• Tour de France, Stage 11

Froome shines to further extend Tour lead

ESPN staff
July 10, 2013
World time-trial champion Tony Martin was in inspired form to win Stage 11 of Le Tour © Getty Images
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World time-trial champion Tony Martin finished first in Stage 11 of the Tour de France, an individual trial on the Normandy coast, while yellow jersey holder Chris Froome put in another strong ride to extend his general lead over the field.

Martin clocked a time of 36 minutes 29 seconds over the 33 kilometre stretch from Avranches to Mont-Saint-Michel, with Froome, who was last out, settling for second with a time of 36mins 41secs - gaining two minutes on Alejandro Valverde and lengthening his overall lead to three minutes and 25 seconds.

"Tony's produced a fantastic ride there to win the stage, he really deserves it," Froome told Eurosport. "As a world champion time-trialist it really is his speciality. I'm really happy with second place and having extended my advantage on my [general classification] rivals.

"There was a really strong headwind there, and those last couple of kilometres I was really struggling to turn the legs. I was just trying to get to the finish.

"I think that gives me a good buffer going into the next few days. I think I'm going to need every second I can get, the way these guys are riding."

Wednesday's stage was marred by reports that a spectator had thrown urine at Mark Cavendish - with the Omega Pharma rider's team-mate Jerome Pineau verifying the Brit had suffered jeering from the crowd before having liquid thrown at him from a bottle.

The team's boss Patrick Lefevere later confirmed the incident, telling the BBC: "Some spectators were not very pleased with what happened yesterday and they yelled at [Cavendish]. One put urine on him."

It capped a bad day in the saddle for Cavendish, who clocked 42mins exactly on his solo effort to finish 163rd - over five and a half minutes behind Martin.

Elsewhere, Froome's rival Alberto Contador finished outside of the top 10 with a time of 38mins 44secs, losing valuable time to the Brit in the overall standings.

Green jersey leader Peter Sagan finished down in 17th with a time of 38mins 47secs, while Cadel Evans was further back in 21st after crossing the line in 38mins 59secs.

David Millar was the second highest Brit - his time of 39mins 03secs left him in 26th.

Stage 11 result
1. Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma 36min 29sec
2. Christopher Froome (GB) Team Sky +12sec
3. Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM +1min 01sec
4. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky +1min 21sec
5. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma +1min 31sec
6. Svein Tuft (Can) Orica-GreenEdge +1min 35sec
7. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma +1min 37sec
8. Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ.fr +1min 43sec
9. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Argos-Shimano +1min 45sec
10. Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Movistar Team + min 52sec

General classification after Stage 11
1. Christopher Froome (GB) Team Sky 42hr 29min 24sec
2. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar +3min 25sec
3. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin +3min 37sec
4. Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo-Tinkoff +3min 54sec
5. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Saxo-Tinkoff +3min 57sec
6. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin +4min 10sec
7. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma +4min 44sec
8. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar +5min 18sec
9. Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar +5min 37sec
10. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +5min 39sec

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