For Team Sky it was a perfect end to a testing,fiercely competitive three weeks. On the lastlap of the Champs-Élysées Chris Froomedropped back to ride across the line arm inarm with his team-mates, celebrating hisconvincing individual victory and the team’ssecond consecutive yellow jersey in Paris. If Bradley Wiggins’ win in 2012 was allabout control, Froome’s took place inmore difficult circumstances. As SirDave Brailsford explained: “We wentinto this race with a target on our back– more so than ever before. Peoplelooked to us to ride. We also faced adver-sity. ere were times when we were notthe strongest team in this race, and we hadto take a couple of difficult days on thechin. We learnt some lessons.” e 2013 parcours made for an open, at-tacking race from the off, with a tough firstweek starting in Corsica keeping every-one on their toes. And early on there wereoccasions when Froome looked isolatedand vulnerable to concerted attacks byMovistar and Alberto Contador’s Saxo-Tinkoff – a situation not helped by theloss of Vasil Kiryienka, victim of thetime cut on stage nine, and then Ed-vald Boasson Hagen to a brokenscapula after a crash during stage 12.“We went down to seven riders butthe team pulled closer together,”Brailsford explained. “It just servedto make the guys all the moremotivated to give Chris the sup-port he needed to get to Parisin yellow.”He continued: “It helps todo all this when you have

a leader you can believe in. And in Froomeywe had that rider. We’ve watched him growas a leader all year and in the biggest race ofhis career he didn’t miss a beat. Not onlythat, he won the race in style, showing realpanache to attack and win three stages.”Froome did visibly become the leader Sky

needed for this demanding, unpredictablerace. One surprise was that AlbertoContador, for all his attacking, never

posed the threat Froome’s supportershad feared. Two other surprises: MarcelKittel’s convincing wins in stages Mark

Cavendish would have felt were his; andNairo Quintana, the pocket-sized 23-year-old Colombian, whose poker climb-ing face only broke into a beaming smilewhen he soloed to victory at the summitfinish of stage 20 on the Semnoz. Had histeam backed him as leader from the start,and he hadn’t put in his doomed attackon the Port de Pailhères, he might havethreatened the yellow jersey. But the grandest of the Grand Tours isnot about the might-have-beens –which is why Alberto Contador will notregret a single moment’s attacking. It isabout performances: Chris Froome’saugurs a changing of the guard and anew dominant Grand Tour rider foryears to come, while if Nairo Quin-tana's second place elicited a groan

of disappointment from theyoung Colombian, his ride markshim out as Froome's one to

watch.

1 MARCEL KITTEL Hair-raising sprinting.

2 RYDER HESJEDALRetro-cool sunglasses.

3 MARK CAVENDISH#CapsNotHats

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 24th July 2013

rapha.ccissue 17

p ost-tour cr its or put ting your fee t up? #prost y le

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28SATURDAY

— S20SUNDAY

— S21MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

— Tour de Pologne S1— Clasica Ciclista

San Sebastian

SUNDAY

— Tour de Pologne S2

the view from paris

Quintana Groans at the Temple of Froome

lanterne rouge

the doppio awards

Chris FroomeTEAM SKY

1Nairo QuintanaMOVISTAR

2Joaquim Rodríguez

KATUSHA

3

race injuries

1 JEAN-CHRISTOPHE PÉRAUDA TT crash with a broken collarbone.

2 GERAINT THOMASThree weeks with a broken pelvis.

3 TONY MARTINScrapes and concussion on stage 1.

SVEIN TUFT The former Canadian TTchampion, who helpedOrica-GreenEDGE to amemorable TTT vic-tory, finished4h27'55" down on Froome.

