Notre Dame de la Garde, Marseille
Macief Bodnar was the surprise victor
yesterday with a fine ride
Chris Froome with third place
clinched his 4th Tour de France victory
As was widely expected Chris Froome clinched his fourth Tour de France victory – four in five years (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017), He becomes the fifth most successful winner of the Tour de France. Only Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain have won more editions of the Tour – all on five each. Armstrong, of course, 'won' seven but has been stripped of all of them because of his doping.
During our stay in Marseille in January we walking up the steep hill to Notre-Dame de la Garde, so it was no surprise to see some of the Tour riders struggling up the steep slope. Clearly some had underestimated its difficulty.
Macief Bodnar set the best time (28.15) early on and despite Michal Kwiatkowski doing a great ride he just fell short of overhauling Bodnar by a second.
Although Rigoberto Uran did a good ride (28.46) Chris Froome (28.21) was never threatened and came in third. Romain Bardet, suffering from a cold, lost a lot of time coming in at 30.18. He lost 2nd place overall to Uran and only held onto third place overall by one second to Mikel Landa.
Stage 21: Montgeron to Paris Champs-Elysée 103 kms
Today is the traditional ceremonial stage into Paris enlivened at the end of the final sprint. Unless there is a crash there will be no change to the overall standings. From a depleted field of sprinters I am going for André Griepel to win challenged by Michael Matthews and Evald Boasson Hagen.
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