At the entrance to the stage, he practically joined Bardet, who had left two minutes before him. Bodnar triumphed in Saturday’s Marseille chrono just ahead of his countryman and Froome’s teammate Michal Kwiatkowski.
As today was already the longest stage of this year’s Tour de France, at 222.5km, it didn’t help when race organisers threw in an extra 10km neutralised section this morning. A tough, 9.5% climb of 1.2-km came in the latter half.
While that race is nearly over, one competition did find its victor on Thursday.
Deignan opted to wait for Boels Dolmans team-mate Megan Guarnier of the United States and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini in a bid to work together to chase down van Vleuten. He is now fifth overall, almost two minutes behind Froome. The Brit was in little danger of losing his lantern rouge to LottoNL’s Tom Leezer. Bardet would likely need a timely puncture or something else to gain enough ground to take lead in the general classification, but stranger things have happened on the Tour. Elsewhere in the standings, it is unlikely the positions will change pending an absolutely disastrous day for one of the riders.
Of course, the reasons for booing a four-time Tour champion are far more complicated than his passport or team – but they certainly don’t help. It is 4.7 kilometres at 6 per cent, with the 2.3-kilometre Côte de Bréziers following soon after.
And Simon Yates homed in on the young riders’ white jersey, a year after his twin brother Adam won it, as he maintained a lead of more than two minutes over Louis Meintjes.
Hopes were high from a showing from Alberto Contador, and he impressed with a fast intermediate time only 13 seconds off Kwiatkowski’s fastest.
It was clear by the first time check that Froome was in control.
Froome’s 54-second advantage over Uran looks comfortable-he gained 76 seconds on the Colombian in the time trials of Duesseldorf and Marseille and actually leaked time in the mountains, especially in the Pyrenees. Ahead of him were serious contenders Taylor Phinney (Cannondale-Drapac) and Maciej Bodnar of Team Bora Hansgrove. Uran managed to stay on his bike but lost precious time and finished 31 seconds off the pace. Bardet squeaked his way onto the podium by a single second over Landa.
Nairo Quintana, who was targeting a Giro d’Italia-Tour double this season, will finish outside the top 10 in France after taking second place in Italy. Bardet drops a step from last year’s second.
When he rides into Paris on Sunday he will know that only Belgian great Merckx, Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, and Spanish freight train Indurain have won the Tour more times than him.