I wasn’t sure about the ‘blip’ at La Toussuire when Froome distanced Wiggins in the finale – I thought it was ‘mountain out of molehill’ stuff.
Although we did hear that Wiggins was ‘raging’, that night in his room.
But today, there seemed little doubt that a message was being sent; ‘I can drop you any time I want.’
The body language and facial expressions around the team aren’t relaxed, happy or positive.
But there’s little doubt now that Brad will win – barring Acts of God.
It’s so hard to take in what’s actually happening on the roads of France – two British riders in first and second positions in le Tour.
But not only that, the guy who is second could actually win the race, too.
The word is that Froome is on huge money with Sky.
As an athlete, you have a certain shelf life, you have to make the most of those all to brief years when you’re in the limelight.
Al Hamilton gave us this tidbit, the other day;
“Sarroni was saying on RAI Sport the other day that he had a verbal agreement with Froome at La Vuelta last year that he would be with Lampre-ISD this year; but Sky offered him 10 times what he could.”
Froome did what he thought was the right thing at the time, but now, when he sees that a Tour win is within his grasp, he wouldn’t be human if he didn’t have twinges of regret and frustration that he didn’t go for less euros but undisputed team captaincy.
And remember that but for an ill-timed puncture, Froome would be going in to the time trial, tomorrow neck and neck with Wiggins.
Imagine Froome with half a dozen battle hardened Italian, Spanish or East Europeans at his disposal – none of them with dreams of personal glory.
And in a squadra where it’s ‘all for Chris’ with no sprinter to cloud the waters.
Conjecture, of course.
Meanwhile we’ve also heard:
- Liquigas-Cannondale will be Cannondale-Liquigas next year.
- The Schlecks have already signed with Astana and it will be Euskaltel-Festina next year.
We had originally planned to drive the parcours on stage 16 but it would have been a logistical nightmare.
Instead we opted to do a piece on the contenders bikes – Tommy’s Colnago, Tejay’s BMC, Sagan’s Cannondale and not forgetting Wiggo’s Pinarello.
But the main street, where the busses were parked, in Luchon was crazy.
The usual strict accreditation procedures had broken down and the start resembled Easter Road coming out after a bad home defeat.
