Obviously a big, tantalizing question that comes from today is - what does Contador's form mean for a showdown with Froome in France? Definitely Contador did a great ride today, but to me it's more reminiscent of Fuente De than it is of him torching everyone on Verbier in 2009. He used every part of the course after his attack to gain time (although he lost a bit at the end, naturally) - got the gap on the mountain, enough to stick until the downhill, and then gained quite a bit of time on the downhill. If it were a MTF at the top of Lanciano, he would have gained 40 seconds on Nairo Quintana, a bit more on the group behind. That's impressive, but it's not quite Froome at Ax-3 last year.
In one sense, it's a bit facile to say "Contador > Quintana and by the end of the Tour last year (and maybe for the whole Tour had he not been Valverde-help-bait) Quintana > Froome" and dream about how with Contador's killer instinct/willingness to attack, he can find the right times to put time into Froome and overcome him in the Tour. Obviously it's more complicated than that. But Contador last year wouldn't have been able to drop everyone so convincingly, even with the time gaps at the end of the climb, I'm convinced. So transposing that onto an Ax-3 redux, I feel like his gap wouldn't be the gaping 1:40 or whatever it was. He might be able to hang. But it doesn't seem like enough. That said, there are lots of stages, cobbles, etc, so who knows. But if I had to guess straight up, I think Froomey will still drop him.
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