Updated on
Summary Tuesday is the second rest day while stages 16 and 17 are held Wednesday and Thursday.
Bradley Wiggins hopes of an historic Tour de France victory could hinge as much on the loyalty of a key teammate as much as the challenge of two upcoming days in the Pyrenees.Since taking the yellow jersey on stage seven, where impressive teammate Chris Froome won a hilltop finish to La Planche des Belles Filles, Team Sky have ruled the peloton with an iron fist.Attacks by rivals in the mountains, when they have been possible, have been snuffed out with apparent ease by Skys sustained efforts of relentless pace-setting.With defending champion Cadel Evans now fourth overall at 3:19, 56secs behind third placed Italian Vincenzo Nibali, it seems little can stop Wiggins making Tour history for Britain.Skys domination, however, has revealed a major dilemma: Kenyan-born Briton Froome is second at only 2:05. And he looks more at ease on the climbs than his English team leader.Froome lost the Tour of Spain by less than 20sec last year having taken the race lead after Wiggins found himself in trouble in the mountains.When Froome raced ahead of Wiggins on stage 11 on Thursday, leaving his leader dangerously exposed, it sowed the first, albeit familiar, seeds of discord.Froome clearly had the legs to go on the attack and close his own deficit -- an act, however, that would have amounted to treason.What Froome did is an act of madness, said Frances two-time Tour de France winner Bernard Thevenet.When you attack your leader it doesnt look good. It can create disagreement and give hope to rivals.Although officially there is no Wiggins v Froome rivalry, the tit-for-tat reaction of the riders respective partners Catherine Wiggins and Michelle Cound on Twitter suggests otherwise.And Froome admitted in an interview with LEquipe on Sunday he was making a huge sacrifice for Wiggins.It would not be the first time a support rider and leader have crossed swords on the race. Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault fought for the Tour victory in 1986, won by LeMond, while Jan Ullrich and Bjarne Riis did likewise in 1997, with Ullrich prevailing.Riis, who won the race in 1996, believes Nibali and Evanss only chance is to tempt Froome into racing away from his leader.I would definitely change rhythm... put Wiggins into trouble, Riis, the current owner of Saxo Bank, told AFP.If I was Froome and I wanted to win the Tour, I would do the same thing. Wiggins weak point is that he cant change rhythm.Although there are plenty of climbs Wednesday and Thursday, there is only one mountaintop finish, on stage 17.And given Skys collective strength, many believe Wiggins will ultimately prevail.The other guys can change the rhythm all they want, Jonathan Vaughters, in whose Garmin team Wiggins claimed his first big Tour result -- a fourth place overall -- in 2009, told AFP.But Brad just stays at his own pace on the climbs and because hes very disciplined about that he doesnt put himself into trouble very easily.Clearly if Brads on a bad day he (Froome) has to follow Nibali or whoever it is thats attacking. But Brad has to be on a pretty bad day for that to happen.As Nibali and Evans look on in hope, the Italians team manager Stefano Zanatta, must be quietly hoping that mutiny in the Sky camp becomes a possibility.For the moment they have a team thats cohesive and is going in the one direction. Thats their power, Zanatta told AFP.The only way to weaken them is for Evans, Vincenzo or (Belgian, Jurgen) Van den Broeck to attack them one by one.Maybe that will allow us to split Sky up, and leave one of them behind whether its on a climb or a descent. That would be a good start.Tuesday is the second rest day while stages 16 and 17 are held Wednesday and Thursday.
