Chris Froome claims the race is now on after losing the yellow jersey on a gruelling day in the mountains on stage 12 of the Tour de France.
Froome suffered on the brutal uphill finish in Peyragudes as Romain Bardet won the final sprint ahead of Rigoberto Uran and Fabio Aru, with the Brit cracking to finish seventh – 22 seconds behind Ag2r La Mondiale rider Bardet.
More importantly, he was 20 seconds behind Astana’s Aru, meaning the Italian climber is now in yellow and six seconds ahead in the overall standings.
Team Sky had controlled the race until the punchy 2.4km final climb but Froome admits he simply didn’t have anything left to respond to the late efforts but is ready to fight back in the remaining week-and-a-half of racing.
“It was certainly a tough day for me at the end,” said Froome. “My teammates did such an amazing job but I didn’t have the legs at the end to finish it off. It’s as simple as that – I just didn’t have the legs on the final kick.
“The steep finish is brutal – it ramps up to over 20 per cent, which is a really, really hard finish.
“I can only say congratulations to Romian Bardet for winning the stage and to Fabio Aru for taking the yellow jersey. The race is certainly on now.”
Simon Yates of Orica-Scott finished ninth on the stage to remain sixth overall and hold on to the white jersey for the best young rider.
British champion Steve Cummings had lit up the stage with a long, brave solo break but was hauled back in on the penultimate climb, less than 10km from the finish.
And the Team Dimension Data rider was disappointed that his efforts ultimately fell short of a stage win as Team Sky dragged him back to the pack.
“Today was a good stage to try something,” explained Cummings. “It’s a shame that Sky kept the gap so close because in the end I didn’t have the legs but I tried!
“I’m not frustrated, it’s just the race – maybe they wanted to win the stage. If I’m doing a bike race, I always try to make it as easy as possible and save my legs as much as I can.
“It didn’t really seem like they had to do that but it’s up to them. They have bigger brains than me!
“There’s some good stages coming now and there are a lot of people tired, so I have to eat a lot of rice and pasta, refuel and try again in a few days.” Sportsbeat 2017