What a blow for all his rivals and also for the Tour, which closes again, crushed by the excessive power of Chris Froome, after having dreamed for one day of reopening seeing in the Pyrenean stage the yellow jersey abandoned to itself by his team, the Team Sky. The 33 km of the time trial stage, in the unique and extraordinary setting of Mont-Saint-Michel, was enough to transform an already significant gap into a real chasm between the yellow jersey and Contador, Valverde, Rodriguez and the other so-called big names, all insufficient to make a fool of himself in the fraction against the clock.
Fraction that Froome was about to win, if he hadn't skidded in the curve that led to the finish straight, right under the famous Benedictine abbey. Seeing how that thunderbolt dressed in yellow had gone, in the first two thirds of the race, Toni Martin must have breathed a deep sigh of relief, the German world champion in the specialty, who had been leading the partial classification for hours, thanks to a performance as usual in capital letters, ahead of the Belgian De Gendt by more than a minute and by 1'21” the revived Richie Porte, Froome's teammate who went into crisis at Bagnéres de Bigorre. The English champion had done one second better than him in the first split, an advantage that increased to two seconds at 24km. You could understand the increasingly worried look of Martin who was following the race on TV from the position reserved for the first (temporarily) classified. But Froome in the end set a time 12 seconds higher than Martin, who could thus celebrate a prestigious victory by easing the sadness of Cavendish, his Omega Pharma partner, who had been vulgarly contested by the public for the sprint in Saint Malo with the Tom Veelers carambola. A great specialist, Martin is talked about together with Fabian Cancellara, as possible pretenders to the hour record with attempts to be scheduled by the end of the year.
Froome didn't win the stage but in fact he killed the Tour even if Paris is still many kilometers away, the Ventoux and the Alps with the double climb of Alpe d'Huez. The white Kenyan is too strong, his rivals are too disappointing. Contador 15th in the time trial at 2'15” is now in fourth place at 3'59”. Valverde went better than him, by two seconds, still second in the general standings but his gap increased to 3'25”. Evans (21st at 2'30”) slipped to 14th place at 6'54” from the yellow jersey. Joaquim Rodriguez also got lost along the way. Even crashed far away at 8'32” Andy Schleck, who seemed to be recovering but which was a bad appearance in today's time trial finishing 123rd (!) at 4'33” behind Martin. Even for Nairo Quintana, a Colombian climber with high hopes, the time trial ended in a heavy flop that cost him the white jersey of leader of the youngsters, which was returned to the shoulders of the Polish Kwiatkowski, brilliant fifth at 1'31" from Martin .
On the day in which Froome puts his hands more and more firmly on the Tour, the letter from the president of the UCI, Pat Mc Quaid, to Pantani's parents, definitively removes the suspicion that someone wanted to cancel the name of the Pirate from the roll of honor of the Tour won in 1998. Marco doesn't touch himself. And Mc Quaid reassured himself by writing that “as president of the UCI, but above all as a father, I can only imagine how heavy the loss of your son, the great cyclist Marco Pantani, is. I also understand how important it is for you to defend his memory and his name. If the name of Marco Pantani were to emerge during the activities of the Senate of the French Republic, according to our information, there would be no reason to take any steps.
Indeed, since the scientific analyzes carried out by the French laboratory in 2004 did not comply with the technical standards for anti-doping analyses, these results cannot be accepted as evidence in an anti-doping context and therefore would not allow the opening of a disciplinary proceeding. Furthermore, with the prior consent to the analyzes expressed by the cyclists. I sincerely hope that these words have been of clarification and comfort and that it is possible to preserve the magnificent image and wonderful memories we have of Marco Pantani". Luckily for cycling this time it's only common sense that wins. Disqualifying a champion, who died in the way we know, would have been a wicked and senseless decision.
