Briton gains 1min 28sec on Nibali & Quintana on weather-hit stage 2
Sunday 5 July 2015 19:07, UK
Chris Froome described the gains he made over his rivals on stage two of the Tour de France as a "huge advantage" in the battle for overall victory.
The Team Sky rider finished seventh on a wind and rain-battered day in the Netherlands, but Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana both lost 1min 28sec after being caught on the wrong side of splits in the peloton.
Froome rises to 10th overall and now leads Nibali by 1min 21sec and Quintana by 1min 39sec in the general classification, while Alberto Contador is 12 seconds adrift of the Briton after also making it into the front group on the day.
Froome said: "This a huge advantage for us to be sitting in this position after on flat day out on the road, but this is a three-week race and things do change on a daily basis. We are ahead today but who knows what's in store for us for the rest of the week.
"I'm glad it happened the way it happened and I had all the support from my team-mates when it mattered. Two days gone now and I couldn't really hope for more."
With rain and crosswinds battering the peloton as it skirted the Dutch coast, the most significant split - with 55km to go - saw Quintana dropped, and then Nibali also found himself distanced shortly after.
Froome was shocked by the severity of the conditions and how quickly the race situation changed.
He added: "It was chaos out there with the storm, the wind and everything. One second Nibali was next to me and the next I couldn't believe it when I heard he was distanced. It's the nature of racing here in Holland.
"When we found out, myself and Alberto [Contador] talked on our bikes, and he was saying, 'We have got the gap so let's commit to this move and both buy into it'. We got BMC Racing to do the same because they had Tejay [van Garderen] up there as well. We were all aware of the situation."
Both Nibali and Quintana put their bad days down to bad luck and insisted their challenge for the yellow jersey is far from over.
Nibali told Italian television: “You’ve got to accept the unlucky days like this one and look forward. There’s still a long way to go in this Tour de France.”
Quintana said: "All those crashes under the rain were a bit unlucky for us. We lost a bit of time, but we hope to get it back, day by day."
Follow every stage of the Tour de France with our daily live blogs, available on our apps and www.skysports.com
