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news
Tour de France logo on yellow 3x2Chris Froome wins Tour de France for third time, Andre Greipel takes final stage
Chris Froome of Team Sky has won the Tour de France for the third time in four years after completing the final stage in Paris, won by Andre Greipel of Lotto-Soudal, the second year running the German has triumphed on cycling’s most iconic finish line.
Froome had held the race lead since attacking on a downhill finish in the Pyrenees and in a 103rd edition of the Tour that had no shortage of drama, he steadily took time from rivals including on the crosswind affected stage to Montpellier and in the two time trials.
He also extended his lead on the shortened Bastille Day stage to Chalet Reynard on the slopes of Mont Ventoux despite crashing when motorcycles in the group he was in were unable to get through the crowds, Froome running briefly towards the finish line until a spare bike could be found.
On Friday, a crash on a wet descent left Froome cut and bruised, but he still managed to build his lead further, starting today's final stage 4 minutes 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Romain Bardet of AG2R-La Mondiale, with Nairo Quintana of Movistar third.
Today’s 113 kilometre stage from Chantilly began with the usual photo opportunities of the jersey winners – besides Froome in yellow, fellow Briton Adam Yates of Orica-BikeExchange was best young rider while Tinkoff’s Peter Sagan won the green points jersey for the fifth year in a row, with team mate Rafal Majka taking the polka dot jersey as king of the mountains for the second time.
With the winners of both the yellow and white jerseys and a total of seven stage wins – two by Froome, while Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish, who left the race on Tuesday to prepare for the Olympics, took four stages and his team-mate Steve Cummings one, it is the most successful Tour de France ever for British riders.
After the processional ride into Paris this afternoon, racing began in earnest after the peloton, led by Team Sky in celebratory yellow kit and the race winner, crossed the courtyard of the Louvre to swing left onto the Rue de Rivoli to start the XX laps of the closing circuit.
As ever, attacks came immediately and eight riders got away – Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Lawson Craddock (Cannondale-Drapac), Markus Burghardt (BMC), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).
With around 40 kilometres left, Etixx-Quick Step’s Tony Martin, struggling with knee pain, abandoned the race, and shortly afterwards his team mate Marcel Kittel, seeking his third career win on the Champs-Elyseees, needed a wheel change and was visibly angry as a result of his misfortune.
Team Sky’s Luke Rowe subsequently spiced things up by attacking from the peloton to join the break. But with Direct Energie, working for their sprinter Bryan Coquard, chasing hard, the break was doomed, although BMC Racing’s Greg Van Avermaet also chanced his arm.
As the bell was sounded at the start of the final lap, the peloton was all together, but Direct Energie’s efforts were in vain as Coquard suffered a mechanical problem with just 2 kilometres remaining.
Coming under the flamme rouge to signify the beginning of the final kilometre, Greipel’s Lotto Soudal team were forcing the pace.
Kittel was on his compatriot’s wheel ahead of the Place de la Concorde but seemed to lose position as another rider swung into his path, and it was Greipel who took the stage win ahead of Sagan.
Froome meanwhile came home safely to claim his third victory in cycling’s biggest race – and Team Sky’s fourth in five years.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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18 comments
Totally down with getting ride of radios and team cars and let riders rely on instinct and planning. Would completely change the game.
Zero chance of it happening though, if anything we'll be seeing even more connectivity and data shared so..
It wasn't like other teams were 'on it' and Sky steamrollered them anyway in USPS-style fashion. In previous years they've made the attacks count on stages that mattered, then had to recover on stages that didn't (to them), and use the time gap gained to weather the storm from Nairo et al in week 3. That was what they had planned this year, but Nairo never really looked a threat and Richie was at a disadvantage due to his earlier time loss (but was still stronger than Tejay). Alberto fizzled out, but even if he hadn't, Tinkoff weren't totally focused on him the way Sky do. Yates pretty much rode on his own (massive well done to him!), etc etc.
Sky won because they don't trip up. Diet, recovery, planning, discipline, these are all things which are great candidates for the marginal gains approach. Combine with the budget to buy big name riders (finishing with 9 guys is startling), and you're left with a team that made less mistakes.
+1
They also have the best Stage Race Rider in Chris Froome.
Was The Tour boring because Sky won? No - Any 'boredom' was caused by the other teams not trying.
Here's something to ponder.
The trouble with modern tours is the use of live camera feeds to the team cars and team radios. This is why break-aways so seldom succeed and why all the attacks are on the final climbs on mountain stages. If we get rid of team radios then it will be down to the decisions of the Road Captains and the Team Leaders.
Discuss.
Edit: Second Question. How strong is Wout Poels? Seriously, the man is a beast!
Getting rid of race radios, TV feeds etc might enhance the beauty of the sport to the fans, but the lack of data, information and visualisation might turn off the armchair supporters, and the funding and overall popularity of the sport relies on it's accessibility.
Imagine if they banned camera feeds, the doping conspirators would be looking for evidence of a team car occupant trying to get Eurosport on his iPad!
As for Wout Poels, I am for reasons unknown reminded of Schwarzenegger vehicle "Predator":
"Bullshit Billy, you ain't afraid of no man!"
