Chris Froome (Team Sky) survived a late crash on stage 19 of the Tour de France and although he finished the mountain stage on teammate Geraint Thomas' bike and conceded some seconds to his main rivals, he finished with a four minute buffer over his rivals on GC.
Froome's front wheel slipped out in the wet conditions on the descent of the penultimate climb and just before the start of the ascent to the finish. The race leader brought Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) down with him and was forced to take a bike from Thomas and ride to the finish.
"I think that I hit one of the white lines on the road and lost my front wheel," Froome said after the stage.
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Although he made contact with the leaders as the climb started Froome remained near the back of the group on the lower slopes as he took his time getting used to the different position and set-up.
He moved closer to the front with the aid of his teammates and only lost contact as rivals attacked in the final kilometre. The stage went to Romain Bardet (Ag2R) with Froome finishing in 9th, 36 seconds down.
"I'm okay, I’m lucky that nothing is serious is injured. I just lost a bit of skin but today is a day when I'm grateful for that four minute advantage to fall back on a bit. It was great for me to have teammates all the way up until the finish there with Wout Poels in particular and all the guys. It was a great team effort and it feels great to be one day closer to Paris," he said.
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