Chris Froome produced one of the most destructive time trials of his career to flay his last remaining rivals in this year’s Vuelta a España – and move inexorably closer to a historic grand tour double.
Only two riders in history – the Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault – have won the Vuelta and the Tour de France in the same year. Froome, pictured, will surely become the third after nearly doubling his lead over the Italian Vincenzo Nibali with five stages remaining.
Froome started stage 16’s 40.2km time trial to Logroño as a scalding hot favourite. Even so the ease of his victory, through the vineyards and wineries of northern Spain, was startling. At the first checkpoint he was 23 seconds down in fourth place yet such was his pace during the second half of the stage he ended it 29 seconds clear of the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman, with Nibali 28 seconds further back in third.
Most riders who compete in the Tour de France turn up at the Vuelta with the lingering effects of the French race in their legs. Froome, however, appears lighter and more powerful. And over precisely 47 minutes of controlled yet destructive riding, at a speed of over 51.5kph, he extended his overall lead to Nibali to 1min 58sec. Kelderman is 2min 40sec back in third, with Ilnur Zakarin just over three minutes behind in fourth. Alberto Contador, in fifth, has nearly five minutes to make up.
But while it might have looked like a dominant performance, Froome admitted afterwards that he was concerned by the lack of time checks from the Team Sky car. “I didn’t really know where I was,” he said. “I was a bit worried coming into the last six or seven kilometres but then I found out I was on track to fight for the stage.”
The race now heads back to the mountains, with a tough summit finish on Wednesday at Los Machucos and the hellish Alto de l’Angliru with its 24% gradients lying in wait on Saturday, and Froome is not allowing himself to get too carried away, despite his overwhelming position on general classification.
“I’ve got a good buffer but the race is not over,” he insisted. “I have to keep fighting every day now, but this is one step closer to Madrid. Wednesday will be brutal. Absolutely brutal. From what I can see the final climb is a wall, so it will be a big GC battle.”
The smiles and fist pumps with his team afterwards, however, told a different story. Before stage 16 Froome had this race by the scruff of the neck. Now he has it in a choke hold. It was at the Vuelta in 2011 that Froome made the astonishing transformation from a 26-year-old journeyman on the verge of being released by Team Sky into a grand tour contender. That year he finished second – a place he occupied again in 2014 and 2016 – but now he appears a raging certainty to go one better.
Afterwards the Team Sky principal, Dave Brailsford, hailed Froome’s performance and his versatility on the road. “The course suited Chris it is fair to say, but you still have to time it well, you still have to not get over excited at the start and to really pace the effort,” he said. “But he’s experienced with that now, and I think he again showed why he is considered to be one of the world’s best time triallers.”
However, Brailsford denied the team were confident the race was now won. “I wish we could say that,” he said. “But it’s still so hard. The stages that are coming up and the climbs are so steep and intense that there’s no opportunity to relax. You just don’t know what is going to happen in cycling. Crashes, punctures, the usual things. You just have to be ready for the unexpected but also in the middle of all that keep the guys calm, manage our efforts, and really try to control the race now until Madrid.”
Stage 16 result
1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 47:00” 2. Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands / Team Sunweb) +29” 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain-Merida) +57” 4. Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha-Alpecin) +59” 5. Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek-Segafredo) 6. Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden / FDJ) +1:07” 7. Wout Poels (Netherlands / Team Sky) +1:11” 8. Lennard Kämna (Germany / Team Sunweb) +1:30” 9. Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Quick-Step Floors) +1:41” 10. Daniel Oss (Italy / BMC Racing Team) +1:49”
General classification after stage 16
1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 62:53:25” 2. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain-Merida) +1:58” 3. Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands / Team Sunweb) +2:40” 4. Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha-Alpecin) +3:07” 5. Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek-Segafredo) +4:58” 6. Miguel Ángel López (Colombia / Astana Pro Team) +5:25” 7. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana Pro Team) +6:27” 8. Wout Poels (Netherlands / Team Sky) +6:33” 9. Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica-Scott) +6:40” 10. Michael Woods (Canada / Cannondale-Drapac) +7:06”
