The Mont Ventoux stage on Sunday was not favourable to the interests of Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), although the leader of Saxo-Tinkoff was the last rider keep up with the tremendous pace of race leader Chris Froome (Sky), who was looking to re-establish his superiority over his rivals.

“It would have been enough to climb at our pace, 'chapeau' to him, you can’t say anything more; Froome is very strong,” Contador acknowledged.

In the wake of Froome’s powerful display, Contador hinted that he was beginning to contemplate the possibility of going for second place even though overall victory remains his stated objective. “I've been thinking about winning, that's the goal, but whenever there is a face to face he takes more time, but we will see, in the Tour you never know what will happen until Paris. Now I just want to recover and enjoy the rest day [Monday], the second place is still secondary.”
 

“It was a difficult stage, especially because it was very fast throughout the first half”, said Contador. “We went at an incredible speed, because teams like Europcar wanted to put someone in the break and had failed to do so. Throughout the day we were above 50 km/h and it reduced the strength of all riders. We arrived at the foot of Mont Ventoux with 220 kilometres in our legs and with that speed we didn’t have too much strength”.
 

The aim of Contador was to try to use Froome as a reference point. “I knew that he had to be more attentive to Quintana. He knew that he had a chance, because it was a single climb and in a face to face with the rest, he would benefit. That’s how it played out; he managed to stay above the rest and although I tried to hold on for as long as I could, he eventually went into an impossible pace and I had to go calmer.”
 

Contador acknowledged that in a face to face duel Froome has so far looked invincible in this year’s Tour. “Given his current form nobody can beat him today, unless he has a bad day, let's see what happens in the Alps stages with a string of climbs, where his team may suffer a little more. We'll see what our options are. The Tour is not over until Paris, although the overall difference is already very, very big.”