Froome 11-10 to crown Tour with victory in Marseille time-trial

Marseille (TT)
Eurosport 1/ITV4, 12.45pm Saturday

Just 22.5 kilometres separate Chris Froome from a fourth Tour de France title.

After battling it out through France’s five major mountain ranges, the flatlands of the Dordogne and brief sojourns in Germany and Luxembourg, Froome will take to the start ramp at Marseille’s iconic Stade Velodrome with a 23-second buffer over home hope Romain Bardet.

As expected yesterday’s long, flat stage from Embrun to Salon-de-Provence had little bearing on the general classification as 9-1 Edvald Boasson Hagen gained a deserved stage success after a number of near-misses earlier in the race.

Given his expertise against the clock, stage 20 was seen as a final insurance policy for the Brit to fall back on should he be found wanting in the mountains.

However, the strength of his Team Sky domestiques, in particular Michal Kwiatkowski and Mikel Landa, has ensured that instead of a retrieval mission after three gruelling weeks, he will in all probability enhance his lead further before tomorrow’s processional march on to the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

His margin is not great enough for him to be able to coast around the 22.5km circuit which takes in an unclassified climb to the 19th-century Notre-Dame de la Garde that overlooks Marseille’s Old Port.

Despite lying second, Bardet is not as big a danger to the yellow jersey as that posed by Rigoberto Uran, who lies third at 29 seconds.

The surprise package of this year’s Tour, Uran has looked exceptionally strong on the flats and has pedigree in this discipline.

Uran was Colombian national time trial champion in 2015 and while he hasn’t recorded a TT result of note for some time, it would be unwise for Froome to dismiss him given the form he has shown at this year’s race.

He might not gain enough time on the leader but Bardet’s second position looks vulnerable.

Bookmakers have settled on Froome as the 11-10 favourite to crown his achievement with the stage victory and while he should fare best of the GC contenders and confirm his fourth title, three weeks of hard racing makes that price extremely skinny.

Primoz Roglic is eyeing a second stage win of this year's TourCredit: Chris Graythen

Preference is for second-favourite Primoz Roglic, who has announced himself as a genuine star of the sport with victory on the mountainous stage 19.

Alongside his climbing abilities, the former ski jumper is also a specialist against the clock with time-trial victories at the 2016 Giro d’Italia and at this year’s Tour of the Basque country and Tour of Romandie.

After taking it easy as the fireworks erupted on the Izoard on Thursday, he should be better rested than Froome to target a second stage win.

Movistar have endured a Tour to forget but Jonathan Castroviejo is a nice price to gain some compensation for the Spanish outfit. The European champion may have saved himself for this particular stage.

Recommendations
P Roglic
2pts 5-2 general
J Castroviejo
1pt e-w 20-1 Betway