Stage 18 and the Tour was back in France for the second
time trial, and shortest stage of the Tour, the 17 km individual time trial
from Sallanches to Megève.
As the Tour approaches its final days, Gabs prepared a
special dish of yabby turnovers with truffle. Gabs used his keen sense of smell
to sniff out the truffles from under the oak trees so he didn’t have to spend a
penny on this luxury ingredient.
Speaking of luxuries, butter has been more of a luxury lately
but it’s back in this recipe with 40g, taking the buerremetric counter to 830g.
An uphill time trial called for different approaches to
equipment. The demand for aerodynamic efficiency isn’t so great for climbing. A
number of riders opted just for their normal road bike. Others thought strap-on extension bars were the way to go. For others nothing less than the full
TT kit would do.
By the time we joined the caravan of commentary many riders
had already completed the course. Ion Izaguirre got his turn in the hot seat.
Roadside randoms were out in force but were noticeably better
behaved than at Mount Ventoux the week before. Clearly they heeded Richie Porte’s
stern talking to.
A rather poor looking Didi copy, a facsimile of the devil if
you like, was bouncing around on the
course. I mean come on, there’s only one Didi!
Gerard Depardieu was back at the side of the road on his
annual Tour de France bender dressed in an Obelix costume.
Mattie recounted Kiwi Shane Archbold’s heroics after
crashing and completing the previous day’s stage with a broken pelvis. Not
quite the ‘blood and snot on the handle bars’ but cyclists are a bloody tough
lot.
Jakob Fuglsang, who has some of the best hair in the peloton, rode
his standard road bike like a virtual time trial with virtual extension bars
except it was a real time trial.
All eyes were on Tom Dumoulin who won the first time trial in
stage 13. He went the full kit and there was a touch of excitement in Robbie’s
voice as he described Tom’s latex skinsuit and long socks. I do wonder about
the long socks though, is Dumoulin a maths/science teacher when he’s off the
bike?
Dumoulin was clearly popular with the fans who formed a
Mexican wave of noise on the climb.
Mattie had made mention of Chris Froome being measured up
for another skinsuit and it really had us guessing if he’d come out in an ultra
shiny yellow outfit in an effort to out-do Dumoulin.
Sky unveils next season's skinsuit look
Mattie noticed Wilco Kelderman had gone the safer option and
ditched the full rear disc that caused him so much grief in stage 13. Still his
effort was well off the mark and Mattie recalled when he was known as ‘Wilco
Keldermerckx’ because he used to win everything.
Dumoulin was setting a cracking pace and passed Jan
Bakelants and his only response was with a shake of his head.
Thomas De Gendt knocked off Izaguirre from the hot seat but
wasn’t there for very long as Dumoulin finished 41 seconds faster than de Gendt.
A tricky chicane on the approach to the line caused a few
nervous moments. Staying safe is the key and in words worthy of a T-shirt print
Robbie advised that, “slower is sometimes faster”.
It was time for Matt and Robbie to duck off to the side with
the team cars to make way for Phil and Paul.
Paul noted Fabio Aru was 17 km from the finish line, which
came as no surprise as he hadn’t started yet.
Phil said, “Tom Dumoulin set the bar very high here”. Well
yes, but in order to achieve that he needed to set the bars very low to get the
maximum aerodynamic advantage.
Geraint Thomas left the start house wearing a silky black
skinsuit with see-through cutaways at the back. Jesus, did he pick it up from
an adult shop?
Aru got going and finally began to close that 17 km gap to
the finish line and put in a blistering effort to finish third.
It was Richie Portes' time to go and Paul thought Phil let
fly with a ‘Richie Froome’. Now Paul had planted the seed we just knew it was
going to happen in real life.
Nairo Quintana made a quick start and looked more at home on
his customised time trial bike than in stage 13. After all the hills suit
Quintana better than the flat and managed a top ten finish.
Adam Yates hit the road with a ‘Yates you can’ attitude in
his bid to claw back time from Bauke Mollema. Mollema didn’t have the greatest
of runs finishing down in seventeenth place.
Porte was nine seconds faster than Dumoulin at first time check
and looked to be in control.
The final rider of the day Chris Froome went with the full
on time trial bike with full disc at the back, which according to boundary
rider Jens Voigt was the ‘risky option’.
At the second time check Porte was eight seconds down on Dumoulin
and it was going to take a big effort. Porte came home in third and then was
upgraded to second. Now all Dumoulin and Porte could do was wait and see how
Froome would go.
Froome looked slow and there were no time checks appearing
on screen but by the time he reached the third time check he was ahead of Dumoulin.
On the downhill run to the chicane section before the line
Paul spotted Froome, “getting into a strange position”, as he tried to squeeze
every bit of advantage from his ride.
As Froome crossed the line it was clear he was here for a
big smack down and finished 21 seconds ahead of Dumoulin and extended his lead in
yellow to 03’ 52” ahead of Mollema.
There’s still Friday and Saturday to go in the mountains but
so long as he can stay upright, Chris Froome has pretty much got his third Tour win in the
bag.
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