Italian cyclist Vincenzo Nibali tightened his grip on the Tour de France by riding away to his third stage victory on the 197.5km, 13th stage from Saint-Etienne to Chamrousse on Friday.
Nibali attacked 6.6km from home and put almost a minute into nearest rival Alejandro Valverde, who finished fourth on the stage but moved up to second overall.
Rafal Majka was second on the stage with Leopold Konig third.
Australian Richie Porte, who started the stage second overall, cracked on the final climb to finish 27th, losing almost nine minutes.
Nibali now leads Valverde by 3min 37sec while Porte dropped to 16th overall at 11:11.
Nibali proved he is simply too strong for the rest on a day when his Astana team looked vulnerable, with chief lieutenant Jakob Fuglsang crashing on a descent and Michele Scarponi struggling and dropping away on the penultimate climb.
But the Italian didn’t need anyone, responding first to an attack by Valverde on the final uncategorised climb and then riding away from the Spaniard.
He caught Majka and Konig before leaving them in his wake in the final 3km to win by 10sec.
The Astana leader said he hadn’t planned to ride away to a stage victory but once he saw Porte struggling he had concentrated on trying to break Valverde.
“It was very hot but the more you climbed the better it got. Still the heat is the same for everybody,” said the 2010 Vuelta a Espana winner and 2013 Giro d’Italia champion.
“I saw Porte had dropped off already, perhaps because of the heat, so my aim was to gain time on Valverde.
“I accelerated to get up to the two leaders and we were collaborating because we knew there was a long way to go to the finish and tomorrow (Saturday) will be a tough day.
“But there wasn’t great collaboration and I saw that Valverde and Pinot were coming back up to us so I upped the tempo and with that came the victory too.”
With Froome out of the race and Porte now out of contention, Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford said they would have to target stage wins.
“Let’s see how the next few days go, we can look to animate the race as much as we can and let’s go from there,” he said.
“He (Porte) is disappointed and when you’re disappointed it’s not the time to start analysing anything, just support the lad.
“It was just a question then of minimising his losses and keep on going.”
Young Frenchman Romain Bardet moved up to third at 4:24 after finishing the stage seventh, just 1:23 behind Nibali.
It allowed him to keep hold of the young rider’s white jersey ahead of Thibaut Pinot, who is up to fourth at 4:40.
Greg t
Guest
Agreed on porte being risky plan b through for and illness but you open another topic as to why wiggo isn't there. Best to ask froome that question. After froome crashed out it was let the team chase stage wins which is not easy or reward your no.2 guy for help pulling the last two winners up the mountains. It didn't take long before Porte cracked granted but who is to say wiggo would have done better? Anyway the teAm can chase wins all they like now including Porte.
Da Spoon
Guest
Agreed he would not have challenged Nibali in this tour. But he would have given the Brits a GC contender to follow in the absence of Froome. Porte's form and illness this year made him a risky Plan B and yesterday's events came as no surprise really. Stage wins are better than nothing and there is every chance that Sky will now come away with nothing from this tour. This is way below the level of expectation of their UK fans most of whom wanted Wiggins in the team given that it started on British soil and he has given so much to cycling in the UK on the track and road.
Nick
Guest
Thomas had already been dropped by the peleton before Porte started going backwards. As for stage 5 Sky played it right after Froome's exit as Porte still offered an outside chance of a GC win which is their raison d'etre.
greg t
Guest
Nah wiggo couldnt beat nibali there isnt enough time trialing, too many mountains and he hasnt got porte, rogers and froome to suck tyres with. So what, geraint wins a stage big deal who remembers stage winners. Porte was the next in line and they backes him for the gc. Geraint can go for it now.
Colin N
Guest
Na, all the 'scientists' were left disappointed when they calculated he had done the climb within, what they describe as, 'human' limits. It suggests that with many of the other riders obviously also doing well below what Armstrong and co were doing, it is a far cleaner peloton. I thought this before stage 13 and it only confirmed it, there's no one who can challenge Nibali with Froome and Contador absent, which makes the rest of the tour a bit of a damp squib.
Da Spoon
Guest
Bad tactics by Sky. They should have let Thomas and Nieve ride their own race as soon as Porte began to drop back. They were never going to going to bring him back into contention and both lost serious time in trying. Sky should also have allowed Thomas to give it a go on the cobbles of stage 5. They are now chasing stage victories which should have been there Plan B in the first place, given that they left Wiggo at home.
AussieinNZ
Guest
Nibali's super human performance reminded me of Armstrong at his best.
commonwombat
Guest
And Porte's bad days tend to be "shockers". No rider can realistically be on A1/top of their game throughout the full three weeks but it's a matter of where these "off days" come up and being able to limit the damage. If these come earlier in the Tour, in most cases the team mates can aid their passage and the time losses minimised but if they come further in/towards the "business end" then it's often "curtains" for your hopes.
magila cutty
Guest
Cadel tipped it yesterday saying that in past grand tours Porte has invariably had one bad day that always puts him out of contention. At the time i thought yeah but... it appears that Cadel knows what he is talking about.
Hertryk
Guest
Stage 13 very unlucky for Porte!