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Tour de France: Chris Froome extends lead as Tom Dumoulin wins

Chris Froome, Tour de France, stage 13
Image: Chris Froome out-performed all of his Tour de France rivals

Chris Froome added another minute to his lead and took a significant step towards Tour de France victory by finishing an impressive second behind Tom Dumoulin on stage 13's individual time trial.

Froome (Team Sky) stopped the clock on a rolling, 37.5km course in 51min 18sec, which was 1min 3sec behind pre-stage favourite Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) but comfortably ahead of all of his closest rivals in the general classification. 

Although Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) performed well and limited his losses to Froome to 51 seconds, Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) fell another 1min 58sec adrift of the yellow jersey and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) surrendered 2min 5sec after struggling in windy conditions.

Froome joy tempered by Nice
Froome joy tempered by Nice

Chris Froome admitted the terror attack in Nice overshadowed extending his Tour lead

The result stretches Froome's race lead from 47 seconds to 1min 47sec over Mollema, who climbed from fourth to second overall after continuing his fine form with a sixth-place finish on the day.

Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) has slipped one place to 2min 45sec down in third, while Quintana finds himself a distant 2min 59sec back in fourth.

Tom Dumoulin, Tour de France, stage 13
Image: Tom Dumoulin claimed his second win of this year's Tour

The stage has put Froome in complete control of the race and he now looks firmly on course to win the Tour for the third time in four years.

Dumoulin, meanwhile, claimed his second win of this year's Tour and simultaneously announced himself as the favourite for next month's Olympic time trial, where Froome is likely to once again be among his closest rivals.

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Afterwards, Dumoulin admitted his joy had been tempered by news of Thursday night's terror attack in Nice.

Adam Yates on stage 13 of the 2016 Tour de France
Image: Adam Yates has slipped to third in the general classification

He said: "We are speaking with one side a very happy man, but one side a sad man. It's a very sad day.

"It was a just question to ask if we should race today, and at the end a very just decision to race. I think we cannot let terrorists decide our lives here in our society.

Tour de France standings
Tour de France standings

Top 10s in the general, points, mountains and youth classifications, plus stage results

"It's terrible what happened and it shadows the day a lot. My thoughts are with everyone involved in the horrific events in Nice."

Tour organisers held a "crisis meeting" over whether the stage should go ahead but decided "the race must go on" as a tribute to the victims of Thursday's attack. 

From left, Adam Yates, Thomas De Gendt, Peter Sagan, Chris Froome, Tom Dumoulin, Tour de France, stage 13
Image: From left, Adam Yates, Thomas De Gendt, Peter Sagan, Froome and Dumoulin laid flowers for the victims of Thursday's terror attack in Nice

The course, which started in Bourg-Saint-Andeol and ended in La Caverne du Pont-d'Arc in the Ardeche department, was made up of a 6.9km hill at the start, 27km of mostly flat roads and then a 3.3km climb to finish.

Dumoulin's victory rarely looked in doubt having set the fastest time at all three intermediate checkpoints, and neither did Froome's rout of his rivals after he reached the top of the first climb 15 seconds faster than Yates and 33 seconds quicker than Quintana.

Quintana plots Alps fightback
Quintana plots Alps fightback

Nairo Quintana is planning to attack Chris Froome in the Alps next week

He continued to pull away from the pair all the way to the finish line and only met resistance from Mollema, who said afterwards he had ridden the best time trial of his career.

The Tour continues on Saturday with a mostly flat 208.5km 14th stage from Montelimar to Villars-les-Dombes. Find out more about the stage in our race guide and follow the action with our live blog from 1pm BST.

Stage 13 result

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, 50:15
2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:03
3 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar, +1:31
4 Jerome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +1:35
5 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, +1:41
6 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, +1:54
7 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +2:00
8 Ion Izagirre (Esp) Movistar, +2:02
9 Tony Martin (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step, +2:05
10 Steve Cummings (GB) Dimension Data, +2:24
Selected others
15 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +2:48
18 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-BikeExchange, +3:01
20 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +3:08
21 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, same time

General classification

1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 58:02:51
2 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, +1:47
3 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-BikeExchange, +2:45
4 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +2:59
5 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +3:17
6 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +3:19
7 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +4:04
8 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, +4:27
9 Dan Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step, +5:03
10 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +5:16

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