Tour De France 2015 Stage 10

Chris Froome produced a stunning ride to win stage 10 of the Tour de France and increase his overall lead to nearly three minutes.

Team Sky rider Froome - who led by 12 seconds overnight - broke away with 6.4km left of the first summit finish of this year's race to win emphatically in La Pierre-Saint-Martin.



Richie Porte was second, 59 seconds back, with Nairo Quintana third.



Tejay van Garderen lies second overall, two minutes 52 seconds behind Froome.


Colombian Quintana, a highly regarded climber, had been widely expected to launch a major attack in an attempt to claw back time and aid his own yellow jersey ambitions but he was overtaken by Porte in the final metres of a stage that was nigh on perfect for Team Sky.



It was the fifth stage win of 2013 champion Froome's Tour de France career and puts the 30-year-old in a commanding position with 11 stages remaining.



All of his main rivals lost significant time on a devastating afternoon, with Quintana now three minutes nine seconds behind overall, Alberto Contador four minutes four seconds back and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali a massive six minutes 57 seconds adrift of the Team Sky rider.
 

A good omen?
Chris Froome won on Bastille Day in 2013 - a stage that finished on Mont Ventoux - and went on to win the Tour that year.

"I'm lost for words," said Froome, who was in the news overnight after it was revealed Team Sky believe their computers have been hacked by critics convinced he is using performance-enhancing drugs.



"I could not believe it when I asked the guys to push on a bit and we were hearing on the radio the big names being dropped. It was textbook from the team and I'm just over the moon to finish it off for them."



It was the first summit finish of the race and Froome could not have made a more decisive statement of his intent to claim his second Tour victory.



The 30-year-old sat in with his Team Sky team-mates while Quintana's Movistar team made the early pace up the 15km climb towards the finish.



A blistering rate soon saw riders disappearing out of the back of the leading groups, while at one point Froome appeared uncomfortable as he hung on at the back of a team-mate's wheel.

Tough days for Froome's rivals
Quintana: "Froome was stronger than me. For now we're going to fight for second place, but we'll also fight for the yellow jersey in the remaining stages."
Nibali: "It was difficult, I couldn't follow the pace, I didn't have any puff."
Contador: "I don't know why but I couldn't breathe. I felt terrible, really bad."
Van Garderen: "I don't think today was my best day but it wasn't all bad."

But that proved to be nothing more than a ruse, and when Froome made his explosive move there was nothing anybody could do to stay with him.



The only danger to the Briton appeared to come from fans as they closed in around him on some of the steeper sections of the climb up the Cote de Cauterets, but they soon cleared and he powered to a potentially decisive finish in this year's race.


Froome's Team Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas is now in fifth place overall after finishing sixth on the stage while fellow Briton Adam Yates crossed the line in seventh after a strong ride up the mountain.

"The plan was to sit behind Movistar and see how many riders we had left," explained Thomas afterwards. "We had four and we all felt good. Froomey said on the radio that he felt good so lets smash it. Personally I felt great and for the team it was even better."

It was Bastille Day in France and the first true day of racing in the mountains as the Tour resumed after Monday's rest day.

There was a lengthy breakaway involving Cofidis's Kenneth Vanbilsen and Bretagne Seche Environment's Pierrick Fedrigo that lasted most of the 167km stage, but which was never going to make it up the final climb.

Vanbilsen picked up all available points at the three category four climbs but with 50 points for the stage winner, Froome now tops the King of the Mountains classification, although second-placed Porte will wear the polka dot jersey on Wednesday.

There was also a change in the points classification for the Tour's leading sprinter, with Andre Greipel overhauling Peter Sagan to reclaim the green jersey after the in-form German took third at the day's intermediate sprint.

More drama could follow on Wednesday when the race continues in the Pyrenees with a 188km stage that includes the infamous Col du Tourmalet climb.