Only 17km, but that 17km could be pivotal in how the GC looked at the end of the day. Le Tour’s second Individual Time Trial was tough, with a constantly changing profile that prevented riders from finding a rhythm, and in the heat that has proved so draining for riders throughout the race. Working hard and riding the course well, Roman Kreuziger finished the day just outside the top ten, in 13th, after a ride that challenged his GC rivals.
After a fairly flat opening 4km, the day’s climbing began, and for 3km it was gradients of up to 11% that would put the hurt straight into the legs. While the course saw a slight downhill towards the end, there was no chance for recovery, as the riders would have to go full gas to either claw back some time lost on the climb, or to try and draw out an advantage on the descent.
Looking over the route and its challenging profile, Sport Director, Sean Yates saw that the stage would test every rider. “The course had a bit of everything really. Some very steep climbs and also descents, and pacing was key, but by the end of the day, the strongest will take the stage on a parcours like this.”
With the course consisting more of climbs than a more traditional time trial, most riders opted to tackle the course on a standard road bike with clip-on aero bars. With the more competitive riders putting in times of a little more than half an hour, Michael Valgren set a strong time early on, recording 33’05” – a ride which kept him in the top twenty most of the day.
With the GC favourites starting their rides as the day wore on, it was Roman Kreuziger’s turn to make his way onto the course. The smooth roads promoted fast times, and the combination of flats, uphills and a downhill section meant the faster times demanded riders be skilled at all three in order to set a good time. Making good use of the course and riding well throughout, Roman came home in 32’03” – a full minute faster than Michael – and held a top ten place as he waited for the rest of the GC riders to come in. With everyone home, Roman finished just outside the top ten, taking 13th spot, and in spite of a strong ride that saw him perform well on all of the stage’s terrain, the Czech national road champion dropped a place in the GC – a position he is more than capable of reclaiming in the coming road stages.
While the Tinkoff GC rider had lost a place in the GC after the stage, Yates, was confident of Roman’s ability and was pleased with his performance on the challenging stage. “Roman did a good ride, he might have slipped a bit on GC but it was very tight with all the guys only separated by a few seconds here and there, apart from the top riders on the stage. He did a good ride, did everything he could and paced it right. He had one scare where he almost came down after a few kilometres when the wheel slipped, but otherwise it was a good ride. Everyone else got through ok, they just went through the motions.”
The King of the Mountains, Rafal Majka, was feeling the efforts of two days in the break, but was keen to take more mountain points tomorrow, and so took the ITT more gently. “I felt a bit tired after yesterday’s long breakaway but today I didn’t go full gas, only enough to open the engine and set a nice pace, that was it. I needed to save a bit of energy for the stages to come – it’s not just the Tour in my legs but also the Giro too. We want to go in the breakaway tomorrow of course, but we will see. And for sure others want to try to take the jersey but I won’t make it easy. I want to take this jersey to Paris and home – I like it so much, and already won it in 2014 already.”
Peter Sagan was also trying to conserve energy ahead of the alpine stages to come. “Yesterday I was trying to help Rafa get points for the mountain jersey, now today I tried to have it as a rest day, to do the time trial inside the limit as we still have two very hard stages ahead before Paris.”
It’s back on the road tomorrow, but it’s not out of the mountains, with views of Mont Blanc throughout the day. At 146km, the route from Albertville to Saint-Gervais is one of the shortest stages of the Tour, but the profile clearly shows how hard the day is going to be: there are four categorised climbs, the toughest being the Hors Catégorie Montée de Bisanne, cresting 50km from the stage’s finish. The two final climbs, of which the Montée de Bisanne is one, each have an average gradient of 8%, and only the strongest riders will be able to contest the win here.
Ahead of the day, Yates saw that the stage would be a challenge for the whole team. “Tomorrow is another mountain stage and the polka dot jersey is not yet sewn up. Roman has got to keep plugging away in the GC fight, and Rafa has to keep an eye on De Gendt too. He had a hard day in the break yesterday, but I’m sure he’ll be ready to fight again tomorrow.”
Stage Result
1. Chris Froome (GBR) Team Sky 0:30:43.23
2. Tom Dumoulin (NED) Team Giant-Alpecin +00:00:21
3. Fabio Aru (ITA) Astana Pro Team +00:00:33
4. Richie Porte (AUS) BMC Racing Team +00:00:33
5. Romain Bardet (FRA) AG2R La Mondiale +00:00:42
13. Roman Kreuziger (CZE) Tinkoff +00:01:20
30. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff +00:02:22
67. Maciej Bodnar (POL) Tinkoff +00:03:23
82. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:03:37
90. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +00:03:45
117. Oscar Gatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:04:31
144. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO) Tinkoff +00:05:11
146. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:05:14
GC After Stage 18
1. Chris Froome (GBR) Team Sky 77:55:53
2. Bauke Mollema (NED) Trek-Segafredo +00:03:52
3. Adam Yates (GBR) Orica-BikeExchange +00:04:17
4. Nairo Quintana (COL) Movistar Team +00:04:37
5. Romain Bardet (FRA) AG2R La Mondiale +00:04:58
12. Roman Kreuziger (CZE) Tinkoff +00:08:23
29. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:58:49
58. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO) Tinkoff +01:53:55
91. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +02:32:08
92. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff +02:34:02
146. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +03:21:37
156. Maciej Bodnar (POL) Tinkoff +03:28:56
159. Oscar Gatto (ITA) Tinkoff +03:29:18
