Today Alpe d'Huez, at the end of its legendary 21 hairpin bends, will crown the winner of the Tour de France. What seemed completely obvious at the start of yesterday's stage today is less so after the extraordinary ride of Vincenzo Nibali, winner by gap at La Toussuire, with 44" on Nairo Quintana who in turn inflicted the first jab on Chris Froome gaining 30 seconds plus another two bonuses on the yellow jersey. After 18 stages in which the Tour seemed to be anesthetized by the British in yellow and by Team Sky, on the eve of the catwalk on the Champs Elysees the Grande Boucle will experience an unexpected Saturday of great emotions even if the bookmakers see Froome as the untouchable master, quoted 1,08 compared to Quintana given 7,50.
Quintana is now 2'38” behind Froome, who yesterday for the first time seemed more Earthly than Martian, with no teammates with Geraint Thomas who ended up immediately in the back of the race and in the standings. The yellow jersey tried to mask the discomfort, pedaling smoothly as if it didn't care much about Nibali's breakaway, but 5 km from the finish, when Quintana attacked him by pulling him away, the Briton seemed less invincible than usual. A heart-pounding duel behind Nibali who was winning one of his most beautiful victories in front of him: heart, class and grit, the same Shark from last year's Tour is back. Sixty kilometers of solo that started halfway up the Croix de Fer climb to reach and then detach Pierre Rolland, resisting on the ascent to La Toussuire even the final forcing from Quintana who was punishing Froome: something never seen in this Tour, a show of great cycling. He won't win the Grande Boucle but yesterday's feat projects Nibali close to the podium, taking advantage of the first failure of Valverde and the umpteenth surrender of Contador, both arriving 2'26” behind the Italian champion together with Frank Gesink. Mollema and Rolland. Nibali restarts today from Modane in fourth place at 6'44 from Froome but above all just 1'19” from the third who is still Valverde. An unimaginable situation just one stage earlier even if Nibali had been growing sharply for a few days. It is also unimaginable that Froome, always polite even in the face of throwing a bottle of urine, would get angry after the race with Nibali, accusing him of attacking him just when he was forced to stop due to a gearbox accident. The Briton, who obviously doesn't like to lose, yelled unrepeatable words at Nibali deserving the gesture of an umbrella under his arm from a French fan. This is why today, apart from the bookmakers' odds, 110,5 km of fire await us, climbing up the Croix de Fer before the assault on Alpe d'Huez, the mountain that has entered legend since 1952, the triumph of Fausto Coppi of great cycling.
