Froome defends yellow jersey in Tour de France Stage 19

“There are two more big days to come now”. There is never a quiet day on the Tour. Day after day, as his overall lead built up, Froome kept insisting that the Tour was not over.

Irishman Dan Martin leapfrogged the Dutchman to ninth in the GC after a day that again saw the Etixx QuickStep rider on the attack in the final kilometres in a bid to reel in Bardet’s slender advantage.

Two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana stayed fourth but now trails by 4:37 after another hard day for the Colombian.

When Froome went down, he took Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali with him, but both riders were able to continue as Froome grabbed a working bike from the nearby Thomas.

“Tomorrow I’m going to be stiff after today but hopefully I can rely on my team mates for one last push to get through tomorrow’s stage”, said Froome.

In the confusion after Froome’s crash, Bardet escaped to link up with his team-mate Mickaël Chérel, who had figured in an earlier escape, although he came close to grief as the pair sped away, hitting Chérel’s back wheel and nearly colliding with a parked auto.

“Its not over until we cross that final finish line, but today is a huge boost of confidence, ” Froome added. Just lost a bit of skin and I banged my knee a bit. It just feels good to be one day closer to Paris.

Dumoulin fell off his bike with about 62 kilometres left in the 19th stage, and abandoned the race in tears a couple of kilometres further on.

We hear from Trek-Segafredo’s Peter Stetina about the chaos in the final hour of racing, and the misfortune that struck Mollema, who had looked set to finish on the podium in Paris. “I’m 10th now, but that was not the goal”.

When Froome seals his victory in the Alps today – barring a crash that is the only thing that can stop him – it will be his third Tour win in four years.

“I hope I can keep myself out of the red zone in the coming days, just finish the Tour and recover well afterwards”, said Dumoulin, who will ride some criteriums in the Netherlands next week before flying to Brazil a week on Saturday.

“It’s better to have a 16-second lead than be 16 seconds behind”, Bardet said.

Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez finished the stage in second place, in the same time as Alejandro Valverde, 23 seconds back.

However, the Movistar rider did pick up 13 seconds on Yates and is now just 21 seconds adrift of third. For all those who started too fast, it was easy to get carried away.

Given the circumstances, once his injuries had been assessed, Froome could treat the loss of 36sec to the stage victor Romain Bardet with a degree of equanimity, as he ended the day with the Frenchman in second, 4min 11sec behind.

This short, sharp stage was designed for drama but it was when the weather closed in inside the final 50km that the race changed shape.

Pole Rafal Majka virtually secured the polka dot jersey for the mountain classification when he was first at the top of the Montee de Bisanne, a 12.4km climb averaging 8.2 per cent. With his jersey lacerated and covered with dirt, Rolland remounted his bike after consulting with the race doctor and finished the stage. If he can finish today, still in the front, after that crash, then I’m not really anxious.