Froome rides to stage win and into yellow
British favourite Chris Froome takes yellow jersey after racing to stage eight victory at Tour de France.
Britain’s Chris Froome secured the Tour de France yellow jersey after a stunning win on the first day in the mountains as his rivals slumped on Saturday.
Sky team leader Froome launched a solo attack 5km from the race’s first summit finish at Ax-Trois-Domaines and crossed the finish line 51sec ahead of Australian teammate Richie Porte to underline his overall victory credentials.
Spain’s two-time runner-up Alberto Contador finished over a minute behind while the victory hopes of 2011 champion Cadel Evans all but faded on an epic eighth stage.
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Froome, last year’s runner-up behind teammate Bradley Wiggins, now tops the general classification with a 51sec lead over Australian teammate Porte, with Spain’s Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third at 1min 25sec.
Contador (Saxo) is 1:51 off the pace while Australian Evans (BMC) is nearly five minutes adrift after finishing the stage 4:12 down on Froome.
Porte, the last rider in Sky’s impressive line-up to set the pace on the 7.8 km climb to the Pyrenean ski station, said the order to hit full gas came from Froome after the Kenyan-born rider had realised Contador was in trouble.
“When Chris told me Alberto was no longer there, I just tried to give it everything I had,” said Porte, who had taken over the pace-setting duties from Britain’s Peter Kennaugh.
“I’m finished (exhausted), but it was an absolutely incredible ride.”