Yesterday Chris Froome (Sky) won at the summit of the Mont Ventoux. The British rider beat Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R) dug dep on the final climb to stay as long as possible with best riders.  Eventually, though, the Frenchman couldn’t maintain the pace dictated by the very best climbers.

“I really suffered and I started to have cramps at the end of the stage,” Péraud said once he had crossed the finish line. “I did everything I was able to do, I tried to hang on and to get out of the wind but eventually I was dropped. Climbing the Mont Ventoux is hard but it is even more difficult when you have to race 240 km with a bunch which goes very fast and Europcar and Movistar who ride for the stage win, so the result is that we all really suffered!”

Péraud finished 10th on the day, 2’08” down on stage winner Chris Froome and trail the Briton by 07’47” in the general classification at 9th.