Chris Froome (Sky) underlined that it is for good reason that he has been proclaimed the major race favourite at this year's Tour de France when he powered clear of all his rivals with 5km still to go in the first Pyrenean stage to take a dominant solo win. His nearest challenger was teammate Richie Porte who was the only rider to finish inside a minute from the impressive Brit, thus making it another 1-2 for Sky at the world's biggest race.

 

Last year Team Sky made it a 1-2 at the Tour de France and some people had suggested that the British team could copy that result at this year's Tour de France. Based on today's first mountain stage to Ax-3-Domaines that could very well be on the cards.

 

With 5km to go, Chris Froome soloed clear of a diminished lead group and constantly built on his advantage all the way to the top. Behind his teammate Richie Porte was his nearest chaser and sealed an impressive 1-2 for the British super team.

 

At the bottom of the final climb, the main group had been whittled down to just Kennaugh, Porte, Froome, Kreuziger, Rogers, Contador, Roche, Hernandez, Evans, Fuglsang, Costa, Valverde, Rodriguez, Moreno, Talansky, Peraud, Gadret, Bardet, Schleck, Zubeldia, Ten Dam, Mollema, Nieve, Anton, Martin, Kwiatkowski and Serpa while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) started the climb with a 20-second gap on their chasers. As soon as the road started to point upwards, Quintana made an acceleration to leave his French companion behind.

 

Peter Kennaugh (Sky) who had led the main group all the way down the descent, used up the last bit of energy on the lower slopes of the climb. Digging very deep, he managed to send white jersey Kwiatkowski, Gadret, Serpa, Roche and Zubeldia out the back.

 

With 7,3km to go Rolland was caught by the peloton and just at the same time, Kennaugh finished his job and left it to Richie Porte to continue the pace-setting. The Australian really put the hammer down and that was when the group really started to crumble.

 

Moreno was the next to lose contact and now the big names also started to drop off. Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans had to let the main group go while up ahead Andrew Talansky, Daniel Martin and Rolland had also lost contact.

 

Porte upped the pace a little further and in a matter of seconds, the Sky duo of Porte and Froome only had Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Roman Kreuziger and Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) for company. A little further behind Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) fought hard to get back on.

 

Just as the quintet was about to catch Quintana, Contador clearly struggled. With his compatriot Valverde, he fell back while his teammate Kreuziger slowed down to wait for his captain.

 

Quintana was caught with 5,3km to go and just 300m up the road, Froome put down the hammer. Quintana tried to match his pace but a few hundred meters further up the road, he had to let the major race favourite go.

 

Quintana fell back to Porte while Valverde made an attack from the Contador trio to bridge up to the chasing duo. Meanwhile, Contador was in evident troubles and kept losing time to the leader.

 

With Froome far up the road, Porte decided that he could try to go for a podium spot. With 4,6km to go, he attacked and left the Movistar duo behind and from then on, it was a dominant Sky show.

 

While Froome constantly added seconds to his lead over Porte, the Australian also put further distance into Valverde who had now left his teammate Quintana behind. Meanwhile, Ten Dam and later also Bauke Mollema (Belkin) and Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) overtook Kreuziger and Contador.

 

Froome crossed the finish line in solo fashion to take a dominant win, 51 seconds ahead of his teammate Porte. Valverde finished just 17 seconds further adrift while Mollema finished the climb strongly to take 4th. His teammate Ten Dam was the big surprise in 5th while Nieve made it a good day for the Basques by taking 6th.

 

Contador, Kreuziger, Quintana and Igor Anton (Euskaltel) finished no less than 1.45 behind while Evans and Rodriguez were even bigger losers. The Spaniard lost 2.06 while Evans now has a massive 4.13 to make up on Froome.

 

With his power display, Froome of course also moves into the yellow jersey, 51 seconds ahead of Porte. Valverde is third while Contador is now 1.51 behind in 7th.

 

Froome takes his lead into tomorrow's second and final Pyrenean stage which has no less than 5 big climbs on its route. A 30km descent will, however, make it difficult for the race favourites to make a big difference and it seems to be a day for a breakaway.

 

Starting at 11.15, you can follow the stage in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

 

Riblon attempts to take repeat win

The 195km 8th stage which took in the mighty Port de Pailheres and Ax-3-Domaines climbs were expected to give the first big indications of who has what it takes to win this year's Tour. The racing was aggressive from the fun as attacks took off immediately.

 

The first one involved Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) but was quickly brought back. Instead, it was Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun) who took off and as Hoogerland refused to give up, the Dutch champion bridged the gap.

 

Christophe Riblon (Ag2r) was the most recent winner on Ax-3-Domaines and he set off to form a chasing duo with Rudy Molard (Cofidis). The junction was made and the 4 riders started to build up a big gap.

