After losing valuable time during yesterday’s stage 17, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome said that he will now look after his teammate Geraint Thomas as the current yellow jersey holder wins more time.
Despite cracking the last two kilometers of the 16-km climb up to the famous Col du Portet, Froome was not able to shorten the time gap between him and his fellow rider Thomas who has been wearing the yellow jersey throughout most of this season’s Tour de France.
Froome is now 2 minutes and 31 seconds behind first place as Nairo Quintana won the stage.
Unable to attack the yellow
Now, Froome, who is trying to be the first rider in the last two decades to have won a Giro-Tour double, has very little chances of achieving this goal as he won’t be able to directly attack the yellow jersey so close to the final stage.
“I think he’s got almost a two-minute lead on Dumoulin, which I think is a pretty comfortable lot,” Froome said.
“I imagine we’ll be able to finish it off. We’ve just got to look after him now,” he added, seemingly conceding defeat.
“I’ve won the last three Grand Tours and G’s (Thomas) ridden an absolutely faultless race this year, so he fully deserves to be in the yellow jersey, and fingers crossed he finishes it off and gets the job done in Paris.”
? Relive the last km of Stage 17 and @NairoQuinCo‘s epic win! ???
? Revivez le dernier kilomètre de la 17e étape et la victoire de Nairo Quintana ! ???#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/Cly4b5bmBk— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 25, 2018
The Saturday’s individual time trial will be the stage that will determine the final classification.
