaken Froome at the finish.
Saxo-Tinkoff’s Contador stays in third place, 4:25 behind Froome, ahead of Wednesday’s all-important 32km individual time trial.
Dutchman Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) dropped out of the top five after being distanced on the Col de Manse and coming home almost a minute down on his rivals.
Played out under sweltering temperatures in the foothills of the Alps, Tuesday’s stage was once again fast and furious, with a group of 32 riders – including the green jersey Peter Sagan (Cannondale) - quickly forming a group off the front of the pack after the start at Vaison-La-Romaine.
With three Alpine stages following Wednesday’s ITT, the stage offered the last chance for the ‘baroudeurs’ to notch a win before the climbers and GC favourites returned to the fray.
As such, the race was very nervous – and it all came back together after the Cat.3 Col de la Montagne de Bluye after 20km of frenetic riding.
A new group of 26 riders formed just ahead of the second climb of the day, the Cat.2 Col de Macuegne, 130km from the finish, featuring 16 of the 23 teams present on the Tour.
This decisive group included the likes of world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Europcar pair Thomas Voeckler and Cyril Gautier, Contador’s Saxo-Tinkoff team-mate Nicolas Roche, Dutch national champion Johnny Hoogerland and his Vacansoleil-DCM team-mate Thomas De Gendt, Orics-GreenEdge pair Cameron Meyer and Michael Albasini, and Codifis’s Daniel Navarro.
With Team Sky controlling the peloton – which at one point was held up by a passing train – the escapees were allowed to build up a maximum lead of 12 minutes.
Frenchmen Blel Kadri (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun) were first to ****** from the break, jumping clear 15km ahead of the final climb to establish a 25-second lead.
But the pair was swept up shortly after the start of the Col de Manse after Australian Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) rode off the front of the chasing riders. Winner of a stage in May’s Giro d’Italia, Hansen’s time out in front was short-lived, the veteran domestique being caught by Costa after the Portuguese made his move 18km from the finish.
With the host nation still seeking a maiden win on the Tour, a quartet of three Frenchmen – Christophe Riblon (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) and Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) – and Germany’s Andreas Kloden (RadioShack-Leopard) rode in pursuit of Costa, but crossed the summit of the climb 50 seconds in arrears.
Costa kept his cool on the final descent into Gap to take his fourth win of the season and reward his Movistar team for their consistent attacking verve over the roads of France.
Riblon edged out fellow Frenchmen Jeannesson and Coppel to take second place 42 seconds behind, with Kloden crossing the line in fifth. The remnants of the break came home one minute down on the stage winner, Costa.
But the day’s main drama was still being played out on the final ascent of the Col de Manse, with some fierce pace setting by the Katusha team of Rodriguez blowing the race apart and distancing the likes of Ten Dam, Cadel Evans (BMC) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp).
A group of eight riders formed with Froome and his faithful Sky team-mate Richie Porte at its head, with Contador putting in a series of stinging attacks near the summit to distance Porte and isolate the yellow jersey.
With an 11km descent to the finish, the attacks did not stop.
It was this same sinuous descent, 10 years earlier, where Spaniard Joseba Beloki’s high-speed crash in melting tarmac ****** the yellow jersey Lance Armstrong to cut across a field after being ****** off the road.
And history repeated itself – but very much watered down – when Contador, pushing the pace, lost control on a tight bend and fell on his right elbow.
Taking evasive action, Froome rode into the verge on the left-hand side of the road, and was ****** to unclip his right food and come to a complete standstill before remounting and chasing back on with Contador.
Thankfully for Froome, Porte had returned to his wheel – and the pair was able to rejoin the other favourites inside the final 3km.
Contador blamed the crash on the hot conditions and brushed off his injuries as “a small knock”.
But the incident served as a reminder to both Froome and Contador that this race will not be won until the yellow jersey arrives safely on the Champs Elysees next Sunday.

 

[Smallville22]

