The Briton, winner of the Tour de France this year, realises the double by winning the Tour of Spain 2017. This is an unprecedented performance since 1978 and a Bernard Hinault. Christopher Froome then confirms his supremacy over the Grand Tours. Matteo Trentin has emerged during the 21st and final stage of the 2017 edition of the Vuelta.
The Briton Chris Froome entered Sunday in the cycling legend by winning the first of his career Vuelta and sealing in the space of two months a sumptuous double Tour de France and Tour of Spain, unpublished in the same season since 1978.
Winner in July his fourth Tour de France, the lanky leader of Team Sky got back on his bike less than a month later to finally dominate the Spanish event, where he had failed three times in second place (2011 , 2014, 2016).
Froome was the first Briton to enter his name in the history of the Vuelta, where he succeeds Colombian Nairo Quintana, winner in 2016.
Above all, “Froomey” wrote his name among the giants of cycling: he equaled the French Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978), the only two riders before him to have won two Grand Tours in the same year.
Note that the native of Nairobi, Kenya, is the first to achieve the double Tour-Vuelta in this order from the repositioning at the end of the summer of the Spanish race, held in the spring before 1995.
That says something about the resilience which has had to be Froome: July 23, wearing the yellow jersey, he raised his arms on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, and less than a month later on August 21 he donned the red jersey of the Vuelta at the 3rd step to keep until Sunday Paseo del Prado in Madrid, where the Italian Matteo Trentin (Quickstep) won the sprint to win his fourth victory stage in this Vuelta.
Farewell Contador
Froome modestly said he had discussed the Tour a little less fit than usual, just to keep the freshness for his big bet: finally win the Vuelta, this event close to his heart because both it was revealed in 2011 and for which he wept bitterly Saturday after his victory assured.
The Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain), second, and Russian Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), for the first time on the podium of a Grand Tour, completed the final top three.
And Spaniard Alberto Contador (Trek), which was the last race before retiring at 34, finished fifth overall, but not before celebrating his farewell by winning Saturday’s queen stage at the top of mythical Angliru Pass.
The squad has also left the Madrid champion penetrate alone in the lead in the streets of the Spanish capital and receive the ovation, as a tribute to his long and successful career: the “Pistolero” remain as one of the six riders to have won all three Grand Tours (France, Italy, Spain), despite the withdrawal of 2010 Tour de France and the Giro in 2011 for doping.
Join this exclusive club is the new challenge that awaits Froome, who only has the Tour of Italy to conquer to achieve it.
