Cycling: Froome challenges rivals to take initiative and his yellow
Chris Froome challenged his rivals for the Tour de France yellow jersey to put him under pressure in the Pyrenees after another profitable day.
The 2013 champion leads Tejay van Garderen by 12 seconds after the American's BMC Racing won the 28km ninth stage team time-trial by 0.6 seconds from Froome's Team Sky.
Froome made further gains over his other rivals: Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) is one minute three seconds back, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 1m 59s adrift and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 2:22 behind going into today's rest day.
Froome regards Van Garderen as "the biggest rival" while Quintana and Nibali must take the initiative. "At this stage it's for the other guys to try to get the jersey from me now and for us potentially to be riding more of a defensive race."
tour de France