Briton Chris Froome secured his fourth Tour de France victory on Sunday. The victory was Froome’s third consecutive victory, and made him only the fifth person ever to win the Tour de France four times.

The victory was the most challenging of Froome’s general classification victories. It was his smallest margin of victory (54 seconds, over Rigoberto Uran), and marked the first time he had ceded control of the leader’s yellow jersey later than the eighth stage. He also did not capture a stage victory, becoming only the seventh rider since the Tour’s inception in 1903 to win the general classification without a single stage victory.

“Every Tour is hard. It’s difficult to say which was the hardest; every year you suffer,” said Froome, But he added that this year had definitely been his narrowest victory.
The 2017 Tour was mired in early controversy when a crash on the third stage caused the exit of rider Mark Cavendish and the subsequent ejection of rider Peter Sagan. The exit of the two riders, who between them had captured the past six points classification titles, left the green jersey field wide open, and the title was won in the end by Australian rider Michael Matthews.

French rider Warren Barguil won the mountains classification’s polka dot jersey, and British rider Simon Yates won the young rider classification’s white jersey. Froome’s Team Sky won the team classification, holding it for the entire race.

Only cycling greats Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernald Hinault and Miguel Indurain, who each have five titles, have more Tour victories than Froome, who will likely enter next year’s Tour again the presumptive favorite.

By Alex Park / Intern reporter (parkjky@heraldcorp.com)