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Tour de France continues amid mourning

Chris Froome and the other Tour de France leaders laid bouquets on the podium in a solemn ceremony.

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Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) was full of confidence after a victory on stage nine, and the Dutchman came out on top again in the 37.5-kilometer route from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-d’Arc.

A gunman at the wheel of a heavy truck ploughed into a crowd celebrating France s national day in the southern city late on Thursday, killing at least 84 people and injuring scores in what President Francois Hollande called a terrorist act.

That meant Froome was reinstated as the Yellow Jersey holder despite finishing 1min 21sec behind fellow Briton Adam Yates, who was initially announced as the new race leader.

“I’m not as satisfied as I normally would be if it wasn’t for the sad day that it is”, said Dumoulin.

“To see the Promenade (des Anglais) the way it was yesterday evening, with bodies all over the road…it was horrific scenes. My deepest sympathies go out to the affected families”.

Team Sky have a training base in Nice, and several riders, including Froome and Geraint Thomas, live in nearby Monaco.

“It’s a huge tragedy”.

For time-trial specialist Dumoulin, stage 13 was his second success of this year’s tour.

Mollema was 1:54 behind Dumoulin, while Richie Porte, Tejay Van Garderen and Romain Bardet all lost ground to Froome.

Defending champion Chris Froome of Britain extended his overall lead to one minute and 47 seconds by finishing second Friday in the 13th stage time trial over the 23-mile leg from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-D’Arc in the Ardeche region.

But the French spirit is just as immutable and in a statement released before the race, Tour director Christian Prudhomme said the race must go on.

“We wish today to be dignified, in tribute to the victims”, Prudhomme said. “We are thinking about the families, we offer our condolences to everyone who has been affected, who has lost a loved one”.

Dutchman Dumoulin admitted he had questioned whether the stage should go ahead and said after his win: “I’m happy with the win, but it’s overshadowed of course. But we think, in agreement with the state authorities, that the race should continue, and we mustn’t give in to pressure of people who want us to change our way of life”.

Mollema, the surprise of Thursday’s stage, put in a strong ride and lost only 50sec to Froome.

“I did a good time-trial for me, everyone knows I’m not good at time-trialing”, he said. In the Spanish Grand Tour he was leading the race in the last week but cracked on the final mountain stage and eventually ended up sixth. “The form is good, the sensations are good and we’ll fight all the way to Paris”.

But Froome, 31, put significant time between himself and his main rivals such as Nairo Quintana, who dropped to fourth overall almost a second under three minutes.

Thibaut Pinot and Simon Gerrans have pulled out of the Tour de France due to illness and injury respectively. “I wasn’t really happy with my sensations – it hurt a lot”.

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“Cycling gets a little bit less important on a day like this, which is normal”. There are still a lot of mountains.

There was a minute's silence held at the start of Friday's 13th stage a 37.5-kilometres time-trial from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-d'Arc