Relentless Froome wins stage 17 time trial

Britain’s Chris Froome extended his commanding lead in the Tour de France with a third stage victory in a weather-affected 32km mountain time trial from Embrun to Chorges in the Alps.
Team Sky’s Froome defied the rain and took advantage of a late bike change to beat Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador by nine seconds on the day to increase his lead over the Spaniard to four minutes and 34 seconds in the general classification.
Contador rose to second place after Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Belkin) finished more than two minutes in arrears to drop out of the top three at the expense of the Spaniard’s team-mate Roman Kreuziger.
Kreuziger, of the Czech Republic, finished fourth on the stage behind Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, who completed the podium one second behind Contador.
With a winning time of 51'33, Froome’s latest victory comes after second place in last week's opening time trial at Mont-Saint-Michel and mountain victories at Ax3 Domaines in stage 8 and Mont Ventoux in stage 15. The 28-year-old rider also leads the king of the mountains competition.
"I can’t believe it. Three stage wins, the yellow jersey and the polka dot jersey – this Tour has been incredible for me so far," Froome said at the finish.
“It rained a bit for my second descent and I was prepared to concede time today and not take any risks, so it was a surprise to win."
Froome trailed Contador by 11 seconds at the summit of the second of two climbs – but unlike his rival, the race leader decided to switch to a specialist time trial bike for the final 12km downhill run to the finish.
"It could have made the difference," Froome admitted. "I felt when I rode the course this morning that I needed the bigger gear and so it paid off."
Froome was not alone in his decision to switch bikes ahead of the final descent, with the majority of the race favourites opting for the same tactic.
Spaniards Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Rodriguez both swapped bikes before going on to set the provisional best times at the finish.
These efforts were both bettered by Saxo-Tinkoff pair Kreuziger and Contador, which threw an element of uncertainty into proceedings – something heightened by the heavy rainfall which coincided with Froome’s descent.
But the British race favourite held on to turn an 11-second deficit into a nine-second advantage to deny Spain their first stage win on the 100th edition of the race.
Billed as the hardest time trial in Tour history, the 32km course featured two sharp Cat.2 climbs with a maximum gradient of 10 per cent and two highly technical descents along sinuous, narrow and potholed roads.
To highlight the difficult nature of the challenge, experienced Frenchman Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2R-La Mondiale) crashed heavily on the second descent in an early-morning training ride, cracking his right collarbone in the process.
Ninth place on GC, Peraud decided to continue the race – but crashed heavily on the same shoulder 2km from the finish to complete his horror day. It was one fall too many, and the 36-year-old was ****** to withdraw from the Tour in tears.
The early riders down the start ramp in the pretty lake-side town of Embrun, however, benefited from sun, clement temperatures and dry roads, with Dutch national time trial champion Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) setting the long-standing best time.
Soon after Spain's Jon Izaguire (Euskaltel) ended Westra's two-hour reign at the top, American youngster Tejay van Garderen (BMC) came home to post the new target time just as the first localised showers fell over the first half of the course.
The effect was devastating, with a succession of riders coming home well in arrears – including Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Van Garderen’s BMC team-mate Cadel Evans, who finished more than five and seven minutes down respectively.
Speaking in the finish area, 24-year-old Van Garderen admitted that he "might just be the luckiest guy here today".
But the rain cleared and the roads had dried a little by the time the top 20 riders rolled down the ramp, with Valverde crossing the line a full 1’21 quicker than the American.
Rodriguez came through all the checks ahead of his fellow Spaniard, but the real race was going on further back down the road between Froome and Contador.
Contador led at the top of the first climb by two seconds before taking a further 18 seconds off Froome after the first, more difficult, descent. But then Froome came into his own on the second climb – and would have made the split quicker than anyone had he not stopped just before the summit to switch his bike.
As it was, the Sky rider was 11 seconds down on Contador and only in fourth place, with both Rodriguez and Kreuziger quicker through the split.
But his decision to change steeds was vindicated – and Froome secured a hat-trick of wins that could well grow larger still with the prospect of three successive stages in the Alps on the horizon.
Belkin pair Mollema and Laurens ten Dam were the big losers of the day, with Mollema slipping out of the top three, and fellow Dutchman conceding his sixth place to Rodriguez. Following Peraud's withdrawal, young Pole Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS) moved back into the top 10.
Thursday’s 168km stage 18 from Gap to Alpe d’Huez has been billed as the queen stage and features an unprecedented double ascent of the legendary climb, split by a the testing descent of the Col du Sarenne.
With the riders facing the fearsome 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d'Huez twice in one afternoon, fireworks are expected. For Froome's rivals, it could well be the very last chance to put him under pressure.

 

[Smallville22]

Peraud's Tour over after unlucky break

Jean-Christophe Peraud broke his collarbone preparing for Wednesday's time trial but decided to race on - only to fall on it again, ending his Tour de France.
French veteran Peraud, who rides for Ag2r-La Mondiale, fractured his collarbone earlier on Wednesday while undergoing a reconnaissance ride for Stage 17, which was a 32km individual time trial.
The 36-year-old former national time trial champion bravely soldiered on, and all seemed to be going well until he suffered this horrific crash just over a mile from the finish.
His team had previously said it was just a small fracture, but the even heavier fall during the race means his Tour is now over.
He looked visibly shaken after the tumble, and ***** was seen coming from his right arm. While in tears, he was able to stand up, and should return in weeks rather than months.
Peraud had been sat in ninth overall in the General Classification.
The stage was won by Team Sky's British rider Chris Froome, who extended his overall lead to four minutes and 34 seconds.
Stage 17, a tough, hilly time race against the clock from Embrun and Chorges, was marred by poor weather and the switch from mountain climbs to a typical flat ride to the finish.
Its difficulty was highlighted by several rider tumbles, although Peraud's was the most serious.
"I was trapped at a corner and it's over now," Peraud said afterwards.
"He is such a brave lad, he never gives up, not one bit," team manager Vincent Lavenu said. "We must doff our caps to a man to undertook such a difficult stage with an injury, he was so close to the finish.
"He would without question have finished the Tour in the top 10."

