Madrid: British cyclist Chris Froome is on a threshold of creating a history after the penultimate stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race with a lead two minutes and 15 seconds over Italian Vincenzo Nibali who is on the second position here, Saturday. Russian climber Ilnur Zakarin in placed at third.
The Team Sky rider, Froome who won the Tour de France in July, now needs to merely finish in the main peloton in Sunday’s short 117 kilometer stage into Madrid which will make him the first man to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta de Espana in the same year. Only two other riders in history, Bernard Hinault in 1978 and Jaques Anquetil in 1963, have managed a Tour-Vuelta double before.
Froome ended Saturday’s penultimate stage finishing third on the almost mythical Alto del L’Angliru, a brutal 14-km climb with sections approaching a gradient of 25 percent with the help of his Sky team-mate Wout Pools, who finished in second place in the stage.
Earlier it was won by Alberto Contador who broke away on his penultimate day as a professional cyclist.
indo-asian news service
