Boring racing? The Tour answers with chaos

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SAINT-GERVAIS, France (VN) — Perhaps the Tour heard us when we called it sleepy, controlled, even boring. Perhaps it heard, and Friday was its answer.

A short, sharp stage to Le Bettex bloodied three of the Tour’s contenders, lifted one Frenchman to the top of the world and dropped another to its bottom, and shook the GC by its neck until a new podium fell out. Just two days before Paris, the Tour de France sent a reminder — in most furious terms — that it bows to no man, no team, and no plan. A reminder, too, that good legs will only get you so far.

At the fore: A lithe young Frenchman with an attack that proved both brave and tactically astute. Romain Bardet earned his podium spot — he’s now second overall — with an escape through the mountain storm that turned road paint into ice and sent oil seeping to the surface. He stayed upright and pulled out an advantage even as his rivals tumbled behind him.

“To win you have to take risks,” he said after the stage. “I have already ridden Le Bettex twice. I had my bearings, I knew when I had accelerate.”

“I was a little bitter about this Tour to hear negative comments, that there were no attacks, that it was a soporific Tour,” he added. “But we were all on the limit.”

There is no doubt that the middle of this Tour lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. It was controlled, held together by a Sky team head and shoulders above every competitor. Friday was the end of that.

There were moments when the race seemed prepared to unravel completely.

Chris Froome found himself sliding across the road less than 20km from the finish, leveled by a painted white line. He was forced to make the final climb on teammate Geraint Thomas’s bike, a setup similar in size but with a saddle slightly lower than his own. And as the attacks began in the final kilometers, he appeared less sprightly than usual. Small gaps opened and …

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