Tour de France: Nairo Quintana hoping for fightback in the Alps
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 16/07/16 4:30pm
Nairo Quintana is planning to attack Chris Froome in the Alps next week but admits he is now "a little far" behind the Tour de France leader.
Quintana fell to fourth place overall and 2min 59sec adrift of Froome following a disappointing performance on stage 13's individual time trial.
The Movistar rider is now in an almost identical situation to 12 months ago, when he trailed Froome by 3min 9sec after 13 stages but then mounted a ferocious fightback and eventually lost the race by only 1min 12sec.
This year's final week contains four back-to-back days in the Alps from stages 17-20 and Quintana is hoping for another late rally.
He said: "I'm three minutes down in the GC [general classification]; that's a little far. I hope the legs will continue to be good.
"There are still a lot of mountains and I will try to attack like I've always done. I hope I will have the legs to do it. We're going to try everything we can."
Friday's 37.5km time trial course contained two climbs that should have suited Quintana, but instead he laboured up the first of them and was already 33 seconds down on Froome after 7km.
He then struggled in high winds and ended up losing 2min 5sec to the Briton.
Quintana added: "My body responded better in the final part. I really suffered at first."
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.
