“Of Tours, Froome can win even ten”. This is the opinion of Eddy Merckx, who knows the victorious Tours having conquered five, after the Megève time trial which saw the triumph of the yellow jersey and the fragility of his opponents.
Too strong compared to everyone, even pure grimpeurs like Quintana and the same time trial specialists like Dumoulin, the British, by attacking the 17 km between Sallanches and Megève in his own way, effectively put the seal on his third Tour.
An authoritative performance that allowed him to increase an advantage in the standings such as to keep him safe from any surprises: Mollema (17th at 1'25") remains in second place in the general classification but his gap from the British in yellow has increased to 3' 52".
Yachts, author of a time trial that however saw him lose another 1'23” from the yellow jersey, is still third but 4'16”. Froome now unassailable, the fight now seems limited to the podium area given that the advantage of Mollema and Yates does not keep them safe from the onslaught of those who follow them very closely.
Quintana, disappointing also in Megève where he did not go beyond 10th place at 1'10", he is however 21" from third place and for a condor, albeit plucked, with two alpine stages - today we arrive on the slopes of Mont Blanc – it shouldn't be an impossible feat to close this small gap.
Then, there is Bardet, his time trial is good, fifth in the standings he is just 20” behind the Colombian from Movistar. Doors instead he is sixth just 3” from the French dell'Agr, while Aru, seventh, at 6'08" from Froome, can try to get on the podium, encouraged by yesterday's excellent time trial at the end of which he finished third at 33" from the master of the Tour, preceded by only 12" by Tom Dumoulin, the best time trialist of this Tour, whose dream of doing three of a kind (after Arcalis and the first time trial) vanished only in extremis with the arrival of Froome.
The same time as Aru was set by Richie Porte, who in this Tour is proving to be Froome's bravest rival, stage after stage, the only one who tried to attack him in the first Alpine stage forcing the yellow jersey to bother person to achieve it.
Yesterday Porte set the best time in the ascent of the Cote de Domancy, the hardest climb of the time trial, winning the Bernard Hinault prize, established to commemorate the exploit of the French champion in the 1980 Sallanches world championship.