 

[Smallville22]

Froome bracing for Contador battle on the Alpe D'Huez

Chris Froome is expecting Spanish rival Alberto Contador to give it all he has got to wrestle his way back into Tour de France contention on the iconic Alpe D'Huez.
Thursday's 18th stage features two climbs of the famous mountain, with the treacherous descent from the Col de Sarenne sandwiched in between - a downhill Froome hopes will be cancelled should it rain as forecast.
"I expect it to be a fight tomorrow at l'Alpe d'Huez," Team Sky rider Froome told a news conference after winning Wednesday's time trial to extend his overall lead over Contador to four minutes 34 seconds.
"Contador is not a rider to give up. He is going to keep pushing me every day. It's evident that the Spaniards and the Dutch guys are not going to stop racing," the Briton added, referring to Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez and Dutch rider Bauke Mollema, who are sixth and fourth respectively.
Froome accused Contador of careless riding on Tuesday after the Spaniard crashed just ahead of him after attacking on a descent.
"No disrespect for Alberto but yesterday I felt he was a bit reckless in the descent. You've got to remember that it's a bike race, you could end up leaving the Tour with a silly injury."
Bjarne Riis, the road manager of Contador's Team Saxo-Tinkoff, however, believes that taking risks is what bike racing is about.
"He should use his brakes more if he is too afraid, because we are going to ****** everywhere, whether it's uphill or downhill," he told reporters.
Saxo-Tinkoff's strategy is likely to consist in isolating Froome from his team mates with repeated attacks, then try to drop him in the descent or on the flat. They have already accepted that the Briton is too good a climber to lose ground on the ascents.
Froome's Sky team mates appeared to take it relatively easy in the time trial in order to save some energy with Thursday's battle in mind.
Contador's lieutenant, Czech Roman Kreuziger, will have drained his resources, however, in finishing fourth to take third place overall.
"Having Alberto and Roman in second and third overall gives us more tactical options," Saxo-Tinkoff sports director Fabrizio Guidi told reporters.
Contador has already shown that he is not racing for second.
In last year's Vuelta, he launched a surprise long-range ****** to overthrow Joaquim Rodriguez on the 17th stage and take the title.
With four gruelling climbs, descents and flat parts in the valleys, Friday's stage to Le Grand Bornand is likely to present his best opportunity to repeat the trick.

 

[Smallville22]

Meyer extends contract with ORICA-GreenEDGE

Australian Cameron Meyer will continue to race with ORICA-GreenEDGE through to the conclusion of 2015 after extending his contract.
Meyer has posted three top-10 overall finishes in stage races in 2013, his first full season after joining last year.
“We’re very happy with the progression we’ve seen from Cam this year,” said sport director Matt White.
“This is the first year that he hasn’t had track obligations. In the past, he’s had to divide his attention between the track and the road.
“Despite an injury that required an adjustment to his early season schedule, we’ve seen huge gains in his developments.”
Meyer finished ninth on stage 16 on his Tour de France debut, his fifth three-week Grand Tour.
The rider, 25, said he has ambitions to compete for the top titles – but he will have to be patient for some time yet.
“The main reason I’ve decided to stay with ORICA-GreenEDGE is that the team has given me free range to pursue my general classification ambitions,” he said.
“If I were to go to another team with big leaders, I wouldn’t get the sort of support I’ve had here.
“I’m learning how to ride the general classification at the one-week races. I’ve achieved top-10 results this year, and next year, I’ll aim for the podium at some of those one-week races.
“I think I still have a lot more racing to do before we see if I can go into a Grand Tour overall contender role. Obviously, that’s ultimately what I’d love to happen, but I need to prove it to myself first.
“The team believes it’s possible. That’s why they’re supporting me in the smaller races and putting the team at my service. They hope that in the future, I can step up and aim for big results at bigger races. Of course, I hope I can, too.”
Meyer played an important role in the team’s time trial victory in Nice.
“The Tour de France has been a great experience for Cam,” said White. “He will learn a lot from these three weeks. We’re confident that he can take what he’s learned here into the next season and continue to progress.”

 

[Smallville22]

French investigation backs Froome's 'clean' claims

A study conducted by L'Equipe has backed Chris Froome's repeated claims that he is racing clean at the Tour de France.
The Team Sky rider is leading the Tour after some stunning performances in the mountain and time trial stages, as the British outfit hunts a second consecutive winner of cycling’s most famous race.
But, as is the fashion in the tainted sport of cycling, Froome has had to field countless questions about doping, with rider and team vehemently denying illicit behaviour.
Sky chief Dave Brailsford went to far as to invite the World Anti-Doping Authority to embed officials in the team, to monitor their riders’ training, nutrition and social habits.
WADA does not believe such a move is necessary, but L’Equipe – the French sports magazine that relentlessly hunted the likes of disgraced former seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong – acquired Froome’s physical and sporting data for the last two years.
That data was analysed by respected cycling doctor Fred Grappe, who found nothing to suggest anything untoward in Froome’s performances.
Grappe works for rival French team FDJ as their performance expert, and he also is an advocate of stronger anti-doping procedures in all sports.
He has developed a system known as PPR (Le Profil de Puissance Record), which translates as a “Power Profile Record”, a tool to monitor unusual increases in strength and endurance related to time.
There are four parameters the system gauges to ascertain whether anything unusual is afoot which, in theory, allows scientists to isolate suspicious improvements in athletes. Whether a **** test is failed or not, any such marked improvements beyond an athlete’s early 20s indicate suspicious activity.

Here is why Grappe thinks Froome is clean:

Parameter 1: Q. Are there any unusual developments in power? A. No.

