Alps stand between Chris Froome and his second Tour de France victory

Chris Froome came out of the toughest Pyrenees stage, won Thursday by Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain, with his Tour de France lead comfortably intact, leaving the Alps as the last major obstacle between the British rider and a second victory in Paris.

Gritting his teeth, tongue lolling, Rodriguez rode alone through driving rain on the day’s final steep climb to take his second stage win of this Tour. The Katusha team leader also won a shorter uphill finish on Stage 3.

At the finish of Stage 12 to the Plateau de Beille ski station, which marked the end of three days of climbing in the Pyrenees, Rodriguez waved a pointed finger like John Travolta dancing in “Saturday Night Fever” and thrust both arms in the air.

Because Rodriguez was so far down in the overall standings, Froome’s Sky team let him get away in a breakaway group of riders early in the 121-mile trek from Lannemezan. The Spaniard started the day more than 20 minutes behind Froome, meaning he was no longer a threat for overall victory in Paris.

About halfway up the final 110-mile climb, Rodriguez wheeled around world champion Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland in a switchback and led the rest of the way.

Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali, who were considered Froome’s major rivals before he crushed them on the first day of tough climbing in the Pyrenees, tried to test him on the final ascent, taking turns with bursts of accelerations.

But he didn’t wilt under the pressure. Froome then turned the tables on them, with a turn of speed that shook off all but Quintana before they later caught him up again.

“I was just testing the legs,” Froome said, adding he wanted to see which of his rivals “was on the limit.”

The main contenders for the podium in Paris should now be able to take something of a breather on the next four stages before resuming battle in the Alps. Those stages take the Tour on a west-to-east swing. They are hilly but not hugely mountainous. Froome will be looking to his teammates to control the race, making sure no one threatens his lead by joining a breakaway of riders ahead, while he tries to conserve energy for the mountains.

There are four days of climbing in the Alps, the last two of them especially tough. The crescendo will be on the 21 hairpin bends to the Alpe d’Huez ski station on the last day before the finish in Paris. Froome is already starting to think that far ahead.

“Alpe d’Huez stands out,” he said. “Back of my mind, that’s always there.”

With the Tour now past halfway, time is starting to run out for rivals to try to rein Froome back in. He remains 2 minutes 52 seconds ahead of Tejay van Garderen, the American leader of the BMC team who is proving resilient in second place, and 3:09 ahead of Quintana, the Movistar team’s Colombian rider who is third overall.

Quintana vowed that he’ll keep trying to claw back time from Froome. In the Alps, he noted, “the climbs are longer.

“We’ll continue to attack,” Quintana added. “He’s human like the others.”