Wow. It's really unfortunate this comes in the middle of his salbutemol controversy, because frankly this is an amazing day in cycling. The bad is that, as mentioned, we've seen some historic days like this before. I am no fan of Froome or Sky, but I would argue this is nothing like the day Landis popped in a fresh bag of packed platelet/testosterone stew and stormed away. Other than Yates, who was already clearly fading at week 3, there has been no one who has been performing well. Dumoulin is doing a heck of a job to hang on to second, particularly given the much nastier climbs today (and tomorrow).
The Giro is like this, though, with a totally different terrain and group of riders than we see in the Tour. This is not the first time - at all - that someone who looked like they were suffering in week 1 came back in week 3 to win it all. Frankly, it's what makes the Giro in many ways a far, far more exciting and interesting race compared to Le Tour.
It's just shame it was Froome. . .