Bloody remarkable - stunning performance from Froome and team Sky as a whole. Froome was lost for words afterwards, and you can see why. Hard to find any superlative to do this performance justice. He put down the hammer and wrapped it up. Hard to see him losing this now if nothing completely strange happens.
Was asking myself the question: is this a believable performance? Yes, I actually think it is. Froome peaks at the right time, had an excellent preparation, already looked strong at the Dauphine and only after the first week in the Tour had a substantial advantage over his main rivals - even before a single kilometre in the mountains. He simply followed on from this excellent first week, now in the mountains, where time gaps are naturally bigger when riders have a bad day.
But was it just a bad day for some and a super day for one? No. Nibali was already more than two minutes down before today, he's just not in the right form. Contador has the Giro in his legs. It's a tough enough ask to ride it and subsequently be competitive against a primed Froome in the Tour as well. TJ, even in top form, would always find it hard to match a peaking Froome ... and Quintana? Didn't do too badly, did he? The man in white, still young, improving, not quite the level of Froome yet, any maybe not quite in the form of last seasons either? Only one single stage win this year, is nothing compared to the seasons before. Maybe down to preparations and different plans, but telling nonetheless.
So after all, I think there are valid reasons why Froome was so impressive today: he is simply the best man if fit and well. Best rider + best team = big results. Simple as that.
