Serre-Chevalier (France): Chris Froome kept control of his rivals Wednesday in a gruelling Alpine ride to move a step closer to a fourth Tour de France title. He retained the leader’s yellow jersey after the 17th stage which was won by Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic.
The defending champion was attacked by last year’s runner-up Romain Bardet and Ireland’s Dan Martin in the lung-busting ascent to the Col du Galibier but he stayed calm and covered every offensive move.
Bardet and Martin’s accelerations, however, were damaging for Fabio Aru as the Italian lost 31 seconds and slipped from second to fourth place overall. Froome leads Colombian Rigoberto Uran and Bardet by 27 seconds each, while Aru is now 53 seconds off the pace.
“It is not a massive margin but it’s a margin that I’m relaxed and happy with if I can go into the time trial in Marseille with the same margin I’ll be pretty confident,” Froome said after the end of the race.
“My teammates rode out of their skin today (Wednesday). I am certainly feeling a lot better than I did in the Pyrenees which is a great sign and hopefully I’ll have good legs again tomorrow (Thursday).”
German Marcel Kittel, holder of the green jersey for the points classification, abandoned the race after a crash. New leader Australian Michael Matthews looks likely to wear the jersey all the way to Paris thanks to his big lead over second-placed Andre Greipel.
