Froome wins uphill time-trial as battle for podium place grows tighter

Baring a disaster of epic proportions, the battle for the yellow jersey is over. Still, the fight for a place alongside Froome on the podium in Paris has rarely been closer or involved so many riders. In what is becoming a Tour much like 2014 when Vincenzo Nibali ran away with the win and a handful of others fought out for the lower podium spoils, this year we have five men positioned from 2nd to 6th sitting within 1 minute 8 seconds of one another after an uphill time-trial that Froome won and the top six remained unchanged but seen a dramatic tightening of the pack behind the Sky rider. Richie Porte continues his third week surge while the likes of Bauke Mollema and Nairo Quintana are very much on the defensive.

Yesterday I said that after today Chris Froome could be leading the Tour by four minutes. He's not, but he is just eight seconds short of that mark thanks to a mightily impressive ride over the 17km mostly uphill individual time-trial. He timed his effort to perfection, getting stronger as the course went on whereas his rivals slowly faded.

A look at the various time splits gives an idea as to how well Froome measured his effort. At the 6.5km check he trailed the best time of Richie Porte by 23sec, with Porte himself 9sec better off than Dumoulin. By the 10km check it was Dumoulin leading Porte by 9sec with Froome just 1sec further back. 3.5km later at the final check Froome took the lead for the first time, 13sec ahead of Dumoulin with Porte at 22sec. And then on the line, the win for Froome, 21sec ahead of Dumoulin and 33sec ahead of Porte. Another who measured their ride well was Fabio Aru. At each time-check he trailed Porte by 25sec, 14sec and 7sec respectively, and finished on the same time as the Australian.

Froome had staked a lot on this stage before the Tour and knew the course inside out by the time the day arrived, conscious that this late in the race a lot could be won or lost here. As it turned out it in reality it wasn't a stage that would affected his overall standings after all, but he was still fully committed. He'd done all that work, he might as well try and win it. Prior to the stage Froome had gotten his yellow jersey skin suit tailor made to fit, leaving nothing to chance despite the strong lead coming in.

By the time he hit the line he had won the stage with relative ease and he could likely have worn his regular kit and still been safe with the victory. With their impressive rides Aru moved up to 7th overall, 1min 8sec behind Porte who is now just 44sec away from third place.

Standings after stage 18:

1. Chris Froome (Sky) in 77h55'53"

2. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) @ 3'52"

3. Adam Yates (Orica BikeExchange) @ 4'16"

4. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) @ 4'37"

5. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) @ 4'57"

6. Richie Porte (BMC) @ 5'00"

7. Fabio Aru (Astana) @ 6'08"