Second-placed Nairo Quintana reduces his deficit to 2min 38sec
Friday 24 July 2015 21:58, UK
Nairo Quintana shaved 32 seconds off Chris Froome’s lead of the Tour de France as Vincenzo Nibali jumped to fourth place overall by winning stage 19 solo.
Nibali (Astana) attacked with just under 60km remaining and hung on up the climb to the summit finish at La Toussuire to beat Quintana (Movistar) into second place by 44 seconds and Froome (Team Sky) into third by 1min 14sec.
With bonus seconds taken into account, the result means Froome’s lead of the general classification is now 2min 38sec over second-placed Quintana and 5min 25sec over third-placed Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who finished 2min 26sec down in sixth.
Nibali's efforts saw him rise to fourth, 6min 44sec adrift of Froome, after Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) surrendered that spot by losing 22 minutes on a day in which his previously outstanding form finally deserted him.
Nibali also leapfrogged Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), who remains fifth but is now 7min 56sec off the lead after finishing in the same group as Valverde in ninth.
Although Froome lost time to Quintana, the damage was relatively small and the stage represented another sizeable step towards the Briton claiming overall victory.
He now only has to survive Saturday's final mountain stage, which ends with a summit finish on Alpe d'Huez, and then a largely processional sprint stage into Paris on Sunday to clinch the second yellow jersey of his career.
However, Froome's day was marred when footage emerged after the stage appearing to show a fan spitting at him in yet another instance of the race leader being physically abused by the crowd.
Nibali, meanwhile, salvaged both pride and glory from what had been previously been woeful Tour with a superb display on the day, but he will be left wondering why he was unable to produce similar form earlier in the race.
The 138km stage contained four climbs and the attacking began straight from the starting flag, when Nibali and Contador accelerated on the first ascent and successfully dropped all of Froome’s team-mates.
The stage later settled down after a breakaway moved clear and Team Sky subsequently re-gathered around Froome, but then the peloton was blown apart again on the second climb, the Col de Croix de Fer, when Astana forced a fierce pace.
Nibali built on his team-mates' work by attacking just shy of the summit, albeit in controversial circumstances, because he did so just as Froome had to momentarily stop to remove a stone from his brakes.
Nibali later caught up with leader-on-the-road Pierre Rolland (Europcar), but he then left the tiring Frenchman behind just 2km into the 18km climb to the finish line and successful hung on to claim the fifth Tour stage win of his career.
Back down the road, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka led what was left of the peloton up much of the final climb, but when the Pole peeled off with 5.5km to go, Quintana seized the moment by launching a long-awaited attack.
Froome immediately gave chase but was unable to close the gap, which hovered around 15 seconds for several kilometres, before Quintana accelerated once more as the line neared.
The Tour continues on Saturday with a 110.5km 20th stage from Modane to Alpe d'Huez. Follow it with our live blog from 1pm BST and find out more about the route in our race guide.
Stage 19 result
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 4:22:53
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +44secs
3 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:14
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr, +2:26
5 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, same time
6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, st
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing, st
8 Robert Gesink (Net) LottoNL-Jumbo, st
9 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
10 Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC Racing, st
Selected other
53 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +22:00
General classification
1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 78:37:34
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +2:38
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +5:25
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +6:44
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +7:56
6 Robert Gesink (Net) LottoNL-Jumbo, +8:55
7 Mathias Frank (Sui) IAM Cycling, +12:39
8 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing, +13:22
9 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +14:08
10 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar, +17:27
Selected other
15 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +27:24
