Froome, covered in grit from the wet and windy day to Zélande, arrived at Sky’s black bus with a 1m28 gap on his rivals on the stage.
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Lotto rider Andre Greipel won the second stage of the Tour de France in Neeltje Jans, in the Dutch province of Zeeland, on Sunday, with Fabian Cancellara claiming the yellow jersey.
Quintana and Nibali were both caught out in the final 50km by a succession of crashes as the speed in the peloton increased and crosswinds coupled with driving rain caused splits in the bunch.
After some riders ignored lowered barriers at a railroad crossing during Paris-Roubaix earlier this year, Tour de France organizers are taking action.
“A lot of guys came to me and they said sorry and I said don’t be sorry”, he added.
“It was a question of bad luck, not my legs”. “I was speaking to Froome and (Tejay) Van Garderen and I told them that these are the kind of opportunities you have to take”.
Nibali, who tried to counter the searing heat by warming up with ice cubes strapped to his back, finished 43 seconds behind Dennis in 22nd place.
“It was chaos out there for a few minutes with the storm and the winds”. We were the most hard-working team but we finished empty-handed.
Froome’s guards – with Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard – worked with Contador’s helpers Peter Sagan, Daniele Bennati and Michael Rogers.
“It was great to be up there with G [Geraint Thomas] and Yogi [Ian Stannard] at the end”, said Froome. The team managed to keep me up in the front, and it was a key factor.
Before he got there, Froome was forced to skip the Tirreno-Adriatico weeklong race in March because of illness and looked lost in the Tour of Catalunya later that month before crashing in the Fleche Wallonne classic in April.
“This a huge advantage for us to sit in this position after one flat day out on the road”, Team Sky rider Froome said.
That’s not the case these days with Prudhomme in charge, and while we have already seen Nibali and Quintana suffer serious blows to their title hopes, I would much rather watch this generation of Tours de France than those from a decade ago. “There could still be many comebacks”.
Contador, who is 12 seconds behind Froome in 14th spot, moved 1:09 ahead of Nibali and 1:27 clear of Quintana overall.
But Romain Bardet, sixth previous year, is right down in 78th and 3mins off Cancellara.
The big winners, meanwhile, were the yellow jersey contenders who made it into the front group, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador.
Swiss veteran Cancellara, who is riding in his last Tour, took the race leader’s jersey from overnight leader Rohan Dennis after finishing third and picking up a time bonus.
Some people pointed that out to the 30-year-old Briton, who reacted angrily on Twitter.
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“With a headwind finish ideally I’d want to go with less than 200 metres to go but it was more than 300”.