“The evolution of his ability over time is similar to that observed with cyclists with whom we have established the PPR. For example, it shows a significant and standard decrease in power of 60 watts (0.88 W/kg) between efforts of 20 and 60 minutes. The average rider loses around 50 Watts in this time interval. Froome’s PPR over two years shows no anomalies. In other words, his power statistics two years ago are consistent with today’s. His performance at Ax 3 Domaines [ED: when he obliterated the opposition to win the notorious mountain stage] can be measured up with his PPR, which has not changed since 2011. His physical abilities now are not much different to 2011.”

Parameter 2: Q. Has his unusual aerobic potential changed? A. No.

“His maximum aerobic ability at extreme altitude (over five minutes) confirms that Froome possesses an aerobic potential that is unusually high and has been throughout the past two years. It requires him to have a VO2max [ED - the maximum capacity of the body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, an indicator of natural fitness] that is close to the known limits of man. The exceptional power he generates during this maximum effort over five minutes gives him added reserves of strength compared to others. That is shown in the acceleration he finds in the latter stages of climbs. We can estimate that, compared to his main rivals, he possesses an extra 20 Watts of power in these situations. This is approximately the same margin he had over his main rivals at Ax 3 Domaines and Ventuox [ED - where Froome powered away to claim stage wins].

Parameter 3: Have there been fluctuations in weight? No.

“Froome’s average weight over two years has been 68kg in the mornings, with ***** variations of up to 900g. That shows the power he has developed over the past two years to be stable when displayed in Watts per kilo, the crucial index to his performances.”

Parameter 4: Has there been a change in his recovery powers? No.

“It is clear that, to be able to exploit his PPR to nearly 100% capacity, Froome would have to boast excellent powers of recovery between stages. If fatigue sets in, you cannot continue to ride to the maximum. Again, there is no significant change in this over the past two years.”

So, according to Frappe, Froome’s physical abilities have remained constant.
It appears that his success is a combination of having a great team around him, superior training and equipment, and the experience to know when to pick his battles and when to stay with the pack.
Froome’s uncanny natural fitness is likely a result of having grown up and competed in the mountains of Kenya. Young Colombian Nairo Quintana – second to Froome in his most recent mountain win – also grew up in a similar environment, the Cordillera mountain range.
Frappe does not mention anything about his rivals’ relative ability, which – when you consider the ridiculous attacks and breakaways in the Armstrong era – appears to have diminished in the past few years.
While it is impossible to know for sure, Froome’s rise appears to be consistent with him joining a top team – and a weakening of his rivals.

 

[Smallville22]

