Sean Kelly on cycling’s moral code, Chris Froome’s main rivals and Richie Porte's horrible crash

Kelly discusses Fabio Aru’s controversial move under Chris Froome’s raised arm, whether anything can be done to avoid crashes such as Richie Porte’s, and who the favourites are to win the green and yellow jerseys...

Well, there’s no rule that you can’t attack the yellow jersey when he’s got a mechanical, it’s just an understanding between riders that you don’t. It’s been up for debate a lot in the past year, and [on Sunday] we saw Aru do it to Chris Froome. Aru claims he didn’t see Froome having issues, and said he knocked off his effort when he found out. It’s difficult to understand that he didn’t see Froome have a mechanical, because he was just metres ahead of him. If he didn’t see, he has every right to attack, but if he did then I think he should’ve maintained his pace and let Froome get back on, that’s the way it’s always been.

If the descent was in really bad conditions, a thunderstorm and running water down the road, I think there may have been a call to neutralise the descent, but doing it at that point of the race when the riders had been racing for hours would’ve been a tough call. The conditions were OK and it was at an important part of the race. Unfortunately for Richie Porte, he had a bad fall and now he’s out of the race, but that’s part of bike racing, it happens.

Unless you’re going to dress the riders up like the Michelin Man, no protection is going to be of any use when riders are travelling at that speed. When you consider what the riders have to do, it’ll be very difficult to implement safety wear that won’t affect the performance of a rider. Unfortunately, it’s not like motorcycle racing where the rider is on a high-powered bike where you can wear leather to protect yourself. If somebody were to come up with safety gear that doesn’t obstruct the rider then it will be a major breakthrough and a big money maker for the inventor!

For the green jersey, we definitely have a big challenge on now. Marcel Kittel is going so well at the moment, he’s getting over hills with some style, especially during Sunday’s Stage, he was really impressive. A few days ago, he was probably only thinking about stage wins, but with Sagan’s exit he’s seen a real opportunity. He’ll be targeting the intermediate sprint points more than ever now, but he will face tough competition from Michael Matthews, who managed to get 20 points on Sunday on a tough intermediate sprint. Any opportunity to pick up points, I think you’ll see these two going toe-to-toe as they both see a real opportunity in Sagan’s absence.

I think this week, we’ll see how dominant Chris Froome is, especially during stage 12 up into Peyragudes. Sunday was a real tough day for all the GC contenders, and Team Sky managed it well. You saw when Froome had that mechanical issue, they dropped back and had him back in the main bunch in great time. This allowed him to up the pace when he got back into the group and put his rivals in to trouble. He showed us on Sunday that he is in good shape, and looks like he’ll be able to defend his jersey. However, there are a lot of difficult days still to come and just one bad day on a three-week Tour can cost you. Even the best riders have them.

There are always worries when you lose someone in your team, especially if it’s a rider like Geraint Thomas who is so important to Team Sky. As the race goes on he will be a huge miss for Sky because he’s proven that he can still put in performances during that difficult final week. Team Sky have had to do a lot of work over the first week of this race, and if that continues then I think they’ll start missing Thomas. Froome just has to keep doing what he’s doing, day-by-day, but it’s easier said than done!

It looks like Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet will be the main challengers to Froome, they both looked very strong. I do think you’ll see some of the other riders taking back some time this week, and if that is the case, they can come back and be real danger men once again. We saw Dan Martin suffer after crashing with Richie Porte, but he’ll be looking to take any opportunities this week and get himself back in the hunt. Quintana could come back in to the fray, but we haven’t seen anywhere near his best so far, he has to start performing better. Simon Yates is another one who is very much still in contention. These guys can still do it, but I think Aru and Bardet are the ones we need to watch out for this week.