LE GRAND-BORNAND, France — Facing the climbing prowess of Chris Froome’s Team Sky, Greg Van Avermaet expected to lose his lead in the Tour de France on the first day in the mountains.
Instead, the Olympic champion managed to strengthen his hold on the yellow jersey when an anticipated attack from Team Sky never came during Stage 10 on Tuesday.
Van Avermaet escaped in an early breakaway and held on when he was left all alone to struggle up the final of four Alpine passes. Once over the Col de la Colombiere, he glided down to the finish to remain the overall leader for a seventh straight day.
“I was waiting for directions from Sky to see what they wanted. (But) the moment I went nobody reacted,” Van Avermaet said. “It was the only way to keep the jersey and I’m very happy with my stage.”
Van Avermaet unexpectedly boosted his lead over Froome’s teammate, Geraint Thomas, to from 43 seconds to 2:22. Defending champion Froome is sixth overall, 3:21 behind.
Julian Alaphilippe, a French rider for Quick-Step, won the 98.5-mile ride from Lake Annecy that included four major climbs before a descent to Le Grand-Bornand.
Van Avermaet’s prediction that Sky would topple him from the lead was not ill-founded. The Belgian is excellent in rolling terrain and single-day classics but not a top climber. He was also riding without his BMC team’s best climber and leader, Richie Porte, who broke a collarbone on Sunday.
Precedent also pointed to a move by Sky. In the four Tours that Froome has won, he has worn the yellow jersey after the first mountain stage.
It appears Sky was biding its time.
“It was some steep climbs and we were really expecting it to pick up somewhere (…) but it never really materialized,” Thomas said. “With two big days to come, everyone was probably saving it.”
Or, as Froome put it, “No one really showed all their cards today.
“Everyone played it a little conservatively, maybe thinking about the next two days to come, which are going to be hard as well. From our side, I can just be happy with how the team rode and we had the numbers up front, which was the main thing.”
Up next on Wednesday is a 67-mile leg from Albertville to the top of the La Rosiere summit. That will be followed by Stage 12’s ascent of the legendary Alpe d’Huez.
Given the difficulty of those stages, Van Avermaet said he had no illusions of fending off Sky again.
“I give myself zero chance for tomorrow,” Van Avermaet said.
Froome was momentarily slowed down by mechanical mishaps on a gravel path atop the day’s second climb up to Montee du Plateau des Glieres, the first use of a dirt road by the Tour since 1987.
“I had a puncture on the dirt section and got a spare wheel from a teammate only to find out it was actually flat as well,” Froome said. “It was a little bit of a comedy of errors going on there. But it was still far from the finish of the race, so it wasn’t too crazy and I was able to get back in.”
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