Tour de France: Sky dilemma as Chris Froome puts on show of strength

On a 148-kilometre route from Albertville to La Toussuire, which Wiggins had described as the toughest day of the route to Paris on July 22, the 32-year-old Londoner increased his advantage over Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) to three minutes 19 seconds.

The defending champion was overtaken in second place by Froome, who now sits 2mins 5secs behind, with Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) third, 2:23 adrift.

The main talking point came around 3km from the finish when, after the Team Sky duo had bridged the gap to a rival group, Froome accelerated again.

The 27-year-old, who finished second in last year’s Vuelta a Espana, one place ahead of Wiggins, then hesitated and reached for his race radio to ask where the Team Sky leader was.

It prompted immediate questions. Was the attack planned? Who called Froome back?  Was Wiggins unable to go with him? Or did he pull rank, believing that the manoeuvre was  unnecessary?

Wiggins suggested it was the latter. “At that moment I was just really concentrating on my effort and keeping it constant,” Wiggins said. “I’d been riding for 1.5km, 2km before that. I just wanted to clear the lactate and didn’t want to make any more of an acceleration. There was a lot of noise and a lot of things going on on the radio and a bit of confusion at that point as to what we were doing. I think he [Froome] showed today he had the legs, certainly. It was another great day for the team.”

The prospect of Froome attacking in the closing stages to try to claim second place from Evans had been discussed by Team Sky ahead of the start.

But sports director Sean Yates confirmed afterwards he halted Froome’s move and that the planned acceleration was for the closing 500 metres.

Wiggins added: “Chris wasn’t 100 per cent confident in the last time-trial [on July 21] that he’d have the better of Cadel. He wanted to try to get a bit of time on him [Evans] today. It was certainly the plan this morning, as long as I stayed with Vincenzo and those guys and Chris didn’t drag those guys away.”

Froome did forge forward again in the closing metres of the 18km final ascent to La Toussuire, finishing third on the stage, 55 seconds behind stage winner Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and two seconds ahead of Wiggins, who was sixth.

Evans rolled in 2:23 behind in 11th place, conceding 1:28 and second place to Froome ahead of tomorrow’s 226km 12th stage from Saint-Jean de Maurienne to Annonay-Davezieux.

Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford insisted on Tuesday’s rest day clarity of roles was important and that the focus was a Team Sky rider winning the Tour, not placing two on the podium. On the same day, Froome was adamant his sole focus was to support Wiggins, who had to take the initiative earlier on the final climb as his colleague  appeared to falter in the chase of Nibali.

Froome repeated that mantra after the stage, having halted his move when he realised Wiggins was not on his wheel. Froome said: “I’ll follow orders at all costs. I’m part of a team and I have to do what the team asks me to do. Our plan is to look after Bradley.”