Tour: Dumoulin Crushes Opposition in TT; Froome Consolidates Lead

"Have you any other aims for the Tour?" was the question posed to Tom Dumoulin once he had conquered Arcalis. He gave the answer "win the TT." Well, he's followed up on that now. Nelson Olivera set the time Dumoulin had to aim at, after going out early and toppling Tony Martin, Jerome Coppel and Fabian Cancellara. Dumoulin passed him easily however, he swallowed up the course, taking the top time at each split, and finishing in a time of 50:15. Nobody got close for the rest of the day, with the Dutchman winning by a minute.

Eric Feferberg, AFP/Getty Images

Who was second? Well, after showing his dominance on the flats, descents, uphill mountain running, and getting things neutralised, Froome shone through again. He managed to come in 1:03 down on the stage winner, and fifty-one seconds ahead of the best of his GC rivals.

That was Bauke Mollema who, after a good showing on Ventoux, continue his push towards a podium. He moves into second place on GC, and the way he was clinging on Ventoux, looks good to retain his podium position. He displaced Adam Yates, kept his place on the podium with an excellent ride to a top twenty place in a discipline that doesn't suit him.

The other person climbing with Froome on Ventoux was Richie Porte, who suffered in the time-trial, where he might have hoped to make gains. While he did move up three places to eighth in GC, he lost 3:08 on Dumoulin, and sits 4:27 behind on GC. Considering he hasn't lost any time to Froome in the mountains, the Tasmanian's Tour is reading like a list of missed opportunities. Tejay van Garderen couldn't be said to have done much better, finishing 2:50 behind.

Finishing on the same time as Porte was Nairo Quintana, who also may be disappointed with his day. While he was hyped up to lose less than a minute to Froome, he lost double that, and is now 2:59 behind Froome on GC. While regaining that time would not be impossible if he was climbing the way he has in the past, Quintana didn't put up much of a fight to Froome on Mont Ventoux, and now looks like he'll even face a fight for second. His team mate Valverde is now even firmly in the hunt for the podium, posting a decent time, twenty seconds ahead of Quintana. He is now only a few seconds behind the Colombian.

Adam Yates kept his place on the podium, with an excellent ride to a top twenty place in a discipline that doesn't suit him.

The men who started the day in eighth, ninth and tenth had one of the worst days. Fabio Aru finished 4:25 down, and Dan Martin only beat him by fifteen seconds. Both of them outrode Joaquím Rodríguez however, he had the worst day of the top ten coming in 4:46 behind.

Froome now has a lead of 1:47 on his GC rivals going into the Alps and Jura. While it originally looked like there would have to be aggressive racing there, with Froome under attack from Quintana, Froome's 1-2 punch to the Colombian in the previous two days put him in a very, very strong position.