Yellow jersey race leader Chris Froome needed the support of his team after crashing on stage 19 of the Tour de France.
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Spanish rider Jon Izagirre won the rainy penultimate stage by attacking on the slippery descent from the Col de Joux Plane into Morzine.
The only two to attack out of the group of favourites were Bauke Mollema and Joaquim Rodriguez, but they were merely squabbling over 10th place with Roman Kreuziger, who started the day 12th, up the road in a breakaway – their quibbles were of no concern to Froome’s yellow jersey aspirations.
The 31-year-old Kenyan-born Briton has a lead of four minutes and five seconds ahead of Frenchman Romain Bardet, which will not be contested in the French capital.
Adam Yates, the 23-year-old Briton, is fourth, four minutes 42 seconds down and safe in the white jersey as the best young rider – the first Briton to wear it in to Paris.
“It’s a course that suits me well, I took bronze in London in the last Olympics and it would be incredible to medal again this year”, he said, referring to the time trial.
Sunday’s Stage 21: The Tour ends with a 70-mile, largely ceremonial leg from Chantilly to Paris, ending on the Champs-Elysees.
He began the day sporting bandages on his knee and elbow from that spill, and would not have relaxed for a moment knowing he had to face the technical descent into Morzine before any celebrations could begin.
While overhauling Froome on the race’s penultimate stage was the most unlikely of scenarios, the Czech did move into virtual second place on the general classification as the break extended its lead to around seven minutes.
“I thanks all the Colombians and the fans who were behind me, they were a great support on this Tour”.
The Tour de France is the biggest cycling race in the world.
Froome’s prime rival Nairo Quintana, who has complained the last few days of suffering from a mystery “allergy”, admitted the best man won. Slovakia’s Peter Sagan won the green points jersey for a fifth straight year and Rafal Majka of Poland claimed the polkadot king of the mountains jersey for the second time in three years.
“I think my parents must have been scared watching at home”, he said. He also won a stage in the 2012 Giro d’Italia. “It’s the third time I’ve lost against him but I’m still happy with our team showing on this Tour”.
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“Beating Nibali in a downhill is something that counts in a career but Pantano also descends very well”. Froome and the other leaders were joined by German national champion Andre Greipel at the front of the peloton.
