MONT-SAINT-MICHEL, France

Going down a row of television cameras, answering one question after another, the wearer of the Tour de France’s yellow jersey never veered off message.

Yes, said Chris Froome, he was delighted to have increased his race lead with a super-fast ride in the time trial. But, no, he added, the Tour isn’t over yet because the road to Paris still is long.

Froome is right about the long part – Paris still is 1,661 kilometers (1,032 miles) away. But if Froome really believes there is any doubt that he will be standing on top of the podium on the Champs-Élysées on July 21, then he is part of a quickly shrinking minority. After Wednesday’s time trial race against the clock to the medieval abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel – among the most beautiful backdrops ever visited by the 110-year-old Tour – the Briton has a lead that now appears unassailable.

Looking like spacemen in their aerodynamic teardrop-shaped helmets and riding special go-fast bikes to better slice through the air, the 182 riders set off one after another from the Normandy town of Avranches, which the forces of U.S. Gen. George S. Patton liberated in World War II.

Froome, as race leader, set out last. His skin-tight racing suit was yellow, so was his saddle, parts of his bike frame and a thick stripe down the middle of his otherwise black helmet. He puffed out his cheeks and licked his lips. The race starter held up five fingers and counted down. When the fingers were folded away, Froome raced off, powering past crowds several rows deep.

Through a patchwork of fields green and gold he rode. Through tidal marshlands where sheep graze, giving their meat a tang of saltiness from the sea. Through picture-postcard villages of cottages built of dark granite.

Not that he noticed.

“During the race, you can’t really take any of that in at all,” he said. “You go into tunnel vision, and it’s just a blur of noise and color around you.”

But with each push on his pedals, Froome’s lead over his rivals grew.

By the end, with Mont-Saint-Michel rising majestically in front of him from an islet off the Brittany coast, Froome wasn’t far from catching Alejandro Valverde, even though the Spaniard set off three minutes earlier than him from Avranches.

As Valverde was crossing the line in front of the abbey called the “Wonder of the West,” the crowds already could be heard cheering for Froome, who zoomed in just one minute later.

Although Valverde still is Froome’s closest rival, it’s really no longer close. Froome’s lead over the Spaniard more than doubled to 3 minutes, 25 seconds. At the Tour, that might as well be light years. Froome would have to crash, suffer some other mishap or get sick and melt down on the towering Mont Ventoux and in the Alps next week for his rivals to catch him.

“Once we get into the Alps, there’s a run of a few days, back to back, which are going to be very hard,” he said. “I’m sure other teams are really going to test us.”

For the moment, two-time champion Alberto Contador still isn’t ready to surrender to Froome – even though he’s essentially racing for second place. The time trials at this 100th Tour were shortened from those last year to try to maintain suspense in the outcome. But Contador still lost more than two minutes to Froome on the 33-kilometer (20-mile) course. He now is 3:54 behind Froome in fourth place. Dutch rider Bauke Mollema is third, 3:37 behind Froome.

“No one’s won the Tour de France yet, and no one’s lost it. We have to get to Paris yet,” said Contador, perhaps more in hope than conviction. “Chris Froome is in impressive form and is a great climber, but there are still many stages left.”

The winner of Stage 11 was time trial world champion Tony Martin. The German collapsed exhausted after crossing the line and lay face-up on the asphalt, a towel covering his eyes, before slowly climbing back to his feet. A kid immediately got him to cough up an autograph.

Martin’s white world champion’s jersey with rainbow stripes was so drenched with sweat that it turned translucent, revealing underneath scabs on his skin from a terrifying crash Stage 1. Martin looked like he had been attacked by a vegetable peeler after that pileup because he lost so much skin on his back from scrapping along the asphalt. The pain robbed him of sleep. His mother, Bettina Martin, said she was “very shocked, very worried.”

But because the Tour isn’t just any old race, Martin said he felt compelled to continue after doctors gave the OK to do so. It also helped that he had conditioned himself before the race to expect a crash.

“I kept in mind before the Tour that I would crash one or two times in the first week. It’s more or less usual to crash. So if you are ready for it, I think with a lot of morale, I think you can survive this.”

The only ugliness on this otherwise spectacular stage was that a roadside spectator apparently sprayed urine at British rider Mark Cavendish as he was riding the course, said Patrick Lefevere, manager of his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team.

Froome noted that one of the attractions of cycling is that spectators get close to the athletes. The Cavendish incident “ruins the whole atmosphere.”

Associated Press Writer Jamey Keaten and AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire contributed to this report.

Tour de France

MONT-SAINT-MICHEL, France – A brief look at Wednesday’s 11th stage of the 100th Tour de France:

Stage: The 11th stage was an individual time trial on a scenic route in Normandy over 20.5 miles from Avranches to the medieval walled town of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Winner: Tony Martin. The two-time world time trial champion won the stage in 36 minutes, 29 seconds. He finished 12 seconds ahead of race leader Chris Froome, who was the only rider within one minute of the German.

Yellow Jersey: Chris Froome. The British rider, who finished second overall to countryman Bradley Wiggins last year, had a stellar day. He extended his overall lead to 3:25 over Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, 3:37 over Dutchman Bauke Mollema and 3:54 over two-time former champion Alberto Contador of Spain.

Stat of the Day: 6 minutes, 54 seconds. The already huge gap between race leader Chris Froome and 2011 Tour champion Cadel Evans of Australia.

Quote of the Day: “To do something disrespectful like that is really sad and ruins the whole atmosphere,” Froome said after hearing that a spectator threw urine at British sprinter Mark Cavendish during the stage.

Thursday’s Stage: Stage 12 is the first of two days of flat stages for sprinters. It takes riders on a 135.5-mile route from Figures to Tours in the Loire valley, a picturesque region dotted with ancient chateaux and vineyards.

Associated Press