The pair who fought for the stage win were out in front on the first descent from the Grand Colombier with 35km left, together with Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha and Etixx-Quickstep’s Julian Alaphilippe, the latter attacking but then crashing.
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Froome was over three minutes behind the victor on the mountainous 160km stage from Bourg-en-Bresse to Culoz, but finished alongside his main rivals.
“I came to the Tour de France for that, but I didn’t believe it could happen”.
COLOMBIAN Jarlinson Pantano showed he is a master of the descent as he claimed his maiden Tour de France win in the 15th stage, while overall leader Chris Froome enjoyed a relatively quiet day in the saddle.
After the riders tackled the hors categories Grand Colombier, they crossed the finish line for a first time in Culoz and doubled back to go up the other side of the mountain and it was there, on the Lacets, that a handful of contenders tried their luck.
But the cheeky move spoke volumes about his current supremacy at cycling’s biggest event.
Dutchman Bauke Mollema and Briton Adam Yates finished in the peloton to stay second and third overall.
In fact, Froome has barely faced attacks since taking the yellow jersey of race leader nine days ago with a daring downhill attack in the Pyrenees.
Yet even though he is sitting fourth overall at 2:59, Quintana remains the most unsafe threat to Froome’s hopes of winning a third Tour title.
He said: “I just wanted to see exactly what the state of play was; to see what reaction I get. who would be looking to follow me – [it was] interesting to see Nairo [Quintana] was on my wheel quite quickly – to give me an idea of who may be making a move over the top”.
Anybody who tries attacking they just bring them back.
“It must be quite demoralising for other people to have to think of attacking knowing this calibre of riders will be chasing them down”. “Nairo is really strong and he’s still capable of winning”.
“I have a lot of proposals but we’ll talk about that in August”, Pantano said.
“I was very surprised my rivals didn’t make more attacks, today was a ideal opportunity to put us under pressure”, said Froome.
A 30-man group broke away on the first of the six ascents of the day, up the Col du Berthiand. Frenchman Alexis Vuillermoz outsprinted Reichenbach for third.
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American Tejay van Garderen dropped to eighth overall, 4:47 behind Froome.