Riblon wins for France on Alpe d'Huez as Froome extends lead

Christophe Riblon won the first ever double ascent of Alpe d’Huez in Tour de France history to end France's drought in this year's race on stage 18.
On a ****** day that saw the riders climb the legendary climb twice in the second half of the 172.5km stage, Ag2R-La Mondiale’s Riblon chased down Tejay van Garderen (BMC) on the final climb before brilliantly storming past the American with just 2km to go.
Britain’s Froome managed to finish ahead of main rival Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) but the yellow jersey from Team Sky showed his first signs of weakness on this year's Tour, with Colombia’s Nario Quintana (Movistar) and Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) distancing him in the final 5km.
Froome was also given a 20-second penalty for ******* feeding during the final 6kms of the stage.
Quintana and Rodriguez finished just over a minute ahead of Froome who, in turn, was just under a minute ahead of Contador to extend his lead over the Spaniard to five minutes and 11 seconds.
Tour debutant Quintana rose to third place at the expense of Contador’s team-mate Roman Kreuziger and trails Froome by 5:32 with two more mountain stages ahead of the final stage into Paris.
On a day history was made with the first ever double ascent of the famous Alpe d’Huez, it was fitting that a Frenchman stole the headlines.
Riblon overcame riding into a ditch on the treacherous Col de Sarenne descent 36km from the finish to secure the first stage win for the host nation - two years after compatriot Pierre Rolland managed to pull off the same trick in the Alpine ski resort.
The victory was also the first in the race for Riblon’s Ag2R-La Mondiale team, who have lost Maxime Bouet and Jean-Christophe Peraud to injury during a particularly challenging Tour.
“It’s incredible,” said 32-year-old Riblon. “Since the start of the race we’ve had to fight so hard. It’s the fourth time I’ve been on the ******.
“When I was small I used to watch the stages to Alpe d’Huez so I can’t believe it. When Pierre Rolland won here two years ago I was in the break and came so close. It’s incredible that I’ve finally got the win here.”
Riblon arrived at the foot of the second ascent of Alpe d’Huez in a trio alongside BMC’s van Garderen and Italian Moreno Moser of Cannondale. Moser was soon dropped before a ressurgent van Garderen, the white jersey from last year, powered clear.
The American held an advantage of 45 seconds over Riblon entering the final five kilometres but hit the wall dramatically as he neared the summit. Enjoying a second wind and buoyed by the roaring crowds, the Frenchman caught van Garderen just ahead of the 2km banner and ****** him with ease to build up an insurmountable lead entering the final kilometre.
Riblon had time to savour the moment and salute the cheering crowds before crossing the line with his arms aloft to take the second Tour stage win of his career three years after his stage 14 win at Ax3 Domaines. Van Garderen came home 59 seconds down while Moser took third place at 1:27.
Quintana edged ahead of Rodriguez to take fourth place, 2:12 in arrears, before Sky’s Richie Porte led his team leader Froome over the line 56 seconds later.
Having crossed the line, Froome embraced his Australian team-mate after yet another job well done.
But it was not all plain sailing for Team Sky, with Froome having to weather the storm right from the outset of a frenetic start to the stage in Gap.
On the Cat.2 Col de Manse numerous attacks - including a stinging effort from Quintana - put Sky under instant pressure before a group of nine riders - including Riblon, van Garderen and Moser - broke clear on the descent.
The Saxo-Tinkoff team of Contador sent two men up the road - Nicolas Roche and Sergio Paulinho - on the second climb of the day, the Cat.3 Rampe du Motty.
With no one in the break posing a threat to Froome on GC (Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Sylvain Chavanel was best-placed, more than half an hour down) the stage entered a calmer phase ahead of the back-to-back ascents of Alpe d’Huez, the first of which, 63km from the finish, the leaders reached with an advantage of seven minutes.
Van Garderen, Moser and Riblon crossed the summit together after the escapees had split apart while tackling the arduous 21 hairpin bends of the climb.
Back with the peloton, Sky controlled matters with a high tempo, only allowing riders low down in the overall standings to break clear. As such, Europcar pair Thomas Voeckler and Rolland, RadioShack’s Andy Schleck, the polka dot jersey Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) and Dutchman Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) formed a chasing group ahead of the pack.
The narrow, twisting and highly technical descent of the Col de Sarenne was covered with a light sprinkling of rain - and Riblon overcooked a bend and rode into a shallow ditch. Van Garderen also struggled, the American youngster needing to stop for assistance with a problem with his chain.
But the major dramatics came with the peloton when Saxo-Tinkoff pair Contador and Roman Kreuziger - second and third on GC going into the stage - both attacked on the treacherous downhill.
Not wishing to take the risk, Sky refused to chase them down. It was the correct decision: the Saxo-Tinkoff pair held a buffer of just 30 seconds after the long downhill, and with Movistar driving the pace on the front of the chasing pack, they sat up in a bid to save their energy ahead of the decisive climb. The Schleck group were also reeled in moments ahead of the final climb.
With Riblon and van Garderen fighting it out for the stage win some five minutes further up the road, the fireworks exploded early in the select group of race favourites.
Froome clearly felt that ****** was the best form of defence, the 28-year-old putting in one of his trademark in-the-saddle, high-cadence digs to thin out the field and drop Dutch pair Bauke Mollema and Laurens ten Dam (Belkin).
Suffering perhaps from their earlier exploits, both Contador and Kreuziger dropped back. Quintana was the only rider who could initially match Froome, although Rodriguez soon joined, followed by the ever-faithful Porte, who was greeted by the grateful Froome with a hearty hug.
With Froome looking vulnerable and tired, Porte took control of matters, driving a pace that made it impossible for Quintana or Rodriguez to ******.
But with 5km remaining, Froome suddenly signalled his team car and came to a near standstill. Porte dropped back to pick up the energy gels that his leader required - with both Sky riders picking up a 20-second penalty for an ******* refuel.
"It wasn't a huge setback," Froome said afterwards. "Richie was definitely feeling a lot better than me today. I was running out of sugars and I had to ask him to go back to the car."
Taking on food so late in stages is against the rules - but Froome shrugged off suggestions of foul play.
"Our team car has a mechanical issue earlier so we weren't able to refuel ahead of the climb," he said.
Quintana took advantage of the wobble to ride clear with Rodriguez en route to rising to a podium position in his debut Tour.
Re-energised with some much-needed sugars, Froome regrouped and rode with Porte to the finish, limiting his losses - but, crucially, also extending his lead over Contador.
It wasn’t pretty - but Froome’s lead in the general classification is now in excess of five minutes. The hug over the line between Froome and Porte said it all: despite two more tricky stages in the Alps, they have one foot in Paris.
The Tour continues on Friday with the 204.5km stage 19 from Bourg d’Oisans to Le Grand Bornand, which features five climbs and a fast downhill finish.

 

[Smallville22]

Froome penalised 20 seconds for ******* feeding

Chris Froome showed rare signs of weakness on Thursday despite extending his overall lead on the Tour de France in the 18th stage, won after two epic ascents of l'Alpe d'Huez by France's Christophe Riblon.
The Briton cracked with less than five kilometres to go on the second trip up the mountain's 21 hairpin bends but sent team mate Richie Porte to fetch some food and the Australian nursed Froome to the finish 3:18 behind Riblon, who became the first Frenchman to win a stage in this year's race.
"I was running low on sugars," Froome told reporters.
"I am thankful to have Richie with me he did a super, super job."
Froome and Porte were each given a 20-second penalty for ******* feeding as organisers said the riders were not allowed to take food or liquid from the team car during the final 6kms of the stage.
However, Froome still leads Alberto Contador, the 2007 and 2009 Tour champion, by 5:11, after the Spaniard struggled to keep the pace in the final ascent following a bold but brief ****** on the treacherous descent from the Col de Sarenne.
Contador, who was 11th on the stage, 57 seconds behind Froome, heads Colombian Nairo Quintana by 21 seconds overall after the Movistar climber, targeting a podium finish in Paris, took fourth place 2:12 off the pace.
"Throughout the entire race we've said that we wanted the overall win and we were not afraid of risking it all to get it and so we did today," said Contador's Team Saxo Tinkoff sports director Fabrizio Guidi.
"But the legs just weren't good enough to finish it off. We can be disappointed and everyone's a lot wiser after the stage but if you never try, you never win.
"We're still competing for the top positions and there are still two demanding stages to go. Now, it's time to keep focused, remain calm, recover and try again tomorrow."
Friday's 19th stage takes the peloton over 204 kilometres with four demanding climbs on the menu between Bourg d'Oisans and Le Grand Bornand.
"Tomorrow is possibly the toughest day of the Tour de France," said Froome.

