Chris Froome just won a wild Tour de France — here are the 6 most unforgettable moments

Reuters

Chris Froome has won the Tour de France for the third time. The 31-year-old took the race leader's yellow jersey on stage eight and never let it go. He won two stages along the way.

France's Romain Bardet, 25, finished second and Colombia's Nairo Quintana, 26, took third. The highest-placed American was Tejay van Garderen in 29th. The Tour started on July 2 at Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy with 197 riders and finished with 174 in Paris on July 24.

Froome, a Kenyan-born Briton, won the Tour in 2013 and 2015. He was favored to win in 2014 but crashed out of the race during the first week.

The biggest surprise of this year's Tour was the failure of Quintana to challenge Froome in the high mountains. The compact climber from Cómbita — runner-up to Froome last year — never posed a threat, and the highly anticipated duel between Quintana and Froome didn't happen.

Froome's Sky team was by far the strongest in the race. Several of Froome's teammates — notably Dutchman Walt Poels and Colombian Sergio Henao — were as good or nearly as good Froome's rivals, and their fierce pacesetting made it virtually impossible for others to challenge Froome. The victory was a tribute to Sky's class and depth — it has now won four Tours in the past five years (Bradley Wiggins won the 2012 Tour with Sky) — as well as an example of how the teams with the biggest budgets tend to dominate the Tour. Sky has a budget of about $40 million, which is massive for pro cycling and much larger than that of most teams.

Here are six unforgettable moments from the 103rd Tour de France:

Froome running up Ventoux

In a wild sight on one of cycling's most storied and iconic climbs, Froome had to run up Mont Ventoux after a crash involving a motorcycle left him without a bike. The crash left several riders hitting the ground and Froome desperately sprinting up the road to save his race lead. After the chaos settled, Froome managed to get a bike and finish the stage with his lead intact. But the image of Froome running uphill in the yellow jersey through thongs of fanatical spectators without a bike is now already indelibly etched in cycling memory for the ages.

Sagan donning his first yellow jersey

Cycling's best one-day racer, Peter Sagan, had a wonderful Tour. He won three stages and wore the yellow jersey, his first, for a couple of days. He did it all as world champion. And along the way he won yet another green jersey, his fifth, for being the race's most consistent daily finisher. His winning attack in the final kilometers on stage 11 — which dew Froome out of the bunch — was pure class from the world's No. 1 rider.

Froome attacking down a descent and into yellow

During the opening week of the Tour, Sky protected Froome superbly. Then on stage eight Froome threw down the gauntlet, attacking at the summit of the last climb and storming down the decent to finish solo at Bagnères-de-Luchon. Froome's totally unexpected attack saw him racing in an aero tuck while sitting on the top tube of his bike and furiously pedaling a massive 54-tooth chainring. Froome took the yellow jersey in style and would never let it go. The attack may not have given Froome a huge time advantage, but it struck a psychological blow to his rivals and showed panache.