As well as enjoying four stage wins, Cavendish also wore the overall leader’s yellow jersey for the first time and carried the green jersey for the points classification into the first rest day in Andorra.
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Dimension Data team principal Doug Ryder said: “Mark is really sad to leave the Tour.
The time trial is very important, each day is extremely challenging”, said Froome.
The Team Sky rider leads Dutchman Bauke Mollema by 1:47 and fellow Briton Adam Yates by 2:45.
Fans, officials and riders observed a minute’s silence at 1200 local time, shortly before the start of the race, in memory of the victims of the Bastille Day attack in Nice.
The world champion from Slovakia showed off his all-around qualities by perfectly timing a sprint to win the 16th stage of the Tour de France in a photo finish on Monday.
“The guy had a big flag and the pole was getting close to my front wheel”, said Froome, at his base in the Swiss lake resort of Hilterfingen.
“I definitely feel as if there has been a huge shift this year”, said Froome.
I wouldn’t say the best is yet to come but I certainly feel as if I’m not like I was in the two previous editions – hanging on in the third week.
Froome got animated when he was asked about Sagan.
“To say the Tour is won and I have no rival is rubbish”, he added.
Barring next Sunday’s ceremonial stage into Paris, the Tour’s final week is packed with Alpine climbs.
Sagan also won the world title with a late breakaway in the US past year.
The 23-year-old Orica-BikeExchange rider unexpectedly finds himself third overall with five stages to go, two minutes and 59 seconds behind Froome in yellow.
Mark Cavendish of Great Britain (second from left) has won four stages of this year’s Tour, but withdrew Tuesday after the 16th stage to rest for the Olympics. But yesterday he argued that “If anything, this year I’ve demonstrated how much I still have that hunger, that desire to still win this race”.
“I have attacked on descents, I have attacked in the crosswinds, and it’s quite hard to say, “Well, he’s descending faster than everyone else so something is wrong here”.
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That provoked a counter-attack from former world champion Rui Costa of Portugal, but he was caught 4.5km from the finish, and thereafter it was all about Sagan and Kristoff.
