The stage was won by Russia Ilnur Zakarin of the Katusha team, after he broke away with 6.5km remaining.
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Froome made the most of a brutal final ascent to the artificial lake of Finhaut-Emosson to tighten his grip on the race and take another step toward a third title in four years at cyclings biggest event.
“It was very hard today because of the heat”, Froome said.
“I’m really happy, I want to thank my teammates”.
The gaps are significant, but Quintana, a pure climber from Colombia, managed to gain time on Froome in the Alps previous year.
“I wouldn’t look at him in the same way I look at [Nairo] Quintana”, Froome said of the rider now in third place overall. That opportunity is why I left Sky after all.
While Quintana struggled, Froome reasserted his superiority over his direct rivals in the sizzling heat that hit the Swiss Alps.
“Froome leads second-placed by Bauke Mollema by 2’27” overall, with Yates a further 26 seconds back ahead of the stage 18 mountain time trial.
Quintana, runner-up to Froome in 2013 and 2015, is in fourth place overall, 2 minutes, 59 seconds behind.
While he’s still largely unknown outside his native Netherlands and cycling circles, Mollema is shaping up as the top challenger to defending champion and race leader Chris Froome.
Froome boasted before the Grand Boucle began that Sky had cobbled together their “strongest Tour team yet”. “Tactically for me there is really no need to get on the front and start pulling on the final”. I thought Quintana was the one who was going to go, so I sat on his wheel.
“Attacking all the time would be good for the show”.
Looking back, given our past as former teammates – and even now, as good mates – I can understand why interest in the two of us being off the front.
His early breakaway was nearly caught late on as he painfully struggled on the final climb – the steepest of the whole stage – but he ended up winning by 55 seconds from Jarlinson Pantano. The elevation will equalise the two riders significantly, but at around [3.50], Dumoulin looks the value to get the better of Froome, especially because he took Stage 12 much more sedately than the GC-focused Froome, and also because Dumoulin will have no sense of wanting to preserve energy for what is yet to come in the Alps.
A breakaway was unable to form in the early stages of the race, due to multiple attacks, but a 19-man group was finally established after 105km as they approached the top of the Col des Mosses.
The scenic route near Mont Blanc took the peloton up and down serpentine roads between neatly arranged vineyards with snowcapped mountains in the distance.
Solo stage victor Ilnur Zackarin (Team Katusha) came from a breakaway, managing to out-climb Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff). Zakarin quickly bridged to the leading duo and then attacked them.
Zakarin, who served a two-year doping ban after testing positive aged 19 in 2009, said he had not read the report as he focuses on the Tour. Pantano went with him, but when the Russian accelerated again, the Colombian couldn t follow and eventually finished 55sec back.
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