Tour de France: Vincenzo Nibali captures solo victory in stage 19

Team Astana's Vincenzo Nibali produced a spectacular performance on stage 19 to redeem his Tour de France as he soloed to victory to La Toussuire on the third consecutive day in the Alps. The Italian rider attacked a long way from home, no less than 62 kilometres from the finish on the climb towards the Col de la Croix de Fer. He was all alone but managed to bridge across to the early escapee Pierre Rolland (Europcar) at the summit of the successive climb, the Col de Mollard, and then dropped him as soon as the last climb of the day started. Chris Froome (Team Sky) preserved the yellow jersey at the end of his most difficult day so far as he conceded half a minute to Nairo Quintana (Movistar). The Colombian climber dropped the yellow jersey group with around six kilometers to go and only Froome was more or less able to follow him. Quintana took second place on the day, 43 seconds behind Nibali, while Froome arrived third, 1:14 behind the stage winner. Froome lost most his team mates before the final climb, only Wout Poels managed to remain with his leader right until the attack from Quintana. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) arrived around a minute behind Froome while fellow Sky rider Geraint Thomas dropped out of the overall top ten after recording a heavy delay on stage 19. Froome has an advantage of 2:38 over Quintana and 5:25 over Valverde, while Nibali has moved up to 4th place overall, with a deficit of 6:44. The last mountain stage of this year's Tour de France takes place on Saturday, a short 110.5km course from Modane Valfréjus to Alpe d'Huez but with two huge climbs: Col de la Croix de Fer and Alpe d'Huez right at the finish. Col de la Croix de Fer is a 29 kilometre-long climb at 5.2% average gradient while Alpe d'Huez is 13.8 kilometre-long at 8.1% average incline. Chris Froome is still strong favourite to win the Tour, 1.083 at Bet365, while Nairo Quintana is is 7.50 to overthrow the current leader.