 

The advantaged reached a massive 9.50 while the Orica-GreenEdge team of race leader Daryl Impey moved to the front of the peloton. The gap kept growing until Team Sky decided to start a chase effort and as soon as Geraint Thomas joined Stuart O'Grady and Brett Lancaster, the gap started to come down.

 

Sprint action

Up ahead, Molard took the sole point on the day's category 4 climb while Hoogerland sprinted to win the intermediate sprint. Behind Cannondale gave green jersey Peter Sagan a complete lead-out but the Slovakian had to settle for 2nd behind Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol). Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was third.

 

The gap had now come down to less than 5 minutes and 70km still remained. Svein Tuft and Thomas led the chase for a few kilometres before the battle for positions kicked off in earnest.

 

Trains form

On the run-in to the bottom of the Port de Pailheres, it was a three-headed peloton that approached the mighty ascent as Thomas, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Stannard led a Sky train, Sep Vanmarcke, Maarten Wynants and Tom Leezer a Belkin train and Matteo Tosatto, Daniele Bennati and Benjamin Noval a Saxo-Tinkoff train.

 

With 48km to go, the gap was down to almost a minute and so Hoogerland decided to attack. Marino responded immediately while Molard had to dig deep with Riblon in his wheel to also bridge the gap

 

Riblon sets off

However, Riblon had not been in trouble at all and as soon as they hit the bottom of the climb with 44km still to go, he left his escape companions behind. Molard was to first to fall back into the peloton which was led by Boasson Hagen on the lower slopes.

 

Riders started to drop off in large numbers as Boasson Hagen fell off and left it to David Lopez to set the pace. At this time, the first GC rider lost contact as Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil) could no longer keep up with the main group.

 

Attacks from the peloton

With 40km to go, Robert Gesink (Blanco) made the first attack from the peloton and he quickly overtook Marino and Hoogerland who fell back to the peloton. Two kilometres further up the road, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) was the next to attack.

 

For a long time, Riblon, Gesink and Voeckler were all ahead of the peloton while it was now Vasil Kiryienka who enjoyed a long stint on the front of the peloton. His hard pace saw last year's Giro champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) drop off.

 

Quintana makes his move

With 36km to go, Quintana attacked and he quickly passed both Voeckler and Gesink who both fell back to the peloton. 2km further up the road, he also passed Riblon and so the Colombian now led the stage.

 

With 32km to go, Rolland attacked and set off in pursuit of Quintana. Anton also tried his hand but he quickly fell back into the peloton which was now led by Kennaugh.

 

Escape over for Riblon

With 31km to go, it was over for Riblon who was caught by the peloton that had now also left last year's 5th overall Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) behind. Moments later, Quintana crested the summit in first position while Rolland followed a little later.

 

Nieve made a small attack to take 3rd place on the climb while Kennaugh led the 25-rider main group over the mighty mountain. Nieve fell back into the peloton while Kennaugh started to bring down the 1-minute gap to Quintana.

 

Pinot loses contact

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) was the only FDJ rider in the group. He went back to his car to pick up water but the Frenchman was unable to get back up and lost contact on the descent.

 

Kennaugh managed to bring down the gap to just 20 seconds at the bottom of the climb while Rolland bridged the gap to Quintana just before the road started to point upwards. The Colombian was, however, not in mood for any company and so attacked moments later, thus initiating the dramatic finale.

 

Result:

1. Chris Froome 5.03.18

2. Richie Porte +0.51

3. Alejandro Valverde +1.08

4. Bauke Mollema +1.10

5. Laurens Ten Dam +1.16

6. Mikel Nieve +1.34

7. Roman Kreuziger +1.45

8. Alberto Contador

9. Nairo Quintana

10. Igor Anton

 

General classification:

1. Chris Froome 32.15.55

2. Richie Porte+0.51

3. Alejandro Valverde +1.25

4. Bauke Mollema +1.44

5. Laurens Ten Dam +1.50

6. Roman Kreuziger +1.51

7. Alberto Contador

8. Nairo Quintana +2.02

9. Joaquin Rodriguez +2.31

10. Michael Rogers +2.40

 

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 234

2. Andre Greipel 141

3. Mark Cavendish 128

4. Alexander Kristoff 111

5. Edvald Boasson Hagen 88

 

Mountains classification:

1. Chris Froome 31

2. Pierre Rolland 31

3. Richie Porte 28

4. Nairo Quintana 25

5. Mikel Nieve 21

 

Youth classification:

1. Nairo Quintana 32.17.57

2. Andrew Talansky +0.46

3. Michal Kwiatkowski +1.23

4. Romain Bardet +1.33

5. Thibaut Pinot +4.37

 

Teams classification:

1. Movistar 96.01.20

2. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  +0.37

3. Ag2r +4.33

4. Belkin +5.17

5. Sky Procycling  +6.22