'Never a quiet day,' but Froome extends his lead

Britain's Chris Froome, wearing his torn overall leader's yellow jersey, bleeds after crashing during the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 146 kilometers (90.7 miles) with start in Albertville and finish in Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc, France, Friday, July 22, 2016.
Britain's Chris Froome, wearing his torn overall leader's yellow jersey, bleeds after crashing during the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 146 kilometers (90.7 miles) with start in Albertville and finish in Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc, France, Friday, July 22, 2016.

SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS, France -- If Chris Froome wins the Tour de France on Sunday, it won't be because of an easy ride to the Champs Elysees.

After a pile-up forced him to run up part of Mont Ventoux last week, the two-time champion escaped from another crash Friday during a chaotic and spectacular penultimate Alpine stage held in stormy and wet weather.

Two days before the ceremonial ride to Paris, rain played havoc at the Tour, causing many crashes and reshuffling places in the general classification. But Froome was lucky enough to escape with no serious injury and even emerged with a bigger lead overall.

"A crash like that could have gone either way, and I'm grateful that nothing is injured," Froome said. "Never a quiet day on the Tour."

Since he took his rivals by surprise with a daring downhill attack that earned him the race leader's yellow jersey on the eighth stage, media reports have portrayed Froome as the inevitable winner. Day after day, as his overall lead built up, Froome kept insisting that the Tour was not over.

Friday's 19th stage proved him right.

Froome, who won the Tour in 2013 and 2015 and crashed out of the 2014 race, hit the ground with former Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali in a descent, soon after Romain Bardet launched a decisive attack to post the first French victory at this year's race.

Froome did not panic, quickly borrowed a teammate's bike and salvaged his torn yellow jersey after crossing the finish line 36 seconds behind Bardet. The Frenchman climbed to second place overall after Froome's previous closest rival, Bauke Mollema, crashed and never recovered.

Froome increased his lead by 19 seconds, holding a lead of 4 minutes, 11 seconds over Bardet, with two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana of Colombia moving up to third, 4:27 back.

Froome slipped on road paint as he crossed a white line and hit the ground just 8 miles from the finish of the 91-mile ride to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc featuring four ascents.

He was able to continue racing after swapping bikes with teammate Geraint Thomas.

Mollema was one of the many riders who fell in the damp weather, with Daniel Navarro and Tom Dumoulin forced to abandon.

"I'm not too badly injured, just a hip and elbow," said Mollema, who crashed at a roundabout as his hopes of finishing on the podium in Paris disappeared. "The classification is gone. I'm 10th now, but that was not the goal."

Bardet was the day's big winner after posting his second Tour stage victory.

"I rode with my instinct. I'm second overall, I won the stage, it's beautiful," he said.

Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez finished the stage in second place, in the same time as Alejandro Valverde, 23 seconds back. In the overall, Adam Yates dropped from third to fourth, nine seconds behind Quintana.

The day had started quietly for Froome, who joked with Peter Sagan at the front of the pack after a group of 20 riders immediately jumped away from the peloton. The best-placed rider in the breakaway was Frenchman Pierre Rolland, who lagged 22:51 minutes behind Froome overall at the start, and Team Sky did not chase.

But the ideal scenario changed dramatically when the weather turned wet. As rain started to fall, Michael Matthews was among the first escapees to be caught a few kilometers from the summit of the punishing Montee de Bisane, a 71/2-mile climb with an average gradient of eight percent.

Rolland then moved away from his breakaway companions in the ski resort of Les Saisies, with former world champion Rui Costa following right on his wheel. But the Frenchman slid off the road on the descent and hit the tarmac. With his jersey lacerated and covered with dirt, Rolland remounted his bike after consulting with the race doctor and finished the stage.

Froome needs to negotiate one more tricky mountain stage today before the ceremonial ride to Paris.

"Tomorrow is going to be hard, it's going to be really hard and I'm sure that I'm going to be a bit stiff after today," he said. "Hopefully I can rely on my teammates and it's just one last push."

Sports on 07/23/2016

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