 

[Smallville22]

Riblon backs Froome on doping issues

Chris Froome, whose Tour de France performances have been greeted by suspicion, has received backing from stage 18 winner Christophe Riblon.
Riblon, whose AG2R La Mondiale team are part of the Movement for Credible Cycling, told a news conference the British Tour leader should not be "put on trial".
Froome hammered the field in the first two mountain-top finishes of the Tour, in Ax-3-Domaines and the Mont Ventoux, and his performances have been put under the microscope by media and experts.
"I don't understand that the yellow jersey is being put on trial," Riblon said in a passionate outburst after winning the 18th stage at l'Alpe d'Huez.
"He does not deserve this. When you hurt the yellow jersey, you hurt cycling."
Asked if he was proud that a rider from a MPCC team prevailed in the toughest Tour stage so far, Riblon said: "I had an MPCC test (to check his cortisone level) this morning, I will be tested now and they can come back tonight, no problem."
One reporter pointed out that Froome's Team Sky was not a member of the MPCC and in response, the 32-year-old said: "It's their choice. It's not an obligation.
"Instead of disparaging them, we should be looking into why they're better. They work a lot, they have new (training) methods," added Riblon.
Member teams of the MPCC apply stricter anti-doping rules than the World Anti-Doping Agency's, with additional tests and automatic suspensions in the case of repeated doping offences.
AG2R-La Mondiale suspended themselves for a week last month and missed out on the Criterium du Dauphine after their rider Sylvain Georges failed a test for a ****** substance - their second doping affair within 12 months.
Team Sky maintain they have a zero-tolerance policy on doping, and lost some staff after asking riders and support staff to sign up to a written statement saying they had no past or present involvement with *****.
On Monday, team principal Dave Brailsford said he would be happy to share training data with WADA.
Sky, however, handed Froome's power data since the 2011 Vuelta to sports daily L'Equipe and it was analysed by biomechanics expert Frederic Grappe, who works with team FDJ.fr.
Grappe concluded Froome's performances were outstanding but not suspicious.
"It is the team who took that decision. I'm happy to hear their findings and their take on it," Froome told a news conference.
"These performances are very good, they're strong, clean sporting performances."

 

[Smallville22]

Team success leaves Parkinson a happy girl in Utrecht

Cyclist Abby-Mae Parkinson took great pride in her teammates' performances as she played a key role to help Team GB to two medals in the girls' road race at the European Youth Olympic Festival.
Fresh from her strong showing in Tuesday's time trial where she secured an impressive ninth-place finish, Parkinson played the role of lead-out for her teammates on the roads of Utrecht.
Grace Garner was the designated sprinter for the team and she raced to grab bronze while Charlotte Broughton, who had got detached from the British train, had to think quickly to snatch silver.
Parkinson ended up back in the pack in 52nd but safe in the knowledge that her job had been well done.
"It was a fantastic day for Team GB and that means I did my job well," she said.
"To get silver and bronze is great achievement because these girls are the best in the whole of Europe.
"Charlotte and Grace have got great sprint finishes and they showed that to grab us two medals so I'm really proud of them.
"It all got a bit hectic and we had to think fast because Charlotte got a bit detached, meaning that I had to do an extra long lead-out for Grace.
"Grace did so well to get the bronze and Charlotte got silver as well so it's a great achievement for the team."
With the completion of the road race and Tuesday's time trial, Parkinson's competitive involvement at the Festival is now over.
But she insists she is still going to enjoy every minute of her experience out in the Netherlands.
"This has been such an amazing week," she added. "I was really pleased with my performance in the time trial and again in the road race, we have taken our competition very seriously.
"But aside from that the chance to meet other people and make new friends has been amazing.
"Team GB has been such an awesome experience, with everyone across every sport coming together; I have had an amazing team, one of the best weeks of my life."

 

[Smallville22]

Cunego, others indicted on doping charges

An Italian court indicted former Giro d'Italia winner Damiano Cunego and 26 others on doping charges involving his Lampre-Merida team in a new blow for a sport dogged by **** scandals.
In a statement, Lampre said it had "full confidence in the team members involved in the case" and that the trial would prove the doping charges to be baseless.
A spokesman confirmed that 2004 Giro winner Cunego, who is leading the team in the Tour de France, as well as former world road race champion Alessandro Ballan and others had been indicted on charges of buying or receiving ****** substances.
The trial centres around a ******** in the northern Italian city of Mantova frequented by riders of the Lampre team.

