The Irish rider finished 14th on Stage 9, a mountainous route to the ski resort of Arcalis in Andorra that crossed a total of five peaks, six and a half minutes behind breakaway stage victor Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin).
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The stage began in glorious sunshine in Spain and the temperatures stayed sky high as they crossed into Andorra, but as they began the final climb to Andorre Arcalis a storm closed in and huge hailstones battered the riders.
But Froome is wary that he used up a lot of energy in his attack and is expecting today’s stage to be tough.
The footage shows the arch collapse just as Yates is about to go through, giving him no chance of stopping – nor the rider on the motorbike who is filming the footage.
“It definitely made it harder for us”. On Tuesday, the sprinters will have to survive some early bumps in the road to contest another bunch of sprints, the first of two relatively flat days.
The Spaniard, 33, gave up 100 kilometres from the end of yesterday’s ninth stage – which was won by Dutchman Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin – having struggled with injury since an opening-day crash. Quintana’s deficit is too small that a little weakness from Froome will ultimately allow the Colombian to seize the lead before a rest day.
The Spaniard has been in the wars in the opening week of the Tour and after feeling ill prior to the stage, he abandoned with 100km to race.
“Into the last kilometre I thought, “he hasn’t attacked yet, maybe he’s waiting for one big move”. “It’s a shame. He’s a great rider and he would have only added to what is already quite an exciting race”.
Australian Richie Porte (BMC) moved a few places up the pecking order to 14th in the overall standings, but is still two minutes 10 seconds from his former teammate Froome.
Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), who dropped out of contention after cracking on Friday, attacked early on the ascent to the Col du Tourmalet but he and his breakaway companions, Pole Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and German Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) were caught with about 50km left.
“That was real old-school bike racing”, said Froome.
“I don’t consider myself a contender”, said Martin after the stage.
And with the rest day looming, we leave you with the best bits from Sunday’s belting stage to Andorra. I think they’re fantastic. There’s a bit of odd tactics going on.
“A few days ago if you said I would win maybe the hardest day in the whole Tour de France this year, I would say you were insane”, said Dumoulin, who was sick last week.
Welshman Thomas, who crossed 7min 24sec down on victor Tom Dumoulin in 25th, said he welcomed the downpour.
Up front Dumoulin took advantage of some hesitancy in the breakaway to strike out alone.
Froome, 31, remains on course to win his third title in four years after tasting success in both the 2013 and 2015 Tours.
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“I didn’t save much (energy) to be honest, let’s see. But I’m happy with the way things are going for me in the GC, and hopefully a win is just around the corner”.
