The gaps in the Tour are small but nothing has yet been seen on the scale of the four monstrous climbs that await on Wednesday and Thursday, all over 2,000m in altitude and, in the case of the Croix de Fer and Galibier, of a length we haven’t seen in the race so far. Chris Froome and his team have only to watch the rest, while grabbing what time they can close to the finish, because on paper the Briton is the strongest time triallist so can bank on gaining time on Saturday in Marseille. Thus, it falls to Romain Bardet, Fabio Aru, and Rigoberto Urán – the strongest climbers in the race so far – to attack; Dan Martin and Simon Yates have not looked quite at the level of the top four to date when the hammer goes down. Froome has the strongest team in the race, and he should have Mikel Landa to cover moves, so he is in the box seat. However …
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