To be clear, for all their defects, and there are plenty, I think Movistar did a great job at the Tour. Fantastic. Stage 20 was possibly the most exciting racing I've seen at the tour in four or five years. But let me paint you all a little picture. I know, things might've happened differently. Valverde might've had a more tenuous grasp on second, butterflies and hurricanes and all that.
But say Movistar hadn't gone all out at the foot of LPSM, fearing a strong Froome early in the second week, and taken a more defensive approach. Say Sky would've done the pulling and Froome had waited a bit more and Quintana hadn't taken those digs and had followed Gesink's wheel (who would've been further out) a bit and the gap would have ended up being only 30 seconds at the top.
Say the rest of the race goes more or less as it did. We get to Stage 20, Froome leading by little over two minutes. Say Izaguirre and Co. are a bit more rested, say Poels and Porte are a bit more tired. Say Anacona makes it to the valley before the lead group, or just with a biggish gap to the Sky men at the bottom of the climb. He pushes on (Anacona is a very decent TT man and obviously had good legs on the day) and Froome is isolated at the foot of the Alpe. Say Nibali doesn't have the random puncture and attacks (if the four leaders are still isolated) as soon as it kicks up, or has Kangert (if a couple riders rejoined the bunch before the Sky men) set a devil of a pace to start the climb. Say Valverde takes the next dig, and Froome chases himself. Say Quintana makes his "double attack" with 11km to go. Full stage bonus on offer at the top. Nibali and Valverde on Froome's wheel, ready to pounce at the for the places and bonuses.
What would have happened? Would Froome have tried to follow and likely blown up? Would he managed to pace himself and won by 8 seconds or lost by 3?
No clue. Maybe Froome having saved the day and the cacophony of Monday morning quarterbacks calling Movistar cowards, completely confident that Nairo would have won had Unzue had the balls, would've been beyond deafening and completely dominated the discourse today. But they would have been wrong. I think too aggressive too early was Movistar undoing. Had Unzue stuck to his cautious instincts at La Pierre Saint Martin, and not as seems apparent bowed to public pressure, the race might've been just a bit more exiting in the end. Aggressive racing is not just about taking little digs but making the right attack at the right time. And in this case the right kind of aggressive racing might have served up one for the ages.