Chris Froome finishes stage 10 of the Vuelta today having staged a miraculous recovery on the final climb that he had looked in trouble on (Photo: Sirotti)
Having been beset with questions from the media and fans on social media about his performances in the past, Chris Froome’s ride on today’s stage 10 of the Vuelta will fuel those who doubt him.
The British Tour de France champion looked to be dead and buried on the concluding Covadonga climb, slipping off the back of the group of main favourites as Movistar put the hammer down.
But while Froome would lose time to his main rivals from the 10km to go point, he clawed back the deficit as the climb continued.
And in the end only Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) beat him to the finish.
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Quintana had pulled clear with Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) before dropping him, with even Froome catching the Spaniard after he had picked off everybody else who had been climbing much faster than him earlier on the climb.
At one point Contador and Quintana had almost a minute on Froome.
But the Team Sky leader managed to catch and pass Contador with over 2km to go and would finish on 25 seconds behind stage winner Quintana.
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Quintana comes up the climb for stage victory and to reclaim the race lead, but with less than one minute in hand on Froome overall he needs more time to win this race outright (Photo: Sirotti)
Froome insisted after the finish he had simply opted to ride the climb at his own pace, adding he was helped by team mates Pete Kennaugh and Leopold König.
“I just rode the climb at the best pace I felt was the efficient way to get up there and according to how I thought the legs were feeling,” Froome said.
He is now 3rd overall, some 58 seconds down on Quintana, who Froome said was clearly flying on this Vuelta.
“I was just riding at the pace that I felt was most appropriate for a climb, for a 35 minute effort," he said of the last ascent of the day.
“And I could see guys I was going past being blown from the front and they maybe started off a bit fast, so I used my team-mates the best I could and they did a great job today.”
He said he knew Quintana was almost one minute ahead of him but that his moral was boosted when he caught and passed riders.
And at this point of the season he was trying to squeeze what he could from the form he had left.
Reflecting on his comeback on the climb, he said had be tried to follow the faster pace earlier he may have blown and lost significant time.
“I think at this point I really have to calculate my efforts. In the past, every time I have ridden this climb, I have blown, so I feel like today was a better effort than I have done in the past.”
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