With one Alpine stage down, the Tour now faces a second on Thursday, but it will be a mountain time trial – stage 18 from Sallanches to Megève.
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It was indicative of Froome’s sense of the easing pressure that he believes that top rival squads Movistar and Astana were “fighting more for the podium now”, something all but confirmed by Quintana’s key lieutenant and team-mate, Alejandro Valverde after Wednesday’s defeat.
“Following Richie up the road brought back some nice memories, but it was a massive bonus to put more time into Quintana”, Froome said.
“It’s been a very hard Tour for Nairo”, said Froome, after the Colombian lost another 28 seconds. I really started off quite steady and really controlled that first part and then just gave it everything I had over the last part.
“You never know, but normally, if he stays healthy, he’ll for sure win the Tour de France”, said Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin).
“After I crashed at the Giro with two days to go, I was very disappointed but I quickly underwent a surgery”, said Zakarin.
Cancellara said “it was a hard Tour for me, a lot of stress and I feel exhausted”.
Quintana is now lagging four minutes and 37 seconds behind the top position, but is only 55 seconds behind Dutchman Bauke Mollema, who is second in the general classification.
“In the future I want to win a Grand Tour and the Tour de France has my priority”.
The gap Froome has over Mollema now stands at 3:52 with just three stages of the race remaining, while Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) is 4:16 adrift in third.
Froome was only fifth fastest at the first time check 6.5km into the race against the clock but was up to third by the second and had taken the lead by the third.
As it happened, the Alps brought nothing new or exciting to the three-week race which seems to be as good as decided – Chris Froome has a third Tour crown all but wrapped up.
Froome attacked inside the final two kilometres and eventually finished on the wheel of former team mate Richie Porte, the Australian emerging as a potential podium finisher in Paris.
“I felt strong today, and I’m happy with how it all went”.
After winning the Tour of Turkey in 2014, and the San Sebastian single-day classic past year, Yates is already being tipped as a future victor of a major tour.
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But both gained significant time on those around them and Porte, who started the day two minutes off second place, is now only 1:08 behind Bauke Mollema. “I hope I’ll find a good terrain to attack”, said Bardet. Badly bruised as a result, Merckx lost the race lead when racing resumed after cracking on Pra Loup – that yellow jersey, the 96 of his career, would prove to be his last as he finished the race in second place.
