Chris Froome mustn't have forgotten how many bitter pills he swallowed in the 2012 Tour when, by team orders, he even had to brake to wait for Bradley Wiggins, giving up the chance to win the Tour. Team Sky then more than rewarded him by putting him at his service a powerful team – a sort of battleship where everyone works for the captain – with which he has triumphed in three Tours. He will probably win this year too, the fourth in his career, but to do so he is increasingly putting all his also holding back Mikel Landa, who could also win this Tour, in the name of the "team reason" that he suffered at the time of Wiggins.
It happened in yesterday's stage, when in the descent before the last ascent, the Col de Peyra Talade with first category slopes, Romain Bardet's Agr2 World unleashes a frontal attack with all his men, splitting the peloton. We are in the Aubrac, the volcanic and granite plateau in the central-southern area of the Massif Central, a source of cheer for Bardet who was born in these parts and who knows every bend of the route perfectly. Aru and Landa are also ready to join the Agr2 train.
Here the Tour could witness a new turnaround against its master who remained entangled in the rear. In addition, Froome has the misfortune of puncturing the front wheel and putting it out of action. The flagship is far away, slowed down by the traffic of the Tour caravan. Luckily for the yellow jersey there is Kwiatkwoski who passes it to him without wasting any more time, as if he were the boy in the shop and not someone who has already won a world championship and the Milan-San Remo. These are moments in which – the British himself admitted at the finish line – Froome is in a cold sweat, fearing the big ambush because in front Bardet and Aru are doing their best to detach him.
The yellow jersey chases helped by Nieve and Henao. But the gap always fluctuates around half a minute. It's a full emergency in the Sky house. So inevitably the boss's law doesn't spare even Landa. The Basque is stopped to lend a hand to the boss. Landa obeys with that impenetrable gaze that masks good effort as well as anger. Froome returns at the end and in the end he will thank everyone, even Landa, for having escaped danger. But the stage in the Massif Central, even if it doesn't change the classification, psychologically instills courage in Aru and Bardet given how even the despot can go under stress in an instant.
Yesterday's stage, with two parallel races: the attack by Bardet and Aru, sensitive for the classification, was irrelevant for the order of arrival of the stage, which saw about twenty riders attack from the morning : among them Toni Martin, the German time trial specialist; Warren Barguil, the French interested in the points of the two Gpm; the usual Thomas De Gendt, the Belgian rider who has forfeited the most kilometers in the breakaway of all in this Tour; our De Marchi, Caruso and Diego Ulissi looking for a success to restart a career that hasn't been implemented for some time; the Dutchman Blauke Mollema, also out of the standings looking for glory also to raise the morale of his team, Trek-Segafredo, conditioned by the negative Tour of Contador and Degenkolb.
In the eventful finale the selection begins: it is Mollema who in the end is left alone and wins at the finish line in Le Puy-en-Velay. At 19” he places second to Ulissi who precedes Gallopin and Roglic. Barguil is fourth at 23”. The best group arrives at 6'25” regulated by Froome. Second day of rest today awaiting the final verdict entrusted to the Alps and the Marseille time trial.
