Froome Seals the Deal!

Chris Froome did what he needed to do in today's individual time trial.  He came in third, just six seconds behind Poland's Maciej Bodnar.  Froome now leads the overall classification by 54 seconds over Colombia's Rigoberto Urán Urán.  Unlike the first individual time trail in Stage 1, today's result was slower than I thought it could be.  We were a bit more than 5% off, as you'll see below.

• Stage 20:  28' 15" (actual), 26' 42" (prediction), 01' 33" fast (-5.49% error)

One of the first things to look at after this year's Tour de France will be the two individual time trials.  We were short on power in the first time trial and had too much power today.

Tomorrow's final stage will be mostly ceremonial until the big sprinters go for the stage win once they are in Paris.  Froome will probably be seen with some champaign and four fingers up (three in a row!).  The last stage is always tough to predict because of the ceremonial nature of the stage.  We've done well in the past by backing off on power.  Our final prediction is given below.

• Stage 21:  2h 25' 50" (prediction)

  Chris Froome showed today why he's the best cyclist in the world.