Chris Froome's grip on Tour de France now ironclad after dominant Stage 17 time trial display

CHRIS Froome's grip on the Tour de France is now ironclad after he won his fourth stage with a dominant time trial display.

Chris Froome

CHRIS Froome's grip on the Tour de France is now ironclad after the Englishman won his fourth stage of the centenary tour with a dominant time trial display.

Froome (Sky) beat Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) by 9sec over 32km from Embrum, coping superbly with heavy rain on a course that claimed several crash victims.

Froome extended his overall lead to 4min,34sec as Contador moved into second place ahead of teammate Roman Kreuziger (4.51).

CONTADOR MUST TAKE SOME BIG RISKS

Contador and Kreuziger overtook Belkin's Bauke Mollema after the Dutchman compounded an already tentative showing by crashing into the barriers 2km from the finish, slumping from second to fourth overall.

Michael Rogers was Australia's best performer, finishing 13th on the stage to be 13th overall, 13.19 down.

Cadel Evans delivered on his pre-stage promise to take it easy, rolling across the line 8min,4sec slower than Froome and dropping to 18th on the general classification in the process.

Even by Tour de France standards, this was a murderous time trial - 17 stages into the 3400km marathon.

Driven to make the world's hardest bike race even more difficult, Tour officials inserted two sadistic climbs.

The Cote de Puy-Saniere stretched 6.4km at an average gradient of 6 per cent and loomed only 6.5km into the course.

Cadel Evans

And the Cote de Reallon after 20km was no easier with a 6.9km ramp at more than 6.3 per cent.

Given the conditions - hot and still before rain arrived - most of the field opted for normal race set-up to minimise effort.

Only a few desperate for stage success opted for the aero position on time trial bikes, while others changed bikes on the course.

The deteriorating conditions meant the early finishers should have had a significant advantage as torrential rain made descending and cornering treacherous.

Leiuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) set the early standard, covering the course in 54.02 before he was displaced as leader by Spain's Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel) who crossed the line 4secs faster.

But the peloton's heavy hitters soon pushed the pair down the order.

American Tejay van Garderen brightened the BMC gloom with a sizzling 53.24 to move to the top of the stage classification.

Then it was Movistar Alejandro Valverde's turn, rocketing over the course in 52.03 before his time was bested by Katusha's Joaquim Rodriguez's 51.43.

Contador (51.42) produced a belter before Froome’s decision to change to a time trial bike after the last climb to Cote de Reallon paid dividends as he surged home in in 51.33.

Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R) was forced to abandon the Tour after a miserable stage.

The Frenchman started the day in ninth place, but fractured a collarbone while out training on the course.

Peraud decided to continue in the race after being diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture of the clavicle.

But he crashed for a second time - this time in race conditions - and landed on his injured shoulder only 2km from the finish in Chorges and withdrew from the Tour.

Replays of the incident showed the Frenchman skidding out on a white painted kangaroo on a right-hand bend.

Re-live the Stage 17 time trial from Embrun to Chorges in the window below.