{"id":142070,"date":"2016-07-26T16:11:51","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T16:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=142070"},"modified":"2016-07-26T16:11:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T16:11:51","slug":"hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour – his individual TT effort extended his lead over Quintana to more than four and a half minutes, and that was one mountain Quintana was unable to climb.<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

After his attack on the Col de Peyresourde, followed by a breathtaking and aggressive descent, no one can accuse Froome of playing it safe. Jumping on Sagan\u2019s wheel to help attack into Montpellier proved Froome values the psychological advantage \u2013 the signature tactic of a champion.<\/p>\n

The era of Team Sky<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Team Sky\u2019s Mikel Landa and Sergio Henao were part of a well-drilled team. The uber-domestiques provided such a solid rota of support Froome could focus on tactics, keep a feel for the race, and launch attacks at the most effective times.<\/p>\n

\"profimedia-0294887647\"<\/p>\n

BMC are yet to mature<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Only BMC can rival Team Sky in terms of funds. Richie Porte was in form but he suffered from poor tactical choices. Tejay van Garderen looked like a footballer played out of position, and BMC were unable to match Team Sky\u2019s tempo in the mountains. Perhaps realising that individual effort was the only remaining option, Porte started his time trial aggressively but faded, losing over two minutes to the Yellow Jersey.<\/p>\n

\"profimedia-0294773375\"<\/p>\n

Four is the magic number<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nostalgic fans of the Manx Missile could be forgiven for wiping away a tear after his Stage 14 victory.\u00a0 Cavendish abandoned his own team\u2019s lead out in favour of sucking up the clean air provided by Kittel\u2019s massive frame \u2013 ensuring a perfect slingshot across the finish. This was pure unadulterated Cavendish at his best.<\/p>\n

\"profimedia-0294306363\"<\/p>\n

There was a certain ambiguity watching Cavendish holding four fingers aloft. Only four stages from matching Merckx\u2019s record, it\u2019s clear Cavendish doesn\u2019t want to be a legend. He wants to be The Legend.<\/p>\n

Podium places are at a premium<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Coming third in Le Tour is hardly a disappointment, but many cycling fans bemoaned Quintana\u2019s lack of attacks. It\u2019s worth noting that Bardet quietly took second place with AG2R La Mondiale, a team on the up, and 23-year-old Adam Yates wasn\u2019t far off Quintana\u2019s pace. In fact, there was only one and a half-minute difference between 2nd and 5th place \u2013 the podium has become tightly competitive.<\/p>\n

\"profimedia-0294930591\"<\/p>\n

Sagan soars<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s never a dull moment with the 26-year-old Slovak, and he made the Green Jersey competition look easy. The Montpellier attack and his initiation of the Royal Escape showed a finesse that was lacking from Kittel\u2019s 2nd place effort.<\/p>\n

\"profimedia-0294089844\"<\/p>\n

Sagan can win, and The Hulk has proven he can keep his sponsors happy. But more importantly, he kept the fans happy with a little showmanship thrown in with his Green Jersey victory. And this year of all years, Le Tour made France proud and gave them something to cheer for when they needed it the most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":142074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[425,433],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-142070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-chris-froome","tag-tour-de-france"],"yoast_head":"\nAll Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour - his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour - his\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-26T16:11:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Ashley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/\",\"name\":\"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-26T16:11:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour - his\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour - his","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling?","og_description":"Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour - his","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2016-07-26T16:11:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christopher Ashley","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/","name":"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp","datePublished":"2016-07-26T16:11:51+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"Froome is a natural and aggressive climber \u2013 but he\u2019s no slouch when it comes to time trials.\u00a0 Technically, Stage 18 is where Froome won Le Tour - his","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/07\/2312312_23231231.webp","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/07\/26\/hail-king-2016-tour-de-france-mean-cycling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"All Hail to The King! What Does the 2016 Tour de France Mean for Cycling?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142077,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142070\/revisions\/142077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142070"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=142070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}