Critérium du Dauphiné: Froome wins stage 7 on climb to Le Bettex

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Chris Froome (Team Sky) laid down a marker ahead of the Tour de France by soloing clear on the Montée du Bettex to win stage 7 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, while Tejay van Garderen (BMC) limited his losses sufficiently to move back into the overall lead with one day of racing to go.

Friday’s rain-soaked stage across rolling terrain had seen the general classification thrown on its head by the invention of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), and Saturday’s penultimate leg threatened to be an equally chaotic affair, with a break of some 26 riders eventually forming after the second of the day’s six climbs.

Froome’s Sky teammates brought their own form of order to proceedings in the final 50 kilometres, however, as they took over the pace-making duties on the Col de la Forclaz, where they whittled the yellow jersey group down to fewer than 30 riders. Their efforts continued on the approach to the day’s penultimate climb, the short but exceedingly steep Côte des Amerands, and the forcing of Philip Deignan, Peter Kennaugh et al quickly paid out a dividend as the maillot jaune Nibali was jettisoned out the back.

Wout Poels took over on the final 7-kilometre haul to the finish, and his injection of urgency had the twin effect of bringing the survivors of the early break back into reach and placing more of the general classification contenders under pressure. Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) all had to yield to Sky’s brute strength and there was an air of inevitability about Froome’s attack with a shade under four kilometres to race.

Froome is not quite (or at least not yet) the man he was during his annus mirabilis of 2013, but the style remains unchanged from two years ago: the legs still spin as though divorced from the rest of his body, the elbows still jut outwards and the gaze remains fixed firmly on his powermeter. Only van Garderen could follow Froome’s vicious acceleration, and as the pair zoomed past early escapees Dani Navarro and Jonathan Castroviejo, it was clear that they would divide the spoils between them.

Van Garderen began the day with a buffer of 39 seconds over Froome, but rather than simply mark the Briton, he shared the pace-making duties in the knowledge that they were heaping more seconds upon the deficits of Nibali, Valverde and Rui Costa. But as the gradient stiffened with 1500 metres remaining, Froome drew level with van Garderen and then kicked his way clear, eventually winning the stage by 17 seconds.

"On the back of a day like yesterday, nearly 200km in the rain, a lot of the big contenders in the break yesterday, it made sense today to make it as hard as possible. That's one of the beauties of stage racing, you can't give everything on one day and expect to back it up the next day going into the queen stage,” Froome said of a day that saw him move up to second overall, just 18 seconds behind van Garderen.

Beñat Inxtausti now lies in third overall, 45 seconds back, after he took fourth on the stage, just behind a hugely impressive Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka), who had been on the attack earlier in the stage. Inxtausti was one of the last to yield to Froome’s forcing and he was given the green light to ride for himself rather than wait for Valverde, who lost over two minutes.

Rui Costa limited his losses to finish 10th on the stage, 1:34 down, but he falls to 4th overall, 1:10 back, ahead of Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), who recovered well after struggling midway through the stage. Nibali, meanwhile, rode at his own pace up the final climb and crossed the line four minutes down in the company of his teammate Michele Scarponi, handing his jersey back to van Garderen after just one day.

"We are thrilled to be back in yellow," van Garderen said. "The team were a little bit bummed out about yesterday but we bounced back today and everyone contributed really well, we had a really solid ride. Hopefully we can put up a good defence tomorrow."

Early attacks

The weather was mercifully more clement at the start in Montmélian than it had been on Friday, but there was nothing settled about the exchanges ahead of the day’s opening climb, the Col de Tamié, as Pierre Rolland (Europcar) led a determined pursuit of the early 13-man break. It took some time for the stage to settle into a discernible pattern, though come the third climb of the Col de la Croix Fry, the leading group had swollen to some 26 riders and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) had all but secured the king of the mountains title by leading over the first four climbs of the day.

The Eritrean repeated the feat on the Col des Aravis, where the leading group began to fragment once again thanks to Daniel Navarro’s aggression. Behind, meanwhile, Froome’s Sky teammates had set up their stall and the fine efforts of Philip Deignan in particular helped to pare the yellow jersey group down to fewer than 30 riders and leave Nibali with just two teammates for company.

Sky’s forcing continued thereafter and, one by one, the men who had so impressed on the road to Villard-de-Lans on Friday began to flounder. By the time they reached Sallanches ahead of the final, two-part haul to the line, there were six Sky riders in the front group compared to Astana’s trio, and Froome would go on to cap their numerical superiority by claiming stage honours.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Froome can now discommode the resilient van Garderen on the Dauphiné final stage, which includes the fearsome Lacets de Montvernier and a summit finish at Modane.

“Tejay’s ridden a really good race. BMC did a good team time trial, and I’ve got a bit of time to make up on Tejay still, so we’ll see. The race isn’t over until it’s over,” Froome said. “Today was a good demonstration of where I’m at. I’ve got a bit of work to do, I’m not at my best yet but I’m not far off it either, being able to ride a stage like that.”

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