Tour de France 2017: Chris Froome tackles the last major obstacle between him and a fourth title

On Saturday afternoon the Tour de France peloton and race leader Chris Froome will tackle the last major obstacle between the Briton and a fourth overall title, a short but severely technical time trial in Marseille.

The sight of Froome in yellow has become a very familiar one since he won his first Tour in 2013, and the Sky rider is a top favourite for today’s (Saturday’s) stage win.

Yet the comparatively small time gaps between the top favourites means that a fourth title cannot yet be taken for granted. Froome’s scant lead on Romain Bardet, last year’s runner-up second overall, is just 23 seconds whilst Rigoberto Urán, the Colombian challenger is an only slightly more distance challenge, 29 seconds behind.

So 32-year-old Briton starts the last time trial in control of the Tour, but even the most minor of crashes, a mechanical or a puncture at the wrong moment could see the Briton suffer cycling’s equivalent of falling at the final fence.

Should Froome win or dominate Saturday’s race against the clock, though, with only one largely ceremonial stage in Paris on Sunday remaining, another Tour title would his in all but name.

Outright victory this weekend would confer the Britain the status of an all-time cycling great, one of just five riders ever to win four or more Tours, and just one short of the all-time record of five, held equally by Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, MIguel Indurain and Bernard Hinault.

Starting and finishing in the legendary Stade Vélodrome football stadium Saturday’s time trial course is only 22 kilometres long and run off entirely through the well-surfaced streets of central Marseille.

But its sharply contrasting segments are what could make it difficult. Largely flat, mid-stage a short but very steep one kilometre climb up past the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde cathedral will make it very complicated for riders to gauge their effort correctly - and at the end of an arduous three week Tour, even more so.

Of Froome’s two closest rivals, Urán and Bardet, the Colombian is by far the more accomplished time triallist. The winner in 2014 of a long time trial in the Giro d’Italia and twice second overall in the Italian Grand Tour, apart from when he outsprinted Froome and Bardet at Chambery, Urán has doggedly shadowed the two pre-race favourites for three weeks..

In the Tour’s shorter opening time trial in Dusseldorf, Urán lost a sizable 51 seconds on the Briton. With most of the peloton’s riders largely running on fumes after three weeks hard effort, though, final time trials in Grand Tours tend to be far less predictable affairs. Whether Uran is at the limit of his strength or if he has been saving himself for a last ditch assault on Froome’s Tour throne, only today’s time trial will reveal.

Should Bardet crack completely, though, and Uran fail Sky might, even, end up with two riders on the Tour’s final podium for the first time since 2012. Froome’s team-mate Mikel Landa, fourth overall at 1-36, could yet close the gap on the Frenchman to move into the top three in Paris.

With his focus fully on the time trial, Froome had a relatively quiet stage during yesterday’s [Friday’s] mammoth 222.5 kilometre trek to Salon-de-Provence, won in a solo late attack by former Sky team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway.

“It was a good opportunity for us GC guys who have had a tough time in the Alps to regain a bit energy and sit on the wheels ahead of tomorrow’s [Saturday’s] time trial,” Froome said afterwards.

“I have to make sure I do everything right, follow the right processes and hopefully not have a bad day. Certainly at this point it’s my Tour to lose.” - Or, indeed, to win.