Gorka Izagirre crashed inside the first kilometre of Wednesday’s 17th stage in Switzerland from Bern to Finhaut-Emosson.
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Solo stage victor Ilnur Zackarin (Team Katusha) came from a breakaway, managing to out-climb Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff).
After Katusha’s Zakarin took stage honours up the road, Froome raced clear of his main rivals to build a cushion of nearly two and a half minutes at the end of this 184.5-kilometres stage from Berne.
Zakarin, who was suspended in 2009 for two years after testing positive for the forbidden anabolic methandienone, finished 55 seconds ahead of Pantano.
He stays third, but at 2:53 he is now only 26sec behind second-placed Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands, who gave up 40sec to the race leader.
But today should kick-off four days of attacks from the GC contenders; Adam Yates (Orica BikeExchange) spoke about his desire to attack Froome in the final days, and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) who is almost three minutes down on the Briton also admitted he and his team is looking to attack Froome in the remaining stages. Colombian Quintana, who has been lacking his usual stamina in the long climbs, is fourth, 3:27 off the pace after losing 28sec to Froome when he was expected to attack.
Astana continued the drive the pace up the final climb, with team leader Fabio Aru sitting in third position.
Froome let Richie Porte get slightly ahead but an attack saw Froome get up to Porte and leave the rest of the group he was with in his wake.
“I’ve raced against a lot of these guys before in other races and I’ve been able to be there with them, and for some reason this year it’s not happening”.
“After I crashed at the Giro with two days to go, I was very disappointed but I quickly underwent a surgery”, said Zakarin. He accelerated viciously on his own midway up Finhaut-Emosson and gained time to the finish line as Pantano and Majka made little effort to chase, likely because they didn’t have the legs up one of the steepest climbs of the Tour.
The day began with an early crash involving Quintanas teammate Gorka Izaguirre, who was forced to abandon with a suspected fractured collarbone.
After several breakaway attempts, a group of 14 riders, including world champion Peter Sagan, formed at the front of the race.
They reached the foot of the penultimate ascent, a 13km climb to the Col de la Forclaz at an average gradient of 7.9%, with a 13-minute advantage.
British sprinter Mark Cavendish has withdrawn from the Tour de France in a bid to improve his medal chances at next month’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “I am not following the news”.
Mollema’s top support riders on the Trek-Segafredo team are Haimar Zubeldia of Spain and Frank Schleck of Luxembourg.
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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.
