Chris Froome extends his advantage despite crashing on treacherous descent

Chris Froome (Team Sky) survived an epic stage in the Alps today and extended his overall lead despite crashing with 10 kilometres remaining.

On the final descent of the day, the Briton slipped on the treacherous wet surface and damaged his bike. His team mate Geraint Thomas handed over his machine and Froome chased back on to the group of favourites.

After sitting on the back of the group for a time, Froome moved towards the front and thanks to the help of Wout Poels on the first category climb to Le Bettex, he was able to counter any attacks and finish in ninth place, just a few seconds behind some of the other big names.

And despite finishing ninth, Froome actually extended his yellow jersey advantage to four minutes and 11 seconds, after Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) both lost time and dropped out of the top three.

Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) won the stage after a decisive attack in the closing kilometres, with Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) crossing the line in second and third respectively, 23 seconds down.

Froome came in 36 seconds back on Bardet, flanked by Poels. He talked through the crash after the stage, and praised the fantastic work of his teammates who got him to the line.

He said: “There’s never a quiet day at the Tour! It’s ironic really. I was just trying to stay up front, safe and out of trouble. I think I just hit one of the white lines on the road and lost my front wheel.

“This is the kind of day that I feel grateful I’ve got that four-minute advantage. I can fall back on that a little bit and obviously it was great for me to have teammates all the way up to the finish. Wout [Poels] in particular, and all the guys – it was a great team effort today and it feels good to be one day closer to Paris.”

It briefly looked as though Froome would take a spare bike from the team car before the climb, but in the end he rode Thomas’ bike to the finish.

He added: “I finished on Geraint Thomas’ bike. I knew the car was quite far back and mine wasn’t rideable after the crash. Thanks a lot to Geraint for his bike! I rode that to the finish and it was all right.

“Tomorrow is going to be really hard. I’m sure I’m going to be a bit sore and stiff after today. But hopefully I can rely on my teammates for one last push to get through the stage.”