Tour de France: Chris Froome extends lead on subdued day for Tour

Team Sky's Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, crosses the finish line of the thirteenth stage of the Tour de France. Picture: AP /Peter Dejong

Froome showed no ill effects from the chaotic finish to stage 12 on Mont Ventoux – when he was reduced to running up the mountain on foot following a crash – as he finished 63 seconds behind Dumoulin’s stage-winning time of 50 minutes 15 seconds.

The time trial took place in a subdued atmosphere with a heavy police presence following the terrorist attack in Nice on Thursday night.

Dutchman Bauke Mollema was the next best-placed of the general classification contenders and moves up to second overall, now one minute and 47 seconds off Froome.

PAYING RESPECTS (l-r): Belgiums Thomas de Gendt, Peter Sagan, Chris Froome and stage winner Netherlands Tom Dumoulin observe a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of the Nice truck attack. (AP/Peter Dejong

Mollema displaced 23-year-old Briton Adam Yates who had expected to lose time on this 37.5 kilometre test from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d’Arc, and duly conceded almost two minutes to Froome - at least less than the four minutes he predicted.

Movistar’s Nairo Quintana also lost out, slipping to two minutes and 59 seconds off yellow although the Colombian is still in fourth place.

Twenty four hours before he crossed the line here, Froome had been caught in a chaotic and bizarre end to stage 12 on Mont Ventoux when he crashed along with Mollema and former team-mate Richie Porte when a television motorbike was caught in huge crowds on the mountain.

After briefly racing up the mountain on foot before changing bikes, Froome lost almost two minutes – enough to cost him the yellow jersey – until the race jury intervened and he came out with an increased lead, 47 seconds over Yates.

After the stage, Froome was joined on the podium by the other jersey holders – Yates in the young riders’ white, Peter Sagan in the points leaders’ green, and Thomas De Gendt in the king of the mountains’ polka dots – as well as Dumoulin and several Tour officials to pay their respects to victims of the Nice attack.

“We wish today to be dignified, in tribute to the victims,” said Tour director Christian Prudhomme. “We are thinking about the families, we offer our condolences to everyone who has been affected, who has lost a loved one. To everyone who is injured, in flesh and in their being.”