Nairo Quintana claims stage win with Froome distanced on final climb up Col du Portet
Thursday 26 July 2018 06:09, UK
Geraint Thomas tightened his grip on the yellow jersey as Chris Froome lost time to his Team Sky team-mate on a brutal 17th stage of the Tour de France.
Thomas crossed the line third on the Col du Portet in the Pyrenees behind stage-winner Nairo Quintana and Dan Martin, but jumped clear of general-classification rivals Tom Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic in the closing metres of a devastating climb to claim a handful of bonus seconds.
Froome, who began the day one minute 39 seconds behind Thomas in second, faded on the last climb to lose further time and drop to third overall, 2:31 behind leader Thomas, while Sunweb's Dumoulin, who crossed in fifth, is second overall, 1:59 back.
Froome began to struggle around two kilometres from the top of this imposing climb, losing the wheels as Roglic and Dumoulin drove on the front and, despite getting help from team-mate Egan Bernal, he finished 48 seconds behind Thomas with one more mountain test to come before Saturday's time trial.
Quintana, who started the day more than four minutes back in the general classification, hauled himself back into the top five with the second Tour stage win of his career.
The Movistar rider attacked close to the foot of the 16km climb as he followed a move launched by Martin, though he quickly shook off the UAE Team Emirates rider who was left to pursue him alone.
Quintana's victory came despite two early mechanicals on a 65km stage - the shortest road stage in the Tour for over 30 years - that was designed to be explosive from the start.
A Formula One-style grid start turned into something of a damp squib but by the end of the day it appeared Team Sky's leadership battle had been decisively settled in favour of Thomas.
At one point it looked like going the other way, with Froome following an attack by LottoNL-Jumbo's Roglic midway up the climb, leaving Thomas to sit on the wheel of Dumoulin as the Dutchman worked to shut down the move.
Froome was not alone in cracking on the final climb, as AG2R La Mondiale's Romain Bardet and Quintana's team-mate Mikel Landa also fell away. Another casualty on the day was world champion Peter Sagan, who crashed on the dangerous descent off the Col de Val Louron-Azet.
Though he rode to the finish, the Bora-Hansgrohe rider was expected to go for scans, putting at risk a sixth green jersey which is mathematically his as long as he makes it to Paris.
1 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 2:21:27
2 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates +28s
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky +47s
4 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo +52s
5 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb +52s
6 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo +1:05
7 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky +1:33
8 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky +1:35
9 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team +1:35
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin +2:01
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 70:34:11
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb +1:59
3 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky +2:31
4 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo +2:47
5 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team +3:30
6 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo +4:19
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team +4:34
8 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +5:13
9 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates +6:33
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team +9:31
