Tour, Chris Froome's spectacular performance

Spectacular show by Chris Foome in the first Pyrenean stage of Ax-3-Domaines. A test of strength, that of the "white Kenyan", on the final ramp which effectively mortgages the victory of the Tour when there are still two weeks left in Paris. Certainly many have lost the Tour since today. The gaps that the leader of Team Sky, wearing the new yellow jersey, has inflicted are those that leave little escape for those who suffer them: Contador, increasingly in difficulty in the last kilometers of the climb, lost 1'45" together with his teammate Kreuziger who sacrificed himself to save his captain from the brink; Joaquim Rodriguez, a bad copy of Purito from the 2012 Giro, leaves the field at 2'06; Andy Schleck, increasingly skeletal and evanescent, concedes a good 3'33” to the British champion; even worse Cadel Evans, who crashed as soon as Froome with his partner Ritchie Porte accelerated and left the lap 4'13” late. The Canadian Ryder Hesjedal and the American Tejay Van Garderen also failed: the two best exponents of North American cycling, given among the "outsiders" on the eve, disappeared even before the final battle got underway. Very few saved themselves on this day dominated by the excessive power of the English champion: apart from the Australian Porte, second at 52” from his captain, only Alejandro Valverde, who reached 1 '08” and the Belgian Mollema at 1'10”. The Colombian Nairo Quintana, born in 1992, deserves a separate mention. Quintana was still solo at the start of the final climb to the 2001m Ax-1.375-Domaines but Froome and Porte, with a pedal stroke that quickly disintegrated Contador's morale and stamina, extinguished the hopes of success also for the Colombian who he arrived 3'2” behind the winner. But Quintana, despite the defeat, confirmed that he is one of the most interesting realities of the new cycling. Meanwhile, from today he wears the white jersey of the best young rider in the Tour until yesterday on the shoulders of the Polish Kwiatkowski. The Tour restarts tomorrow for the second Pyrenean stage with a classification dominated by Team Sky which, after the electroshock caused by Froome, sees Bradley Wiggins' former “gregario” in the yellow jersey with 02” seconds on team mate Porte. Third is Valverde at 51'1. Contador is seventh at 25'1”. Evans and Schleck have now fallen into the group of extras where Daryl Impey, the first jersey of an African rider, also returned – as was predictable.