Carbon Addiction

They’re human after all. Whilst no-one can doubt Mr Froome’s superiority, Team Sky looked remarkably mortal in stage 9 won by Ireland’s Dan Martin.

After brilliant rides in stage 8 to destroy the bunch and catapult Froome into yellow, Kennaugh and Porte clearly paid a high price the day after, hemorraging time and being noticably absent at the business end of the stage. Thankfully for them, it’s a rest day today. Kiryienka was a DNF after missing the time cut.

Whilst none of Froome’s rivals could capitalise on Sky’s troubles and close the GC gap this time, there’s a lot more climbing to come. And the sight of Movistar trying to break the isolated Kenyan-born Brit repeatedly up the day’s final climbs, raised hopes that the 2013 script might not be quite as straightforward (aka dreary) as 2012. For the sakes of a close contest, here’s hoping they can keep it up all the way to the final climb of the Tour, the HC summit finish at Annecy-Semnoz on stage 20.