After a stage of high drama - and not all of it good - can Dan Martin put on a show up Alpe d'Huez on the penultimate outing of the Tour (Photo: Sirotti)
By Brian Canty
Vincenzo Nibali punched the air to celebrate his first win of the race, Chris Froome launched a tirade at him for the manner in which he won and Nairo Quintana almost collapsed in a heap from exertion after his attempt to breathe fresh life into the Tour de France.
It was as dramatic a day the race has witnessed this year and by the finish atop La Toussuire Froome was still leading after receiving an almighty scare and being spat at by a spectator.
The Briton has led the race since stage 7 and has looked unshakeable; building a lead of over three minutes on his closest challenger Quintana and maintaining that buffer without too much fuss.
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The latter promised to take the yellow jersey from Froome this week and he made a concerted effort today; attacking the Team Sky man with five kilometres to go and taking back 30 seconds of the 3:10 he needed to assume custody of the maillot jaune.
It was a damage limitation exercise for Froome from the get-go as not only did he lose most of his teammates early on in the comparably short 138-kilometre leg from St Jean de Maurienne to La Toussuire, but he was attacked relentlessly until he eventually began to crack.
He has had to absorb a lot over the past three weeks, but today trumped all; Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and the aforementioned Quintana and Nibali rarely giving him a moment to relax.
And when Froome got a stone trapped in his rear wheel with 60 kilometres left, forcing him to dismount, defending champion Niabli launched himself up the road.
The Sicilian was made to work hard to reel in Europcar’s Pierre Rolland up ahead, but when he made the catch the pair worked together to build a gap over the penultimate climb, the Col du Mollard.
The Frenchman ran out of gas on La Toussuire but Nibali powered on up the 17 kilometre climb and took the win by 44 seconds from Quintana.
The latter timed his move well – though many will question if he felt so strong why he did not go sooner.
The diminutive Colombian waited until Froome was a little way back in their small bunch and then sprang from that.
His teammate Alejandro Valverde did a neat shimmy across the road, which blocked Froome’s quickest route to Quintana.
It meant he had to weave towards the side of the road to get past. Every second would count.
Initially it looked as though Froome would bridge to Quintana, but as soon as Contador and Valverde dropped off his wheel it became clear a real gap was forming.
Froome was spat at by a fan as he tried to bring back Quintana but he never did, so when he crossed the line at the finish his response was predictably terse.
“I’m pretty sure he looked around, saw I was in trouble and attacked,” Froome said of Nibali’s opportune attack.
“And in my opinion you don’t do that to the race leader, it’s not sportsmanlike.”
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Nibali, of course, defended his honour.
“I don’t deserve the words he said, they are too hard, and not right to say,” Nibali said.
“He was very upset with me and I don’t understand his problem.
"But when the race is going on, there are problems, like when Alberto Contador crashed the other day.
“It was only 3km later we knew [about the mechanical]. Also, today, I didn’t hear any info on race radio. I just kept moving and going for the win.”
It’s unlikely Froome will lose the race but if he is to suffer anything like the collapse of his teammate Geraint Thomas, who dropped from 4th to 15th after losing 22 minutes, then anything is possible.
Froome will take a 2:38 lead over Quintana into tomorrow’s stage 20 showdown up Alpe d’Huez, with the Colombian’s Movistar teammate sitting in third place 5:25 down.
Nicolas Roche did all he could in policing the early attacks and was always going to lose big time.
He was almost a half an hour down on Nibali but will probably have saved a pile of energy for tomorrow’s stage.
Dan Martin was 36th over the line, 21:13 down on Nibali and he might be tempted to give it one last crack tomorrow in an effort to land a stage win.
Whatever happens, it will be a day to test both Irishmen before the big finish in Paris.
Stage 19: St-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire, 138km
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana in 4:22:53
2. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar @ 44 secs
3. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky @ 114
4. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ at :2:26
5. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r @s/t
6. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar @s/t
7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing @s/t
8. Robert Gesink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo @s/t
9. Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo @s/t
10. Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing @s/t
36. Dan Martin (Garmin Cannondale) at 21:13
108. Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) at 1:08:36
General Classification
1. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky at 78:37:34
2. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar @ 2:38
3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar @ 5:25
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana at @ 6:44
5. Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo @ 7:56
6. Robert Gesink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo @ 8:55
7. Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling @ 12:39
8. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing @ 13:22
9. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r @14:08
10. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar @ 17:27
37. Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) at 1:49:03
43. Dan Martin (Garmin Cannondale) at 1:59:45
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