Froome expecting small gaps on Mur de Bretagne

Chris Froome said the gaps between overall Tour de France contenders will be small on Saturday's eighth stage finish on the Mur de Bretagne.

The 30-year-old Briton retained the race leader's yellow jersey on Friday and enjoys a comfortable gap to his four main rivals, Giro d'Italia winner Alberto Contador (36sec), reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali (1min 38sec) and Colombian climber Nairo Quintana (1min 56sec).

Saturday's finish is similar to that of Monday's stage where Froome came second on the Mur de Huy.

That day he put 11sec into Italy's Nibali and Quintana and 18sec into Spain's Contador.

But the Mur de Huy is a shorter and steeper climb at 1.3km averaging 9.6 percent compared to the Mur de Bretagne, 2km at 6.9 percent.  

"To be honest, I don't really know the Mur de Bretagne, I'm going to have to go and do a bit of studying tonight (Friday)," said the Kenyan-born Tour champion from 2013.

"From what I understand, it's not going to be as selective as the Mur de Huy, but as in the past I think there have been gaps between the GC (general classification) contenders, it's certainly going to be on everyone's minds.

"It depends on what happens during the stage but we can certainly expect there to be small gaps tomorrow."

Froome said he's been pleased with how the first week has gone and ran the rule over his main rivals, including American Tejay Van Garderen, who sits third at just 13sec.

"If I have to assess most of my rivals at the moment, Tejay's in great form and only a few seconds back at the moment.

"He's riden really well this week.

"Quintana lost a lot of time already, that's quite a big blow for him but I do expect him to be up there in the mountains and I guess we'll see to what extent in a few days time.

"Alberto lost a little bit of time already but the big question is how fresh he is (after also riding the Giro in May) and what he's going to be like when we hit the mountains.

"Vincenzo, again we'll have to see how he is in the climbs but he's been fine this first week."
Source: AFP