Showing that his form is coming to the boil for the Tour de France, Chris Froome landed the second overall victory of his career in the Critérium du Dauphiné in nail-biting style as the eight-stage event was decided in the final two kilometres of the final day’s racing, with Froome’s winning margin 10 seconds over Tejay van Garderen. “I think the team are ready for the Tour,” he said, “and I think I’m almost ready.”
The 2013 Tour winner dominated the second weekend’s racing, using his climbing strength to take a double of stage wins on Saturday’s summit finish at Le Bettex, near Mont Blanc, and Sunday’s closing leg to Modane-Valfréjus, with the time-bonus seconds he gleaned at both finishes contributing to his eventual slender winning advantage.
“I can’t believe it,” Froome said. “I couldn’t have expected to go any better today. The legs were tired after yesterday and the whole team suffered because of what they did. They all lifted themselves. Ian Stannard rode on the front behind the break for 100 kilometres, I don’t know how he did it.”
The final stage resulted in a British one-two, with the 22-year-old Simon Yates showing he too is ready for the Tour by outsprinting Van Garderen and the 2013 world road race champion, Rui Costa, for second place, and clinching fifth overall, plus the best young rider’s white jersey.
Another Briton, the former team pursuiter Steve Cummings, staked his place at the Tour for the MTN-Qhubeka squad, by figuring in the day’s main breakaway and leading the race over the penultimate climb until the race favourites made their moves in the final kilometres.
Froome started the final stage 18 seconds behind Van Garderen, who had taken the race leader’s yellow jersey from the 2014 Tour winner, Vincenzo Nibali, when the Italian cracked on a short, steep climb close to the end of the stage. That thin advantage, and the 10 seconds bonus on offer for winning the stage, meant that Sky had to ensure their leader was in a position to dislodge the American on the ascent to the finish and, if possible, take the stage victory.
On the steepest section of the climb, with 2.5km remaining, Froome made a typical attack to swoop past Cummings and open a few metres gap on Van Garderen. In a carbon copy of the previous day’s final phase, Van Garderen slipped gradually backwards as Froome pulled away in his ungainly but efficient climbing style, like a praying mantis in its death throes, arms akimbo, legs spinning wildly and his head constantly flicking up and down.
Van Garderen has twice finished fifth in the Tour and looks set to be another major actor in July, but he seemed to have gone too deep in his initial response to Froome’s attack. He slowed definitively with a kilometre and a half to go, allowing Yates and Costa to close on him, with Yates taking the six second time bonus for second place. The upshot was Team Sky’s fourth Dauphiné title in five years, making up for Froome’s mixed fortunes in the 2014 event when he lost the overall lead after a heavy crash.
Done! #Dauphine 👍😊 pic.twitter.com/KvUBpC5dC7
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 14, 2015
If Froome emerged from the Dauphiné as the favourite for the Tour de France, Nibali did enough to suggest he too will be at his best when the Tour starts in Utrecht on 4 July, and as in 2012 and 2014 in the Dauphiné he looked to be carefully selecting the moments in the race when he wanted to test himself.
He went missing in the first major sort-out, stage five to Pra-Loup, and did so again on Saturday, but figured in a day-long escape on Friday’s rain-hit stage through the Vercors and shredded the field with a lengthy effort at the foot of the climb to Modane.
