The Team Sky rider completed the testing 17km stage in the shadow of Mont Blanc in a time of 30 minutes 43 seconds.
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Italian Fabio Aru pipped Richie Porte of Australia by a fraction of a second to take third at 33sec.
“I didn’t expect to be like this”, he said. I really started off quite steady and really controlled that first part and then just gave it everything I had over the last part. “Obviously I’ve got a fantastic advantage now. He’s the strongest”, said cycling great Eddy Merckx, a five-time Tour victor. “I can’t see what could prevent him from keeping this yellow jersey until Paris”. His opponents just stay on his teammates’ wheels. “Barring an incident, nobody can beat him on this Tour”.
Two more Alpine stages remain before Sunday’s mostly ceremonial finish on the Champs-Elysees.
Froome’s compatriot Adam Yates is third, 4:16 off the pace, as the race to the podium is set to heat up with at least five riders still in the mix for second place.
For Nairo Quintana, the Colombian who was second overall to Froome in 2013 and previous year, it was another disappointing day, although he did gain time on both Mollema and Yates. The Movistar rider is fourth overall, 4:37 behind Froome. However, the earlier you’re out, the less climbing ability you have, so I wouldn’t imagine the chaps at the bottom of the GC would be looking forward to an uphill time trial with too much relish. “If he didn’t have that puncture at the beginning of the race (on stage two) in my opinion he’d be on the podium already”. “I hope I’ll find a good terrain to attack”, said Bardet.
The British cyclist Chris Froome amazed his rivals in the eighth stage of the Tour de France by gaining time not in the ascent but in the descent.
“So you have to be fearless on a course like that and hold a little bit back to start with so that you can get all your effort out over the course”.
Froome was one of the few riders to use a full time trial setup with an aerodynamic rear disc wheel instead of traditional spokes.
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“We have two more big days to come, hopefully I didn’t leave too much out on the road today”.
