Sky’s Chris Froome extended his lead in the 2016 Tour de France with a powerful second-place performance in Stage 13, a 37.5 km time trial which started with an eight-percent, seven-kilometer climb and finished with an equally steep four-km ascent.
Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin won the stage, his second of the 2016 Tour. Dumoulin, a TT specialist, completed the course in 50:15. Froome finished in 51:18, 51 seconds ahead of his nearest General Classification rival, Trek-Segafredo’s Bauke Mollema, who advanced from fourth to second overall.
Nairo Quintana, considered by many to be Froome’s strongest challenger, turned in a lackluster performance, finishing 20th and losing 2:05 to Froome. Quintana dropped to fourth in GC.
Quintana appeared unconcerned to have lost still more time to his rival, but his words betrayed a slight loss of confidence. The Movistar team leader told LeTour.com after the stage, “I’m three minutes down in the GC, that’s a little far. I hope the legs will continue to be good. There are still a lot of mountains. I will try to attack like I’ve always done. I hope I will have the legs to do it. We’re going to try everything we can.”
Adam Yates of Orica-BikeExchange finished 18th on the stage, dropping from second the third in G, but still solidified his lead in the Best Young Rider competition.
