Froome proves he is a contender

Chris Froome opted to sprint 10km from the stage two finish line
1 July 2013

Chris Froome offered a hint of what might be to come with a show of strength late in stage two of the Tour de France.

With 10 kilometres to go the Team Sky man and Tour favourite came out of the saddle and burst forward from the peloton, leaving 2011 winner Cadel Evans - who had been immediately behind him - for dead. Although Froome would sit up three kilometres later and drop back to finish in the main group, the manner of his attack created a stir.

And that, it seems, was exactly what the 28-year-old intended. "I was on the front with Richie (Porte) and I thought it might be a good time, just to push on a little bit, get ahead and take the descent at my own pace and stay out of trouble," he said. "It's always good to keep people on their toes."

Rather than push on for a stage win that would have given him a very early taste of the yellow jersey, Froome was content to finish alongside the rest of the general classification contenders while Belgian Jan Bakelants made his own breakaway stick - if only by a single second at the line - to take a surprise win.

That was to the frustration of Scotland's David Millar, as the 36-year-old would have been in yellow for the second time in his career had Bakelants been caught at the line. "It's a bit disappointing but I'm very satisfied as this is not where I expected to be so we'll see how tomorrow goes," he said.

Mark Cavendish can barely have enjoyed the day any more than Saturday's chaotic opening stage, when his own dreams of wearing yellow were wrecked amid bizarre scenes which started when a team bus struck an overhead gantry at the finish line.

On Sunday his problems were of a different kind, as the sprinter struggled in the Corsican mountains and eventually crossed the line as part of the grupetto, 17 minutes 35 seconds down.

Other Brits were struggling too. Team Sky's Geraint Thomas finished 196th out of 198 in Ajaccio to move to last overall in the standings as he felt the effects of a spectacular crash on the opening day. He too was in the group at the back, and felt every second of it. "It felt like an eternity I was out there for," he said.

Sky's Tour debutant Ian Stannard was also in that group, and admitted he was finding the going tough. "Hopefully it's only up from here," he said. "(Saturday) was pretty flat but turned out to be more difficult than we wanted. Today wasn't easy and tomorrow is going to be a lot harder for sure. That said we're still looking forward to the rest of the race."

Millar was also eyeing the third stage to Calvi cautiously. "Today, we thought, would be a bit easier than tomorrow, so that doesn't bode well," he said of yesterday's stage. "It's going to be a savage day. This is proving to be a very hard first three days."

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