Froome, a shadow of his former self

 

I don’t know about you, but I can’t see Chris Froome being picked to ride the Tour de France for his team Israel Start Up Nation when it starts later this month. Not on his poor showing so far this season, as he struggles to find form after recovering from that horrendous crash in 2019,  when  the four times Tour champion was doing a recon of the tt course in France’s Criterium du Dauphine.

He’s riding the 2021 Dauphine as I write this - traditionally a selection race for the Tour. He's won it three times in the past! 

But he lost two minutes to the winner of the stage three 16km TT on Wednesday, won by Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), an event he would normally be expected to win.

Commentators were agreeing Froome must be doubtful for the Tour, even though Froome himself insists he will be ready. Out of respect for his reputation as giant killer and for his resilience in refusing to give up, they are reserving judgement.

I’m watching ITV4’s nightly review of the Dauphine and enjoying every minute of the expert commentary from Ned Boulting and Dave Millar.

I prefer to record the program and view it immediately afterwards. This enables me to fast forward through ITV4’s  commercial breaks which are so long I almost forget which program I am watching.

ITV4’s cycling shows are every bit as incisive as the Breakaway team on Eurosport’s Giro coverage last month but minus the wow factor of Eurosport's  presenter Orla in her dazzling outfits.  

Of interest to Ned and Dave was the fact that the stage four time trial at 16.4 kilometres  was more or less the same distance of Boras’ Lukas Postlberger’s  surprise lone breakaway when he gamely held off the charging pack to win stage two and take the yellow jersey .

Would knowing the distance was the same inspire the Austrian national road champion to greater efforts in his defence of the yellow jersey? It probably did, and wearing the coveted leader's jersey is known to boost confidence. But a solitary  race against the watch  brings with it different pressures.

Boulting asked Millar to compare the effort required.

Millar explained that really there can be no comparison. In a stage race time trial (not withstanding it comes in the middle of event) you start fresh. 

Whereas to attempt to time trial away in lone break late on a road stage after already putting in a few hours hard work in a long breakaway with others (as Postlberger had done) your body has changed and you’ve got a different head on.

Which brings me to Postlburger himself who raised his game and surprised by battling through the time trial to hold on to his overall lead by a slender margin.

He’s funny, a great sense of humour. His unusual hand gesture as he crossed the line when winning stage two had everyone guessing – his hand cupped in front his nose. What was that all about?

That hand gesture?  That was his way of saying the effort he had made was so bad his brain hurt.

I’ve got lactic acid spewing out of both ears he said, grinning behind his mask.

He didn’t expect to keep the lead for much longer. His job was to look the other more likely GC contenders in the Boras team.

As I write this, Geraint Thomas, INEOS top man for this event and the Tour which follows, confounded everyone after his disappointing result in the time trial yesterday by winning stage five today. Postlberger surprised again, by clinging on to his overall lead.