But how can this have been so predictable? The Tour is over three weeks long, with a huge variety of stages and lots of tough mountains to give people the opportunity to attack on. Surely, there must have been someone who could have prevented Chris Froome and Team Sky from running away with it?
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Yes and no. It's true that there is a huge amount of talent in the race, but for one reason or another, nobody aside from the winner had a particularly clean Tour. Coming in, the talk was of a battle between Froome and Quintana, with Contador perhaps there to battle with them, and the next level of riders (Porte, Aru, Valverde, Bardet, Pinot) with outside chances of success and more realistic aims of the podium.
Quintana first, because this could take a while. The Colombian spent much of last year's race sat on the wheel of Froome, only ever attacking him on the final climb of the final stage (discounting the processional Champs-Elysees stage), and while he took a big chunk of time out of Froome on the Alpe d'Huez, it wasn't enough to prevent Froome's victory last year.
With that in mind, it was widely expected that Movistar would be more aggressive this year, but it was a constant source of frustration that Quintana spent almost the entire race once again on Froome's wheel. Once again, the only sniff of a Quintana attack was on the final climb of stage 20, by which point Froome's advantage was so great he was happy to watch, and eventually only gave away six seconds. Six seconds.
The tactics of his team were not up to scratch against the might of Team Sky. While Froome was protected in the mountains by five or six riders, Movistar more often than not were left with two or three riders at most, one of whom was Valverde, Quintana's not-quite-co-leader. Movistar's only tactic seemed to be to send Valverde on an attack a few km from the final summit, which generally burned him out for no time gains and with only one - two at best - of Froome's lieutenants taken as collateral.
Other mitigating circumstances may yet come to light. Quintana's lack of willingness to attack could have suggested poor Movistar tactics, but when Froome himself attacked in Stage 17, Quintana obviously had nothing to respond with, even after a rest day. A poor showing in both time trials were miserable exclamation points on a Tour to forget for Quintana and Movistar, although his class was shown by still making the podium despite his most underwhelming Grand Tour showing since his debut season with Movistar.
Sirotti
Richie Porte looked much better, the swashbuckling Aussie the only man to regularly look willing to attack the yellow jersey. By contrast to Quintana, who had a terrible Tour and still finished 3rd, Porte had his best Grand Tour to date, and his only reward was 5th, and thoughts of what might have been, had his luck been a little better.
Porte's Tour almost looked over from the start, a badly timed puncture on Stage 2 costing him 1 minute and 45 seconds, and with the BMC setup of joint leaders in Porte and Tejay van Garderen, it seemed he would have to play second fiddle in France yet again. But Tejay's GC challenge never came close to materialising, and by the time van Garderen was left behind by his teammates as he got into difficulty in Stage 17, there was no doubt who the top dog at BMC was.
Porte lost more time on Stage 19, crashing on the same descent as Froome, but he was ahead of the yellow jersey and hunting down Bardet when he fell. Coupled with being the man to ride into the back of the moto in the infamous Mont Ventoux crash in the second week when he was looking strong enough to kick on again, it was a misfortune in every week for Porte. Few would be able to argue that he didn't deserve at least second place for his efforts in lighting up this year's race.
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Bardet's eventual second place came by virtue of a solid Tour, staying safely in the GC group and picking the perfect moment to launch his one big attack of the race. Another regular in the GC group was Adam Yates. The young Englishman was unfancied before the race, but he launched himself into the white jersey, and second overall at the time, with a well timed attack late in stage 7.
Launched being the key word, as Yates' solo attack meant he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was hit by the deflating flamme rouge, flipping over it and ending the day with a nasty cut on his chin. Had he attacked a few metres earlier, or had the unwitting spectator snagged the generator cable a few seconds later, he would have been clear, and surely would have held on to the podium place he ultimately lost to Quintana by just 21 seconds.
Future races may be tougher for Yates, who was probably allowed to attack by Sky due to him not being regarded as a GC contender, a status which he will now surely enjoy as his career continues.
