Tour de France: Froome takes yellow without controversy for a change

He went into Monday’s first rest day just 19 seconds adrift of Froome and four ahead of Quintana.

Rafal Majka of Team Tinkoff finished third in the race.

“It really is a good place to be at the moment and I’m really happy to have the yellow jersey on my shoulders, tactically and obviously for the morale for the team”, the 31-year-old told a news conference yesterday. They would chase us down and then just look at each other. “Any one of the stages could be an opportunity to gain back time, the mountains, the time trials, so I’ll just take it as it comes”. We also have our team with great riders.

The defending champion led the Colombian by 23 seconds ahead of Tuesday’s 10th stage from Andorra to Revel, back in France. Okay, I didn’t get time off Chris Froome (Sky) or Nairo Quintana (Movistar), but taking the front foot and finishing as I did showed that I should be ready to produce my best in the mountains to come – from Mont Ventoux on Thursday to the Alps. The British outfit set the pace at the front and prevented Froome’s challengers from trying their luck in hot temperatures, and increased the tempo on the final climb.

“I could not keep going, ” Contador later said at his team hotel.

But he warned that the battle for the Tour was far from over, with “several quite decisive stages to come, especially the time trial which will be pivotal”.

“If you come fifth in a grand tour it’s nice but you don’t get to raise your arms in the air, you don’t celebrate”, he said.

But to win his third Tour de France, Froome will likely have to show more on the climbs than he has to this point.

The 24-year-old Briton is making his debut at the Tour and hadn’t been expected to be challenging in sprints, but he has finished in the top 10 on every flat stage so far and even crossed the line a close third behind Cavendish and Kittel on stage six. He went on to claim his second title in three years.

Are Team Sky’s Rivals Up to the Task? It’s not a hard task.

“Peter is on a different level to everyone else and when he decides to do something he just does it. It’s nice to wear green but there’s nobody targeting it in Paris other than Peter”.

Froome, meanwhile, seems more focused following the birth of his son, Kellan, in December.

“At the back of my mind, I was waiting for Nairo Quintana to attack until we reached the last kilometre”.

With so much Tour left to race, including an even harder day in the Pyrenees the following stage, why did Sky want to take the yellow jersey?

“If someone is stupid enough to have the idea of coming here with a motor in their bike, for sure they’ll get caught”, Brailsford added.

Froome has not managed to stamp his authority on the Tour this year as he did in his previous two successful yellow jersey tilts.

“It’s going to be a tight race. I must have medical checks to see what’s wrong to try and recuperate for the rest of the season”.

Yates, McLay and Martin were all sponsored by the Dave Rayner Fund, which supports young British riders racing overseas. Yates, whose twin brother Simon is also a professional cyclist, was 50th at the Tour a year ago.

Contador crashed twice in the early stages, raising fears over his fitness, as Chris Froome seized the yellow jersey after the eighth stage this weekend at the Bagneres-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees.

“Entering the descent of the Peyresourde, I took a bottle of water to refresh myself”.

“It was a tough stage and the weather only made it tougher”, Froome said.