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Riblon Wins Stage of Dual Ascents; Froome Holds Lead Riblon Wins Stage of Dual Ascents; Froome Holds Lead
(about 3 hours later)
ALPE d’HUEZ, France — The French rider Christophe Riblon won the highly anticipated 18th stage of the Tour de France Thursday with a sudden burst of speed on the final miles of Alpe d’Huez. ALPE D’HUEZ, France — The 100th Tour de France had been billed as a battle between a rising star and a fading one: Christopher Froome versus Alberto Contador, the commanding leader of this year’s Tour against a once-dominant Grand Tour racer who has struggled all year.
After falling nearly half a minute behind the American Tejay van Garderen of BMC on their second ascent of the 8.6-mile climb, Riblon, of Ag2r-La Mondiale, accelerated furiously to catch the American rider with about one and a quarter miles to go and finished nearly a minute ahead, as van Garderen faded. Stage 18 seemed custom-made for their rivalry. For the first time in Tour history, the riders would ascend the daunting Alpe d’Huez twice, with a treacherous descent from the Col de Sarenne in between. As if to fuel the prestage drama, Froome had almost crashed into Contador during a furious downhill chase on Stage 16, and later chided the Spanish rider to ride more safely.
As he crossed the line, cheered wildly by French fans, Riblon beamed broadly and almost in disbelief, throwing up his hands and pumping his fists repeatedly, looking as if he were about to tear up in joy. As if on cue Thursday, Contador sped away from Froome during the descent from Col de Sarenne, all but daring Froome and his teammates on Sky Procycling to follow their daring lead. It took awhile, but they eventually did, catching Contador and then leaving him behind as the race turned up Alpe d’Huez for the second time.
With its dual ascents of Alpe d’Huez and a treacherous descent from the Col de Sarenne in between, the stage was expected to feature numerous attacks on the race leader, Christopher Froome of Sky Procycling. At the finish, Froome extended his lead over Contador to 5 minutes 11 seconds. Nairo Quintana, a Colombian climbing sensation on the Movistar team, gained more than a minute on Froome and moved into third place.
Indeed, Alberto Contador, the ever-aggressive Spanish rider with Saxo-Tinkoff, who is in second place, used the descent to speed away from a group led by Froome and his Sky teammates. The stage was won by Christophe Riblon, a French rider on Ag2r-La Mondiale, who caught the weary American Tejay van Garderen of BMC less than a mile and a quarter from the finish. Van Garderen, who has seen his fortunes improve after a miserable initial two weeks on the Tour, finished the stage in second, nearly a minute back.
But Froome caught and passed Contador on the flats below. He and his steady teammate Richie Porte were unable, however, to keep pace with Nairo Quintana, a climbing marvel from Colombia on Movistar, who finished the stage more than a minute ahead of the pair. Though he solidified his lead over Contador, Froome showed a certain vulnerability on the stage. He had crushed his top challengers twice on mountain stages in this Tour. But in the final stages Thursday, he motioned repeatedly to his team car for help, until his durable teammate Richie Porte delivered him some food.
Regardless, it was a good result for Froome, who extended his lead over Contador to 5 minutes 11 seconds. Quintana moved into third place, edging past Contador’s teammate Roman Kreuziger, who fell to fourth. As Froome slowed to eat, Quintana and Joaquim Rodríguez of Katusha distanced him. Froome was given a 20-second penalty for eating outside the designated feed zone.
Extraordinary performances in Grand Tour races almost always prompt questions about doping in the post-Lance Armstrong era, and that has been the case for Froome throughout this Tour. On Thursday a reporter turned the issue on its head, asking the rider whether his sugar fit on Alpe d’Huez suggested that he was human after all.
‘'It’s crazy hearing people talk like this,'’ Froome replied. ‘'Any athlete can have a sugar low at the end of a race.'’
‘'I know what I’m doing is right, and I’m extremely proud of what I’ve done to get here,'’ he added. ‘'No one can take that away from me.'’
Cycling reporters and scientists who monitor cycling performance data for signs of doping raised questions about Froome’s accelerations from the peloton in the Pyrenees and on Mont Ventoux earlier in the race. In response to those questions, Sky allowed the French sports newspaper L'Équipe and a sports scientist, Fred Grappe, to analyze Froome’s power data from six races that involved 18 ascents, including some from this Tour.
They did not, however, release the data, which included doping test results, to the public.
In the article, Grappe, a trainer with the FDJ team, said he had found no deviations in the rider’s power output that would clearly indicate the use of performance-enhancing substances. The power he was producing on those rides, in other words, was within the realm of human physiology.
‘'Basically it is to say these performances are very good, strong, clean sporting performances,'’ Froome said after the stage.
Ross Tucker, a South African physiologist who has been a leader in calling on professional cycling teams to release such data publicly, said Grappe is a “respected” scientist and called Sky’s move ‘'a great step forward for the sport,” adding, “I’d love for all the teams to do it.”
He added that the times up Alpe d’Huez Thursday were not particularly fast — a good thing, in the minds of antidoping watchdogs. “If Froome had flown away from everyone and finished faster than Quintana, then it would still be leaning to the suspicious side,” he said. “This was a more ‘real’ performance.”
Though Froome’s lead seems commanding, the race is far from over. The 204-kilometer, or 127-mile, stage Friday includes two beyond-category climbs, including the 11.8-mile Col de la Madeleine. As they have throughout the race, Contador’s Saxo-Tinkoff team and Quintana’s Movistar teammates, who have proved very strong, are expected to aggressively push the speed up in an attempt to break Froome’s will.
Riblon’s victory came at the end of a long breakaway in which he, van Garderen and Moreno Moser of Cannondale took turns trying to escape from each other during the final 37 miles of the race.
At one point Riblon slid off a rain-slick portion of the descent from the Col de Sarenne. But he did not fall and recovered quickly. And just before that, van Garderen had trouble with his bike and had to stop, allowing the other two to get away.
But the American, who finished fifth last year but was in 50th place at the beginning of Thursday’s stage, doggedly caught up and pushed into first place during the second ascent of Alpe d’Huez.
At one point he had what appeared an insurmountable half-minute lead over Riblon. But with less than two kilometers to go, surrounded by screaming, flag-waving French fans, Riblon stood on his pedals and accelerated past van Garderen, who seemed helpless to respond.
At the finish line, Riblon pumped his fists with a look of almost astonished joy. ‘'I noticed he was in difficulty and that I still had a chance,'’ he said later.
There had been much worried anticipation about the descent from the Col de Sarenne, with several riders, including Tony Martin of Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Andy Schleck of Radio Shack-Leopard, complaining that it was dangerous. The road is not just steep, narrow and winding. It is also far from smooth and has no guard rails.
Froome added his voice to the concerns, saying Wednesday that he thought the race organizers should neutralize the race during the descent if the road was wet. But the weather cooperated, holding off on a predicted thunderstorm until shortly after the last riders finished.