As for Alberto Contador, what can you say? A disaster of a race for the Spaniard, who crashed on Stage 1, fell again on Stage 2, was dropped on Stage 5, developed a fever after Stage 8 and abandoned on Stage 9. Small mercy that he won't be retiring this year, so he'll have other chances to leave a final impression on the Tour de France.
Contador's misfortune was perhaps Tinkoff's gain, as his team took two jerseys in their final Tour before team owner Oleg Tinkov walks away from the sport. Rafal Majka was imperious in his King of the Mountains challenge, keeping Thomas de Gendt at bay throughout the three weeks, but particularly kicking into gear after Contador climbed into the car on Stage 9. Majka's determination to win the polka dot jersey was made clear on Stage 17, when he prevented de Gendt from making it to the break, and got in himself to open up a lead big enough that his victory was confirmed in the middle of Stage 19, with six climbs left in the race.
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Peter Sagan was never much of a doubt for the green jersey (although Cavendish gave him a headache in the first half of the race), but the lack of a GC leader gave him more resources than he would normally be afforded. With Contador around, it would be hard to imagine anyone being allowed to use up energy leading Sagan to his Stage 11 victory as Maciej Bodnar did.
Sagan in fact had his best Tour for some time, winning the points classification by a huge 242 points from Marcel Kittel (whose struggles we covered here, sentiments we stand by), although Cavendish had more than Kittel's eventual points tally when he withdrew on the second rest day.
Speaking of Cavendish, it was a glorious return to form for the Manxman. Much had been said about Dimension Data getting the old HTC sprint team back together, with with Bernie Eisel and Mark Renshaw in front of him, Cavendish was damn near untouchable in the first half of the race, most memorably winning Stage 1 to take his first ever yellow jersey, and after that swapping the green jersey with Sagan on almost a daily basis on his way to four stage wins, his best haul since 2012.
Those four wins were enough to see him catch and pass Bernard Hinault in the all time stage win standings, a mark he had been within touching distance of for two years. At the risk of sounding hypocritical after my remarks on withdrawals by sprinters from the Giro, his announcement on the rest day that he wouldn't continue to allow him to focus on the Olympics did nothing to tarnish what will go down as one of his best Grand Tours.
The final word, though, has to go to Sky, and Chris Froome. They are, beyond a shadow of doubt, the best unit cycling has ever seen. They arrive at the Tour de France with just one aim, the yellow jersey, with an entire team of nine, plus all the support staff, there for one man. Sky's unerring focus on average speed and power output may not make for hugely exciting racing, but they're there to win, and do it almost faultlessly.
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Not a single attack or break went clear without Sky first analysing it and allowing it, or, if it was too dangerous, hunting it down. In the mountains, Froome was always protected, ready to be released to attack of his own accord when the moment was right, and there were many of them. Ironically, the enduring image of the Tour will be the moment when the plans went out of the window, as Froome was forced to run up Mont Ventoux after the moto crash ruined his bike, but even then, the competitive instinct to get up the hill took over.
Sky's dominance and control of the peloton forced the other teams to rethink their strategies, and attacks became less frequent as a result. A cagey Tour all round was exemplified by the incredible Stage 19, when Froome fell on a tricky wet descent. Despite tearing one side of his yellow jersey (and himself) to shreds, only one of the chasing pack of GC riders attacked. The others sat back to the point where Froome beat many of them over the line, actually extending his lead from overnight.
AFP
In the five years since their goal of GC victory became so focused, their only failure came in 2014, when Froome was injured in a crash. He had to settle for second behing Bradley Wiggins in 2012, but has been rewarded since with three Tour victories, and unless something changes within the other teams, the record of five wins of Anquetil, Hinault, Indurain and Merckx is achievable, and beatable.
Oleg Tinkov gave an interview towards the end of the Tour when he said this was the Froome Age, and that as long as he was there, and that he wouldn't return to cycling to win the Tour as long as Froome is there. If this year is anything to go by, we won't see him for a long time.
