Tour de France: Chris Froome destroys field

to increase lead
Chris Froome produced a stunning ride to win stage 10 of
the Tour de France and increase his overall lead to nearly
three minutes.
Team Sky rider Froome - who led by 12 seconds overnight - broke away with
7km to go of the first summit finish of this year's race to win emphatically in La
Pierre-Saint-Martin.
Tejay van Garderen now trails Froome by two minutes 52 seconds.
Richie Porte was second, 59 seconds back, with Nairo Quintana third.
It was the fifth stage win of the 2013 champion's Tour de France career and
puts him in a commanding position with 11 stages remaining.
All of his main rivals for the yellow jersey lost significant time as Froome pulled
clear, with Quintana now three minutes and nine seconds behind, Alejandro
Valverde four minutes one second behind and Alberto Contador three seconds
further back.
Froome's Team Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas is now in fifth place overall
while defending champion Nibali's challenge is in tatters after he lost more
than four minutes to Froome.
"I'm lost for words," said Froome. "That was unbelievable.
"I could not believe it when I asked the guys to push on a bit and we were
hearing on the radio the big names being dropped. It was textbook from the
team and I'm just over the moon to finish it off for them."
It was the first summit finish of the race and Froome could not have made a
more decisive statement of his intention to claim his second Tour victory.
The 30-year-old sat in with his Team Sky team-mates while Quintana's
Movistar team made the early pace up the 15km climb towards the finish.
A blistering rate soon saw riders disappearing out of the back, while at one
point Froome appeared to be uncomfortable as he hung on a team-mate's
wheel.
But that proved to be nothing more than a rouse and when Froome made his
explosive move there was nothing anybody could do to stay with him.
The only danger to the Briton appeared to come from fans as they closed in
around him on some of the steeper sections of the climb up the Cote de
Cauterets.
More to follow.