Filed under: Other Sports, Cycling
Bradley Wiggins started the day of Stage 17 on the Tour of Spain by tweeting his thousands of followers asking for advice on how he should approach what promised to be the last throw of the dice for the British Olympic champion and his Team Sky.By the end of the stage, Wiggins' all-or-nothing onslaught on race leader Juan Jose Cobo had ended in failure but, not for the first time on this Vuelta, it was Wiggins' Sky team mate Chris Froome who had stolen the headlines.
Froome, born in Kenya but now racing for GB, has emerged as a genuine world star on this Grand Tour, out-duelling Wiggins in a spectacular individual time trial and briefly holding onto the leader's jersey (red in Spain, rather than the yellow of the Tour de France).
A stunning climbing display by Cobo on the brutal Angliru had earned the Spaniard what looked like an unassailable lead on Sunday, leaving Wednesday's mountain top finish at Pena Cabarga as the last realistic chance for second placed Froome (22 seconds behind first place) and third placed Wiggins (51 seconds down) to overhaul the leader.
Wiggins' quandary, as expressed on Twitter, was whether he should ride defensively to secure his third place - which will mark the first time he has finished on the podium at a Grand Tour - or to go all-out for a spectacular attack over the final kilometres of Stage 17.
Ultimately, with Wiggins unable rather than unwilling to respond, it was Froome who took the decision out of his team mate's hands with a devastating attack in the final kilometere that left Cobo flailing and, briefly, seemed to be lifting the Brit into red.
Cobo responded impressively and regained the lead before Froome summoned one last effort and eased away to win the stage by one second, earning eight seconds of time bonuses over his rival in the process.
When the dust had settled, Froome had slashed Cobo's lead to 13 seconds while Wiggins was still comfortable in third, but now 1 minute and 41 seconds behind.
It was a magnificent stage race, one of the best of the year, and confirmed what watchers of this Vuelta had suspected - that Froome, who is yet to re-sign with Sky for next season, could be a genuine Grand Tour contender.
"That was indescribable," said Froome. "One of the hardest days on a bicycle in my life. It was the last mountain top finish so myself and Brad came in here trying to do as much as we could. As you can see, Cobo was extremely strong today and is still holding the red jersey."
While four stages remain, they are routine, flat ones, meaning Cobo and his strong Geox team can ride defensively and should have no problem keeping him alongside Froome. Only freak conditions or, worse yet, an accident, can rob Cobo of the victory.
The particular frustration for Froome and Wiggins is that Sky's one error on the 17 stages to date was their performance in the opening team time trial in Benidorm, an event for which they were among the favourites. Instead, Sky lost 42 seconds to the winners and, while Cobo's Geox were one second worse off still, there was a wasted opportunity for Froome and Sky to have made up that missing 13 seconds - and a lot more besides.
Sky suffered with mechanical and communication problems that day but have raced a near-perfect race since, even coping well with the problem of having Froome emerge as a challenge to his own team leader, Wiggins.
"Some days he's stronger than me, some days I'm stronger," said Froome. "It's about a team effort. The team has been fantastic the last two and a half weeks, the team has held us up every day and we're just doing the most we can."
But for that sub-par team time trial in Benidorm, Sky could be doing a lot more before Sunday's finish in Madrid.
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