The climb up daunting Mount Ventoux is 21 kilometers of unrelenting torture and it didn't take long before the pressure of Team Sky, namely Richie Porte, started to separate the contenders for the pretenders.
The anticipated show down between Froome and Contador was looming and when Porte dropped off after doing his jo,b within seconds Froome raised the pace. Contador was unable to match him and Froome rode away to join Quintana of MoviStar before leaving him behind as well and crossing the line for the stage win and cementing his right as race leader.
With all the talk of the possible weakness of Team Sky, they again proved they have what it takes and Froome can do it alone when necessary.
Contador admitted he couldn't keep the pace, but also said the race wasn't over. With the alps to come and days of multiple climbs he still believes he can break Froome. Only time will tell, but there would need to be a fairy tale come true for Contador to claw back the 4:25 he needs to in order to take the yellow jersey.
However, for me one of the highlights of the day was Peter Sagan. He managed to take off with the early break away in order to gain the sprint points for the green jersey which he took, now maintaining an almost unbeatable lead.
After his effort taking the uncontested sprint Sagan continued on only surrendering at the beginning of the Mount Ventoux climb. But in pure Sagan Style he didn't just casually rejoin the peloton, no, he marked the occasion with a one handed wheelie!
Gotta love his spirit!
You can view a snippet of it at http://video.cairns.com.au/v/123382/Peter-Sagan-pulls-wheelie-midstage-in-Tour-de-France
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