A breakaway starting halfway through the last climb, with Jakob Fuglsang (AST) and Dan Martin (GRS), granted the Irishman the stage victory, while the favourites' group, with Valverde, Quintana and Costa, came across the finish just 20 seconds back.

The final result sees Alejandro Valverde in 2nd place overall, 1’25” down on Froome, and makes Quintana (7th, still leader of the Young Riders' competition) and Costa (10th) jump a place higher in the GC thanks to Porte losing more than 15 minutes at the finish.

"With all hardness and the toll that yesterday's stage took on us we knew that today's stage was going to be hard, and it really was,” Rui Costa explained. “Everything broke into pieces on the first climb: we were able to isolate Froome and we tried in all ways to create a breakaway and keep the pace high. It wasn't possible, but we still tried to work hard until the final climb. The pace put by Nairo was too much for me and I dropped, but was able to bridge with 1.5km left, and tried to help in the finale as much as I could.

"It was sad not to be able to contest the stage, but I think we did well: the team was really strong, we took Porte out of contention and we must be calm and happy. Nairo, Alejandro [Valverde] and I are feeling well - we didn't have any bad crashes and we're ready to fight in the next stages. I personally didn't lose much time and think I can be useful for the squad, depending on the tactics that might be necessitated during the remainder of the race. We three will push as much as we can to stay on top of the standings and also winning the teams' overall. It would be wonderful to get that prize in Paris. Now it's time to rest - we'll see what happens from Tuesday."