Froome extends lead in crosswinds

Chris Froome sprinted to second place on stage 11 at the Tour de France after crosswinds set up a wild finish into Montpellier.

Chris Froome sprinted to second place on stage 11 at the Tour de France after crosswinds set up a wild finish into Montpellier.

The peloton became fractured and split under the intense pressure of the blustery run-in, with Froome powering across a gap with 12 kilometres to go.

After a titanic effort from teammate Geraint Thomas to join him, Froome combined alongside Tinkoff duo Peter Sagan and Maciej Bodnar to take six seconds out of the chasing pack at the line.

With Sagan using his superior turn of speed to secure the stage, Froome sprinted to collect a further six bonus seconds, extending his race lead out to 28 seconds.

Team Sky stepped up to the plate on a tricky 162.5km stage with the wind providing a constant threat. The pace fluctuated in the peloton but Ian Stannard, Luke Rowe, Thomas and Vasil Kiryienka all put their horsepower to use to help drill it on the front, positioning Froome perfectly in the process.

Every second counts

After climbing off the podium Froome said: "I was asking myself the question today in those last 10km of whether it was worth spending that energy. I think in this moment I really am going to try and take any advantage I can get - especially knowing that Nairo (Quintana) in particular is really strong in the third week."

With news coming through that Thursday's 12th stage would not climb all the way to Mont Ventoux due to high winds, Froome explained: "To be honest I don't think it changes too much. The climb up until Chalet Reynard is extremely hard already. It's another 200+ kilometre stage tomorrow with a lot of wind predicted. It could even be split to pieces before the climb. We'll have to wait and see, but if anything I think it's going to mean an even more intense race before we hit the climb because it's slightly shorter."

Thomas, who was consumed by the bunch in the final metres, had a front row seat for the late attack and explained: "When they went Froomey just responded straight away and when I looked behind there was a gap. I got across to them and it was just full gas.

"We were at the front all day, staying out of trouble and waiting for something to go. Then Sagan and Bodnar just went and that was it. We got a gap and on the radio we heard we had 15, 20 seconds. So we just committed then. But boy that was hard!"

Sergio Henao was also present in the crosswind shake up and moved up to seventh place overall, 56 seconds back on Froome.