Tour de France: Froome extends lead, while fading Quintana waves yellow towel
FINHAUT-EMOSSON, SWITZERLAND— Nairo Quintana was expected to celebrate Colombia’s national holiday with a major offensive in the Alps that would see him close in on Tour de France leader Chris Froome. It didn’t happen. Despite being a specialist in mountain stages, Quintana surrendered to the defending champion in the first Alpine leg of this year’s Tour — won by Russian all-rounder Ilnur Zakarin on Wednesday.
Froome made the most of a brutal final ascent to the artificial lake of Finhaut-Emosson to tighten his grip on the race and take another step toward a third title in four years at cycling’s biggest event.
“It’s been a very difficult Tour for Nairo,” said Froome, after the Colom- bian lost another 28 seconds. “He’s still a great rival and a big challenger for me, but he lost more time today. I think for him to re-enter into the game again he’s going to have to do a real good time trial tomorrow.”
Having already lost a considerable amount of time during the two first weeks of racing, Quintana was expected to be in the thick of the action in the Alps.
Instead, he was powerless to do anything but watch when Froome accelerated with less than two kilometres left.
“My yellow dream is over, but I’m just 26, and the riders in front of me have more experience,” said Quintana, who finished twice runner-up at the Tour behind Froome in 2013 and 2015. “I have many years left to realize that dream.”
With four stages remaining before the finish in Paris, Froome leads Ddutch cyclist Bauke Mollema by two minutes, 27 seconds overall. Britain’s Adam Yates, the top young rider in this year’s tour, is third, 2:53 off the pace and Quintana sits in fourth place, 3:27 behind Froome.