"That's just it, it ain't no man. We're all gonna die."
The romance and beauty of the sport makes me wish not that I was one of the great winners, only that I was known as an absolute animal on the bike.
Live? Far from it. They're just getting the broadcast TV, and probably streaming it at that- pretty hard to reliably receive a terrestial TV signal or sattelite in a moving vehicle in mountains. If it was the straight broadcast there's a good 30 seconds or so delay on it at the best of times. If you're streaming, you can add another 30-60 seconds on for encoding, buffering and decoding- I stream, and hide twitter in the closing minutes of a sprint stage as otherwise people will be tweeting the result before I've seen the finish.
Obviously if they're streaming there's still the issue of getting a decent signal. Then we all know how dodgy time gaps displayed can be- and the time gaps they're getting on Radio Tour won't be any better.
Then the radios themselves aren't that reliable and if ithere's lots of fans can be hard to hear.
Then you have the issue of riders pulling out earpieces or just flat out ignoring what they're told- and Froome is DEFINITELY amongest that tendency. He'll happily take off leaving Portal accelerating his progress towards a Dave Brailsford hair style.
Do the TVs and radios have an effect? Yes. Do they allow DSs to make split secod descions about which moves to follow? Not a chance.
Team Sky and Froome did an amazing job. That descent of Froomes was just amazing and where Froome won this. The other teams didn’t or couldn’t take it to Sky.
For me, the surprise standout moment of the Tour was the arrival of Leffe as the new last stage booze sponsor. Result.
Just ten comments? Jesus.
Trouble is Kimmage will live off the "i was right on Armstrong" forever though and probably feels able to say what he wants under the idea that he was right playing the long game once. I find it odd that some people get dragged through the dirt about potentially cheating but yet other 'legends' don't.
I'd be surprised if almost every rider wasn't on 'something' that kept their biological passport still looking good but elevated them to the last 1%, it just the nature of the game. I also think that this tour was won as much as a strong team effort as anything, as well as the competition not really providing the expected competition.
Chris Froome's problem is he's too normal. He's not going to play the clown, generally not punch people or get into bitter rivalries. Cheating is the only thing the sensationalists have to try and dig with. Sadly for poetic foreign journos, the days of romatic breakaway wins etc. have probably gone with legendary figures that maybe cheated to be so legendary anyway.
Spot the placeholder text...
Greipel is lucky new young British sprinting ace Mark cavendish pulled out before the mountains. AG is just a washed up old man and can't win anything without a lead out. Hope we will see more of "Cav" in the future.
SO pleased for Greipel, massive power at the end. Sagan's rear wheel though! Felt bad for it skipping around, surprised it didn't explode under those megawatts
And so Froome. He climbs, he descends, he TT's, he's in the breakaways with Sagan..
Christ, will he be in the sprints in 2017
Pretty sure that's the end of Froome's detractors.
Nah, Kimmage was implying things weren't quite right on twitter today. If you feel like wasting your time looking at his shite feel free, I won't waste my time putting in a link.
I think we need to trust some teams, whereas other teams seem to keep having dodgy test results, so the problem is still there. But Sky I think have too much to lose and in this day and age of twitter, FB, massive teams etc if there was something iffy someone would open their trap sooner rather than later.
C'mon, to suggest we should put SKY beyond suspicion is laughable. Why because SKY is a British linked team and Froome is a British rider?
Froome's dominance is extraordinary, (to the point of being extraordinarily boring). Given the sport's history people are entirely within their rights to question the result.
He's only dominant at certain types of Stage races though. It's not like Froome or SKY can just enter any cycling race and win. Far from it. They didn't have a single momument win until what, a month ago or so?
Grand Tours do drag on, and for me I find the classics more interesting like the Flanders and PR, especially in shit weather. Love that stuff. So for me I don't think of SKY as being a dominant team all year round.
As for doping. I don't think about that. Athletes in all sports dope to the extent they can get away with at pro level. Most guys will have doped at some stage to get where they are today. That's just the state of things.
Some get caught, some back off as the heat gets too high. Some get away with it with the latest new technique.
Who's to say who does what and when. No-one will ever know. I just don't see the point of going on about it. May as well not watch any sport, ever, if drugs are a hang up.
Just had a look at his Tweets, and yeah he is definitely implying something's dodgy, but he's doing it mildly. Worried about the full force of SKY's lawyers ruining years of his life no doubt.
No point talking balls. If you have actual evidence then yes, then you can make allegations. No positives form Froome's tests, no witnesses against him either, so what's the point..
He gapped Nairo Quintana on one descent and got into the right echelon with Bodnar and Sagan and we're all supposed to pretend that this made the GC race less painfully dull this year.
Froome and Team Sky are good at winning the Tour de France but it's not much fun to watch.
SKY's fault because other teams are sh*t?
No thanks. The bar has been raised, other teams need to get their act together. When they do it will get competitive again. They've seen SKY coming for years now, their gameplay is no surprise.
Some of those big teams are a circus. Squabbling kids, ego wars, GC guys riding around unprotected. Poor directorship and unmotivated riders. That's what's killin the GC race, not Team SKY.