• Tour de France

Nibali extends lead as Porte struggles

Vincenzo Nibali collected his third stage win of this year's Tour de France © Getty Images

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Vincenzo Nibali tightened his grip at the top of the general classification in superb style after he won stage 13 of the Tour de France.

The Italian was in a group of several yellow jersey contenders chasing two stage leaders Leopold Konig and Rafal Majka. After catching the pair and riding alongside them, the Astana rider then broke clear with under 3.5 kilometres to go on the climb of Chamrousse to reach the summit finish all by himself.

Before Friday's action, Nibali led Team Sky's Richie Porte by two minutes and 23 seconds, but after Porte struggled and finished almost nine minutes behind, Nibali's overall lead is now three minutes and 37 seconds over Alejandro Valverde - with Porte dropping to 16th position.

Richie Porte (right) admitted he struggled to cope with the warm conditions © Getty Images

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Porte, who became the leader at Team Sky following the withdrawal of reigning champion Chris Froome, could not keep up with the pace of the leaders with 12km remaining as the riders hit the Alps.

Porte told ITV4: "I don't think I dealt with the heat real well. It's a massive shame but we'll see what happens tomorrow.

"It's a shame, more for my team-mates who have been brilliant but if it happens to me it can happen to others."

Nibali is also the new leader of the King of the Mountains classification, moving ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez, although the latter will continue to wear the polka dot jersey as Nibali will be wearing the yellow jersey.

Nibali, who finished third at the Tour de France in 2012, said: "It's a very special day today. I am very happy. I just wanted to gain as much time as I could. I knew Valverde was close to me, Porte was very close to me as well. But in the end I felt stronger than Valverde."

Stage 13 result
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 5:12:29
2. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +0:10
3. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura, +0:11
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +0:50
5. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, +0:53
6. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC, +1:23
7. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +1:23
8. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin, +1:36
9. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, +2:09
10. Frank Schleck (Lux) Trek Factory Racing, +2:09

General classification
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 56:44:03
2. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +3:37
3. Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, +4:24
4. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, +4:40
5. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC, +5:19
6. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +6:06
7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin, +6:17
8. Jurgen van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol, +6:27
9. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura, +8:36
10. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin, +9:18

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