Ilnur Zakarin won the first Alpine stage of the Tour de France yesterday after using a late attack in the final climb.
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But behind that, defending champion Froome followed an attack from Porte that none of his rivals could follow, with Quintana looking particularly vulnerable.
“It was a kind of disappointment to crash in the Giro because I was aiming to finish on the podium, but I had surgery after two days and I didn’t lose any time in my recovery”, Zakarin said. I have, but in different circumstances, especially when I used to ride for Chris Froome (Sky).
Tasmanian Porte, 31, who has been the only rider to remain alongside Froome in all three uphill finishes at this Tour, looks a strong bet for a top-three finish, now moving up to sixth overall at 4:27.
He was second in Thursday’s mountain time trial behind overall leader Chris Froome.
That means Froome now leads by four minutes and 11 seconds from AG2R La Mondiale’s Bardet, who moved up from fifth place, with Quintana in third, a further 16 seconds back.
There were dramas throughout the peloton in the hard conditions, with Trek-Segafredo’s Bauke Mollema dropping from second overall to 10th after a crash while Adam Yates slipped from third to fourth having been dropped on the final climb. Britain’s Adam Yates is third, 2:53 back, and Nairo Quintana of Colombia fourth, 3:27 behind.
“Right now I’m on a cloud”, Bardet said after posting his second Tour stage win.
Froome and Porte – who rode in support of Froome at Team Sky before he joined BMC this season – crossed the finish line together.
“I don’t think it was possible to go much faster there, Richie seemed to be doing just fine on his own”, he said. “I think it’s a good day”.
After several breakaway attempts, a group of 14 riders, including world champion Peter Sagan, formed at the front of the race. Froome’s teammates did not chase and the leading pack built a 13-minute gap. As rain started to fall, Michael Matthews was among the first escapees to be caught a few kilometers from the summit of the punishing Montee de Bisane, a 12-kilometer climb with an average gradient of eight percent.
He was distanced by the leaders on the Col de la Forclaz midway through the stage before being helped back by two Orica-BikeExchange team-mates and a push from Team Sky’s other Welshman Luke Rowe.
He had little to say about the possibility that the entire Russian team will be banned from next month’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro over allegations of state-sponsored doping.
“For me it is already quite a stressful time (being in the Tour)”, he said as his team manager, Olympic triple gold medallist Viatcheslav Ekimov, translated. “I am not following the news”.
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There are reports that several positive cases involving Russian cyclists have been covered up.
