And he reached the top of Alpe d'Huez on the day of the first French victory with Christophe Riblon who, less than two kilometers from the finish, hooks and detaches the American Tejay Van Garderen, the unfortunate protagonist of a courageous solo action which rehabilitates him after two weeks spent behind the scenes. Third, also emerging from so many days spent in anonymity, Moreno Moser. The transalpines end their "ramadan" at the Tour, the Americans find a rider who seemed lost, the Italians finally see one of the beautiful promises of blue cycling rise to the headlines.
But the alpine stage with the double ascent to Alpe d'Huez will be remembered above all as the day of Chris Froome's first crisis. That he will win the Tour, but that four kilometers from the finish line at the top of the legendary Alpe he would have run a few too many risks if his faithful Richie Porte hadn't been at his side, ready to pass him some sugar supplied by the flagship. An action not allowed in the last km of the race that the jury, at the end of the race, sanctioned with a 20” penalty. It was the highlight of the race. Suddenly the yellow jersey, which was going up with Quintana and Rodriguez, slowed down by raising his hand as if signaling a breakdown. Instead, it was a crisis of hunger, as Froome himself later admitted at the finish line. It was the "fringale" as they call it in France since the heroic times when cycling was not the technological one of today and of Team Sky in particular.
Rodriguez and Quintana, who today proved to be the most brilliant opponents for the leader of the Tour, seized on the fly the moment of his bewilderment, stretching until gaining about a minute on the yellow jersey at the finish line. Contador did not take advantage of Froome's first day as a human. After trying to detach the white Kenyan on the narrow and dangerous descent of the Col de Sarenne - located in the middle between the first and second ascent to Alpe d'Huez - Contador gave way as soon as Froome, Quintana and Rodriguez took off one after another the other, in the toughest hairpin bends of the Alpe. Contador now shows that he has more heart than legs: his rise "en danseuse" is no longer as effective and feared as it once was. The Spaniard lost almost a minute: he managed to keep second place in the standings, but behind him Quintana got very close and entered the podium area, ousting Kreuziger from third place.
Even Rodriguez, overtaken by Mollema, is now lurking there ready to take advantage of another bad day for the two men from Saxo Tinkoff. Maybe starting tomorrow when another stage is scheduled with many long and hard mountain grands prix, such as the Glandon and the Madeleine. An ideal fraction also to verify immediately if Froome's was a crisetta that resolved with a sugar cube or a first crack, humanly possible, in a sample that up to 4 thousand meters of today's arrival had the appearance of a Martian from another planet.
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