L’ALPE D’HUEZ, France — Chris Froome of Britain, the leader of Team Sky, effectively won the Tour de France on Saturday. All that remains for Froome, who also won the Tour in 2013, is to make it safely through the final stage in Paris, which is largely ceremonial.
But Froome’s performance in Saturday’s stage, the 20th, was more desperate than triumphant.
Froome was unable to follow the Colombian climber Nairo Quintana on the switchbacks — the second day in a row that Quintana managed to escape from Froome, who had seemed so strong for most of the Tour that there arose unsubstantiated allegations that he must be doping or using a tiny electric motor on his bike.