bigringriding

1 CHRIS FROOME. Two accelerations on Ventoux: bang bang, you’re dead.

2 CHRISTOPHE RIBLON. Danced past BMC’s van Garderen on Alpe d’Huez.

3 JENS VOIGT. Exited in a blaze of glory at the age of 41.

race style

motoman

A DS Goes InfernoIn his final dispatch, our proto-motohits the dancefloor and sees hissocks go up in smoke.It was the wet stage to LeGrand Bornand that ru-ined my motorcycleboots. e metal-tippedheel had already comeoff one, giving me acowboy roll and Fred As-taire tap when amblingacross the press room. enthe torrential rain did for them.I took some pictures in a few barson the summits, and set upa camera on the ‘magic arm’on the bike, videoing thecrowds on the climbs and de-scents. It’s a different beast a mountain inthe wet, subdued and angry. Or sulky at least. atnight I put my boots and socks in front of the fire,then changed my mind and just threw the socks in toburn. My leathers, meanwhile, could probably drivethe bike by themselves now. If only I could teach themto take photos. Perhaps, also, the Grand Bornand stage was thehangover after the party on Alpe d’Huez. I’d got up atsparrow’s-fart o’clock to photograph the man layingthe start line, then headed to Wallonian corner. It’snot quite so busy there, just under the town where thebarriers start – people always say Alpe d’Huez is somental, but I wanted to get something sparser. en Iphotographed the detritus people left behind, andsuddenly I really wanted to go home. Maybe that melancholy was what took me to the dance-floor of e Igloo, Alpe d’Huez’s premier nightspot at1am, throwing shapes next to Orica ds Matt White.Maybe it was the red wine and the tequila, but it did-n’t make the next day any easier. en after a marathon ride from Annecy, I was inVersailles, shattered, shooting the start for a maga-zine. And while the riders were doing their cigars-and-green-beards thing I smashed it up to Paris todrink champagne with my Parisian fixer. It was evenmore gridlocked and security-bound than usual, so Iswapped from my moto to the back of his scooter,and he somehow got us in – he’s ridden the DakarRally three times, so I trust him.e Champs-Élysées was pretty special, though thedusk made it difficult for us photographers. ensome parties, the night spinning away into the smallhours, a day in bed and now I’m back at home. Sort-ing my photos, dealing with requests for shots I couldeasily have got if people had asked before the race andplaying with my son. Oh, and planning how I can doit all again, but better, next year.

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 24th July 2013

p ost-tour cr its or put ting your fee t up? #prost y le

profile

Beetles Rock AgainNairo Quintana’s tour de force in the world’s greatest raceproves the climbers of Colombia are back with a vengeance,says Klaus of Cycling Inquisition. Days before the race started, Nairo Quintana was askedabout the likelihood of his winning the event duringhis career.“It’s possible but I don’t want to be a dreamer,” he said.“I have to keep my head on straight because I’m youngand still have lots to learn.” His humility was not partof some pr strategy but a reflection of who Quintanareally is. His expression remained implacable through-out the race’s toughest stages, such as his stage 8 de-feat at Ax-3 Domaines, or Chris Froome’s stage 15victory on Ventoux, but something had become abun-dantly clear: at 23, Nairo Quintana is one of the mosttalented climbers in the world.Quintana’s first stage win eventually came on stage20, to Annecy-Semnoz. In dropping Froome andJoaquim Rodríguez on the final climb, he secured thepolka dot jersey, moved up one place in the generalclassification and ensured his first appearance wouldbecome Colombia’s most successful showing in its al-ready impressive history at the race. As he crossed theline he raised his hands, locking them into a heartsymbol above his head. e sign was in homage to hisformer amateur team, Colombia Es Pasion, the teamin which Quintana had come to prominence beforejoining Movistar, and for whom he won the Tour del’Avenir, in 2010.If Quintana remained composed during the race,things in his home town of Cómbita were quite dif-ferent. People gathered in the town square to watchthe race on a large screen, his parents taking pride ofplace in the front row. Nairo’s father, Luis, prayed outloud and was often brought to tears. In contrast, hismother, Eloisa, sat still, hands folded, looking at thescreen intently, her expression locked in the seriousgaze audiences around the world would become fa-miliar with during this year’s race. As Nairo crossedthe line, the crowd erupted and both Quintana’s par-ents were overcome. No doubt they remembered thesickly child they once feared would not live past theage of two, troubled by severe colic and other respira-tory problems.e full version of Klaus’ feature,with exclusive photography ,will be available on theRapha blog from tomor-row, 25th July 2013.To read it, visit:rapha.cc/blogs.

“is is one yellow jerseythat will standthe test of time.”chrisfroome

Maillot VertPeter Sagan

(Cannondale)

Maillot Jaune Chris Froome

(Team Sky)

maillots

Maillot à PoisNairo Quintana

(Movistar)

Maillot BlancNairo Quintana

(Movistar)

“I had dreamtof this for a verylong time, butdidn't believe it could come soearly. I'm just a 23-year-oldboy, but timegoes fast, and Icould cry out ofpure happiness.”nairo quintana