Despite this, Merckx still led the race by 58 seconds going into stage 15.
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Quintana tried to launch an early escape, but Froome’s Team Sky squad hunted him down and when the Colombian climber twice accelerated on the concluding ascent to the small ski resort, Froome chased him down.
The Kenya-born Briton finished seven minutes 16 seconds behind Geschke on the same time as Quintana to preserve his advantage of 3mins 10secs ahead of Sunday’s conclusion in Paris.
Next stage: Thursday’s 186-kilometer (115-mile) Stage 18 takes riders from Gap to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and features a previously unscaled climb at the Tour up some spectacular hairpin bends.
Britain’s Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, is all smiles as he looks at the yellow jersey mascot equipped with a camera on the podium of the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 201…
Van Garderen said the British race leader, who won the Tour in 2013 and has never tested positive for doping, has had to deal with “the aftermath” of doping cheats of the past.
It means Spaniard Alejandro Valverde moves up into a podium position behind second-placed Nairo Quintana with Contador just 19sec behind.
“The best day of my life as a rider”, Geschke said after holding off American Andrew Talansky, the Cannondale-Garmin rider who was in hot pursuit on the final climb. Irishman Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon) quit after being the first rider to be dropped on the stage.
Sky performance analyst Tim Kerrison presented figures including Froome’s power output, cadence and heart rate on the climb to the Stage 10 finish.
Pinot, third overall in 2014 but out of contention this year, attacked alone to try to catch the leader. He rode in more than two minutes after Froome.
Next Quintana surged with the four others following. Two-time Tour victor Alberto Contador crashed on the Allos descent and lost more than 2 minutes to Froome and Quintana.
By Jamey Keaten, Pra Loup, France. But he has been dropped by Froome and the main pack on the first of five climbs in the first day in the Alps and his team has just said on French television’s live coverage that he is ill.
Quintana accelerated with around 3km to go, but Froome snuffed out the move.
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“But I’m on the race here now and for the last few days Dave Brailsford has not been talking to Matt Dickinson, whose covering the race for The Times, because he didn’t like Matt Dickinson writing about Peter Verbeken, who was a former US Postal soigneur”.