 

[Smallville22]

Costa wins second Tour stage in four days

Portugal’s Rui Costa continued a memorable week at the Tour de France by winning a rain-soaked mountainous stage 19 in Le Grand-Bornand.
Movistar’s Costa, who won in similar circumstances in Gap on Monday, overtook a spent Pierre Rolland (Europcar) with 20km to go on the final climb of the day before holding off four chasers led by Andreas Kloden (RadioShack-Leopard) during a wet and challenging downhill finish.
The 26-year-old double Tour de Suisse champion soloed home 58 seconds to the better of German veteran Kloden to secure the third Tour win of his career.
Race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) completed the 204.5km stage from Bourg-d’Oisans in a select group alongside his main rivals to preserve his yellow jersey with two days of the 100th edition of the race remaining.
Froome leads Spain’s Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) by five minutes and 11 seconds in the general classification, with Costa’s Colombian team-mate Nairo Quintana a further 21 seconds down in third place.
“It was my target to be in the break today but I didn’t think I’d be in a position to contest the victory at the end,” said Costa after his sixth win of the season. “I didn’t feel as strong as I did in Gap so I waited until the final climb - and this time there was still someone out ahead of me.”
That man was Rolland, who started the last of five climbs with a minute over a group of 19 riders in pursuit despite suffering from serious cramps. The Frenchman faded fast as soon as the heavens opened inside the final 25km but moved within one point of Froome in the king of the mountains classification.
The flat opening few kilometres of yet another ****** stage in the Alps saw around 40 riders break clear off the front of the peloton, with Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) and Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel) riding up the road to take an early lead.
A small chasing group formed on the long HC climb of the Col du Glandon featuring stage 18 winner Christophe Riblon (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and fellow Frenchman Rolland.
Hesjedal and Izaguirre crossed the summit of the Col du Glandon with two minutes over the Riblon chasing quartet and another 45 seconds over the large break. The peloton, led by Froome’s Sky team-mates, crested the summit around eight minutes in arrears.
After a long descent, the second of two HC climbs - the Col du Madeleine - saw a further shake up with Izaguirre being dropped by Hesjedal and Rolland riding clear of the small chasing group. Rolland caught and ****** Izaguirre with ease before joining Hesjedal 4km from the summit of the leg-sapping 19km climb.
The leading duo combined well with Hesjedal allowing Rolland to take maximum points over the summit before taking the front seat on the fast downhill, which featured 26 hairpin bends and some stunning sweeping vistas. Hitting the bottom, their advantage was up to four minutes over a chasing group of 20 riders, and a huge 12 minutes over a rather lackadaisical peloton.
A long flat drag to the foot of the next climb proved too much for the 2012 Giro d’Italia winner Hesjedal, who was dropped by Rolland at the start of the Cat.2 Col du Tamie. With stage wins to his name from the previous two Tours, Rolland was eager to open his - and his team’s - account in the 2013 race, and in the process put himself back into the reckoning in the battle for the polka dot jersey.
Riding on his own, but in the company of the thousands of cheering French fans lining the road, Rolland crossed the summit with a 1:50 gap over the chasing group with 60km and two more climbs remaining before the finish.
Despite suffering from cramps that saw his advantage come down to just one minute ahead of the next climb, Rolland found a second wind on the Col de l’Epine to cross the summit 1:54 ahead of the ever-slimming chase group - which contained some big name riders such as Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida), Dutch national champion Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM), Spaniard Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) and two former stage winners from earlier in the race, Jan Bakelants (RadioShack) and the eventual victor, Costa.
It was Navarro, a former team-mate of Contador, who made the first ****** from the chasing group on the final climb of the day, the Cat.1 Col de la Croix Fry, just as the rain that had threatened the whole stage finally came down.
The Spaniard’s ****** thinned out the chasing group, and provided Costa with the springboard to make his decisive ****** with 20km remaining. The Portuguese all-rounder caught Rolland one kilometre later, and despite the Frenchman’s best efforts, he was not able to hold onto the fresher Costa’s wheel.
Team-mates Kloden and Bakelants joined ****** with Navarro, Spaniard Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) and Belgian Bart de Clercq (Lotto-Belisol) in pursuit of the lone leader. But as the deluge continued, they could make up no ground on Costa, who crossed the final summit with 13km remaining with a minute to play with.
Avoiding disaster on the wet roads, Costa rode an accomplished descent and kept his concentration until the final kilometre when he started to celebrate with his team directeur sportif.
Kloden took second place almost a minute ahead of team-mate Bakelants, who crossed the line ahead of Frenchman Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) and Navarro, who moved into the top ten on GC.
Back with the main peloton, Froome was tested just the once on the final when Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) put in an ****** alongside Quintana and Contador - but the 28-year-old race leader kept his calm to cross the summit alongside his rivals. The main pack crossed the line nine minutes down on Costa.
“Today was one of the hardest stages of the Tour with more than four and a half thousand metres of climbing. But every day is hard for us and we just have to follow all the attacks,” said Froome.
“The team worked really hard today and we now have 125 kilometres to go until we can start to relax.”
Saturday’s short and sharp penultimate stage features six categorised climbs including the HC summit finish at Annecy-Semnoz, which is being raced for the first time in Tour history.
If Froome can get through the 125km stage then standing atop the podium in Paris with the yellow jersey will be a certainty.
But while Froome's overall victory seems a formality, the battle for the remaining two podium places should provide the fireworks, with Contador, Quintana, Roman Kreuziger and Rodriguez all separated by just 47 seconds.

