Froome on the verge of winning second Tour de France

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Chris Froome battled to keep his yellow jersey during stage 20(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)

Chris Froome (Team Sky) is one stage away from a second Tour de France victory despite conceding 1:28 to Nairo Quintana on stage 20's summit finish on Alpe d’Huez, who he now leads the general classification by 1:12. Sunday’s 109.5km procession into Paris is all that is left for Froome to negotiate before officially being presented on the podium in the yellow jersey.

“What can I say, it’s an amazing, amazing feeling to still be here in yellow this evening, we have to get to Paris tomorrow with no issues, but from the racing side of things, that’s done now,” Froome said during his post-stage press conference with a hint of emotion in his voice. “We faced all challenges over almost three weeks of racing. Massive thanks to teammates for the work they’ve put in over the last few weeks. I think of little points along the way, chipping away getting yellow and the final advantage I have to day, it’s them I have to thank for this position.

An aggressive fourth and final day of racing in the Alps was initiated by Movistar, that started the day with Quintana and Alejandro Valverde in second and third place overall with the ambition of claiming yellow by day's end. The attacks on Froome’s yellow jersey from Movistar started on the Col de la Croix de Fer, isolating the Sky rider before his teammates re-joined the 30-year-old on the valley road on the run in to the 13.8km ascent of the iconic Alpe d'Huez.

“I won’t lie if I say that there were a few moments when I thought that this was going to be tough,” he said of the final ascent. “We were getting time checks every few minutes and it was comforting to see that it wasn’t jumping up really quickly. It was manageable especially with the way that Richie and Wout Poels were pulling up the climb. I was on my limit I thought I was dying a thousand deaths. Having teammates make it easier and I was able to limit my losses.”

“It’s hard to compare one Tour to another as both are incredibly special, I feel as if this year, a second time for us as a team we have been up against with so much going on in background, away from the race, which could have taken the focus away from what we needed to achieve in terms of racing, as a group, it brought us closer together as a team,” he said of his two victories. “I didn’t come to Semnoz on stage 20 in the 2013 Tour feeling like I would lose the yellow jersey, it’s a huge relief today because there were moments that I was in difficulty on the first climb already and the last climb.

“I think I’ve made it very clear that I had chosen that stage to make my move three weeks before,” he said. “When I went to see La Pierre-Saint-Martin in the recon, I was with Nicolas Roche and Nicolas Portal and I said that I would attack here and I did exactly that in the race. Nairo Quintana said he wanted to attack in the Alps, and he did, my tactic was to try and hang on. I think it’s quite straightforward.

Fifth place on Alpe d'Huez today was enough for Froome to claim the king of the mountains and yellow jersey double that previously has been achieved by Bartali, Coppi and Eddy Merckx. Having his name in the record books of the sport though is not the driving force behind Froome’s decision to live his life as a professional cyclist, explaining the pure pleasure of riding a bicycle and racing as his raison d'être.