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July 16, 2016

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Froome extends lead on somber Tour day

DUTCHMAN Tom Dumoulin won yesterday’s individual time-trial as Chris Froome extended his lead in the yellow jersey competition after the 13th stage of the Tour de France.

The stage was ridden in a mournful atmosphere as a minute’s silence was held both before the start and after the finish in homage to the victims of Thursday’s Nice terror attack.

“It’s terrible what happened and overshadows the day a lot,” said Dumoulin. “So you’re speaking to a man with two sides to his face today. Of course I’m happy with the win, but at the same time my thoughts are with everyone involved in the horrific attacks in Nice.”

It was the 25-year-old’s second stage victory of the Tour but the big winner was Briton Froome.

He finished second at the end of the 37.5-kilometer stage from Bourg Saint Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d’Arc and now leads by 1 minutes, 47 seconds over Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands.

But Froome, 31, put significant time between himself and his main rivals such as Nairo Quintana, who dropped to fourth overall nearly a second under three minutes.

Mollema took sixth place on the stage and moved up two places to second with young Briton Adam Yates resisting well to drop only one spot to third at 2:45.

Dumoulin, who also won last Sunday’s ninth stage, had a long wait before his victory was confirmed having overhauled early pace-setter Nelson Oliveira of Portugal, who ended up third.

Despite being involved in a crash during a dramatic 12th stage on Thursday, Froome proved he was the strongest time-trialer amongst the overall favorites.

Mollema, the surprise of Thursday’s stage, put in a strong ride and lost only 50 seconds to Froome.

But Colombian Quintana seemed out of sorts from the off and ended up losing more than 2 minutes to Froome.

Thousands of people lined the time-trial route to celebrate the Tour and pay homage to the dozens killed and injured by a truck which drove through beachfront crowds celebrating Bastille Day.

The publicity caravan, which precedes the riders on the stage route everyday handing out free gifts and souvenirs and blasting loud music, rode silently.

Froome earlier posted a picture of the blue, white and red French flag on Twitter and wrote: “Thoughts are with those affected by the horrific terror attack in Nice.”




 

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