British rider Chris Froome is expecting his rivals to get creative after he left them floundering on the first big climb of the Tour de France, extending his overall lead over the American Tejay van Garderen to a massive two minutes 52 seconds.
Chris Froome riding for UCI ProTeam Team Sky. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
After stage 10, the Colombian favourite Nairo Quintana is more than three minutes behind the 2013 champion in third place, the Spanish great Alberto Contador is four minutes away, and the defending champion Vincenzo Nibali is in free fall, just under seven minutes back.
"I'm not even a distant brother of the Nibali of last year's Tour," the Italian admitted. "It was a hard day, my legs were not responding, I just did what I could in the ascent."
Van Garderen added: "Sky put on quite the performance."
"It was a complicated day, we knew it was an important day, we wanted to avoid losing too much time but I could not breathe well, my legs were not spinning like I wanted them to," Contador said.
Yet the Spaniard, who is attempting a rare Giro/Tour double, is not the kind of rider to concede defeat so early, whatever the damage.
"We need to rethink our strategy," said the Tinkoff-Saxo leader, who can be unpredictable on the bike.
Froome said that his rivals possibly struggled to find their rhythm after a rest day and Van Garderen seemed to agree.
"We have done almost two weeks without climbing any real mountains. So it can be quite a shock to the system, especially after a rest day. I feel like it should go better from here," Van Garderen said.
Quintana, who lost a minute and four seconds to Froome after being dropped when the Briton attacked 6.2 km from the line, was staying positive.
"I'm going to continue, day by day, we will see what we can do to make up for the time lost. The priority is to rest and calmly see how we can turn this around.
"Mentally and physically I feel well, I have good sensations."
Stage 11 features multiple ascents, including back-to-back climbs with tricky descents.