 

[Smallville22]

Froome triumph all but confirmed, Quintana wins stage

Chris Froome all but secured his first ever Tour de France overall victory after Nairo Quintana won the penultimate stage in Annecy-Semnoz.
Team Sky’s Froome will become the second successive British rider to win cycling’s biggest stage race following team-mate Bradley Wiggins’s victory last year, finishing the 100th edition of the Tour with an advantage of five minutes and three seconds over runner-up Quintana.
The Tour’s final stage into Paris usually concludes with a large bunch sprint on the famous Champs-Elysees – but the stage is traditionally not contested by the general classification riders meaning the overall places are effectively now set in stone.
"This is an amazing feeling - absolutely amazing,” said Froome. “To be here in yellow at the Tour is difficult to put into words.
"It has been an amazing journey for me. The race has been a fight every single day. It really has been a special edition. I'm 28. Most cyclists come into their prime in their early thirties. I would love to come back and keep targeting the Tour every year."
Kenyan-born Froome took third place on the short and sharp mountainous stage 20 behind the impressive winner Quintana (Movistar) and a resurgent Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).
Riding his debut Tour, Quintana’s maiden stage victory also secured the 23-year-old Colombian the polka dot jersey as the race’s best climber and the white jersey as the best young rider, not to forget the all-important second rung on the podium in Paris.
Rodriguez, who crossed the line atop the HC climb of Semnoz 18 seconds down on Quintana, moved into third place on GC at the expense of fellow Spaniard Alberto Contador, who finished a further two minutes and 10 seconds down to drop off the podium on the eve of the race’s final processional stage into Paris.
Slovakia’s Peter Sagan (Cannondale) finished the 125km stage with a trademark wheelie more than 15 minutes in arrears to secure a second successive green jersey in only his second Tour. Regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s showpiece sprint finale on the Champs-Elysees, Sagan will top the points classification, entering the final stage with an insurmountable 101-point lead over Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).
While Contador was one of the big losers of the day, dropping from second to fourth on GC and finishing the race more than seven minutes behind his big rival Froome, his Saxo-Tinkoff team did secure the overall team classification after some consistent riding across the board over the full three weeks.
Besides Froome, Quintana and Rodriguez, the biggest winner of the day was the American Andrew Talansky, who moved into the top 10 after a strong sixth-place in the gruelling stage.
The big losers of the stage were numerous and included plucky Frenchman Pierre Rolland (Europcar) who failed in his quest to secure a second successive king of the mountains title for his team after Thomas Voeckler’s heroics in 2012.
Trailing Froome by one slender point at the top of the standings, Rolland wore the polka dot jersey by default as the third of three consecutive Alpine stages got under way in Annecy.
Rolland attacked as soon as the flag was waved for the official start, forming a 10-man break alongside team-mate Cyril Gautier, Mikel Astarloza and Igor Anton of Euskaltel, Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Jens Voigt (RadioShack), Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM), Christophe Riblon (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Pavel Brutt (Katusha) and Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge).
A stage winner in the past two Tours, Rolland crossed three of the first four lower category summits in pole position to move 15 points clear of Froome at the top of the polka dot jersey standings. But aware that the final climb offered double points because of its status as a summit finish, Rolland was always up against it.
German veteran Voigt – the oldest man in the peloton at 41 and riding his final Tour – broke clear on the Cat.1 Mont Revard 62km from the finish. A chase group formed around Rolland and was joined by BMC pair Philippe Gilbert and Tejay van Garderen and Frenchman Alexis Vuillermoz (Sojasun), who all jumped clear of a Movistar-led peloton.
Voigt crossed the summit with more than a minute on the chasing group and three minutes over the peloton – a lead which had come down to just two minutes by the time the rangy RadioShack star had reached the foot of the final major climb of the Tour.
Relentless pace-setting by Sky blew the peloton apart on the climb and soon all the escapees – including Rolland – were swept up except Voigt, who continued his doomed solo ride with pain etched across his face.
By the time Voigt was caught with 8km remaining, only six riders were left on the front of the race: the yellow jersey Froome, his faithful Sky team-mate Richie Porte, Quintana, the Colombian’s Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde, Contador and Rodriguez.
An acceleration by Froome did for everyone except Quintana and Rodriguez, and the trio rode to the summit together before Froome put in another large ****** with 2km remaining.
Quintana matched Froome’s dig before riding clear inside the final kilometre. Knowing that the race was won, Froome slowed to allow Rodriguez to ride off in pursuit of the Colombian. But Quintana held on for his debut win, 18 seconds clear of Rodriguez. Froome crossed the line with an understated clench of the fist a further 11 seconds back.
Valverde took fourth place at 1:42 while a grinning Porte came home for fifth at 2:17. Talansky finished 10 seconds later just ahead of Contador, whose team-mates Jesus Hernandez and Roman Kreuziger also finished inside the top ten on the day, behind the Frenchman John Gadret (Agr2-La Mondiale) in eighth.
Victory for Quintana saw him move 11 points clear of Froome to secure the polka dot jersey so coveted by Rolland. The Colombian also won the white jersey as best young rider by 13 minutes and 19 seconds over Talansky.
With Froome toasting a well-earned overall victory, the riders will complete the 2013 Tour de France on Sunday with an unprecedented evening arrival on the Champs-Elysees. The 133.5km stage 21 from Versailles from Paris should finish around 8.30pm UK time and is expected to see Cavendish secure his fifth successive sprint win on the cobbled streets of the French capital.