ROMAIN Bardet delivered a second home win in this year’s Tour de France as leader Chris Froome remained unscathed by a second day of climbs in the Alps. AG2R rider Bardet, 24, beat a breakaway group to the top of the 1,924m Col du Glandon and, with 34km remaining of stage 18, eked out a decisive lead.
Pierre Rolland finished 33 seconds behind to complete a French one-two. Britain’s Froome stays three minutes 10 seconds ahead of Colombia’s Nairo Quintana with three stages remaining. As happened during stage 17, 30-year-old Froome and Team Sky withstood several attacks on the 186.5km route from Gap to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
But there was little panic among Froome’s disciplined team, and the Team Sky leader looks confident of repeating his triumph of 2013. Alejandro Valverde remains third with Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas, 29, fourth.
It was Welshman Thomas who was once again the driving force behind Team Sky’s defensive manoeuvres, and was on hand to help out Froome on a couple of occasions, with the Briton looking susceptible for the first time this year, if only for a few fleeting seconds.
Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador made moves away from the yellow jersey group on the 21.7km grind up Col du Glandon, but were both reigned in.
It was on the winding, hairpin riddled ascent of Montvernier that Nibali had Froome grasping for a food sachet in his back pocket.
Thomas was able to keep the Italian in contact and even though Froome had drifted to the back of the group, he soon rekindled his familiar form and was able to sprint to the line with his general classification contenders.
“It was a perfect stage, ideal really,” Thomas told ITV4 afterwards. “Again the team was really strong. We had good numbers and didn’t panic when guys were attacking. Contador is six minutes down, so he has more to worry about than us.
“The last climb was tough with all the hairpins but we only have two more days to go (in the Alps).”