Friday 22 July 2016 08:55, UK
Chris Froome believes he has a “great advantage” at the top of the Tour de France general classification and sees no reason to chase victories in the race’s two remaining mountain stages.
Froome extended his lead to 3min 52sec by winning stage 18's uphill time trial with a brilliantly planned and expertly executed performance.
He now only has to survive Friday's summit finish at Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc, Saturday's last day in the Alps and then Sunday's processional finale in Paris to seal his third Tour triumph in four years.
Froome said: "I think I have a great advantage with two days to go [in the general classification battle]. I keep the yellow jersey on my shoulders, but the next two days are really tough. The main thing for me is to stay out of trouble. I will not try to win a stage uphill."
Stage 18 began in Sallanches with 4km of flat but then climbed for the next 11km and ended with a 2km descent to the finish in Megeve.
Froome beat runner-up Tom Dumoulin by 21 seconds and made gains of more than a minute on all of his closest challengers in the general classification.
While a lot of riders used road bikes and started fast, Froome used a time trial bike and also tackled the course at an even pace.
He said: "A big part of my success today was selecting the right equipment. When I saw the course, I thought I would ride with the road bike, but after the team analysed it, we opted for a full TT set-up. The Pinarello TT bike isn't 9kg anymore.
"The other aspect was pacing. For all those who started too fast, it was easy to get carried away. I didn't. I had some targets in my head with the numbers.
"I had to adjust them more or less on the way, but pretty much it went all according to the plan."
Find out more about stage 19 in our race guide and follow all the action with our live blog from 12pm BST.
