It came as a surprise to most when big favourite Chris Froome (Sky) suddenly attacked on the final climb in today's second stage of the Tour de France, dangling off the front for a little while before being reabsorbed by the peloton. Afterwards, the Brit explained that the sole purpose had been to stay safe on the tricky descent.

It is not often that the big race favourite attacks on a category 3 climb in the second stage of the Tour de France but that was exactly what happened today when Chris Froome suddenly moved clear just over the top of the late Cote du Salario.

The Brit set off in pursuit of Cyril Gautier (Europcar) on the descent but Saxo-Tinkoff made sure to quickly bring back the big rivals of Alberto Contador. Nonetheless, it was mission accomplished as the sole purpose had been to stay out of trouble.

"With that little climb about 10km from the finish - I knew the descent was tricky and dangerous", he said. "I was on the front with Richie and I thought it might be a good time, just to push on a little bit, get ahead and take the descent at my own pace and stay out of trouble.  It's always good to keep people on their toes."

Teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen had a go in the sprint and finished 5th on the stage and that result added to another incident-free stage saw Froome declare himself satisfied with the day's proceedings.

"The main objective for us was to stay out of trouble today, stay at the front, and not lose any time to the main contenders," he said. "Eddie [Boasson Hagen] was there at the end and was given the freedom to have a go at the sprint, and he ended up with fifth. All-in-all it was a good stage for us having kept our places on the GC and allowing Eddie to give it a go."
 

The day had been a rough one for Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard who had both crashed hard in the dramatic first stage. Both got through the day safely and hopes to see improvement in the coming stages.

“I remember flipping straight over and landing straight on my back," Thomas said. "That was it – just that one impact. I didn’t slide so it was a heavy fall. It took me a while to get up. A lot of the time you can get straight back up but it took me a few minutes.”

"Hopefully it’s only up from here," Stannard said. "Yesterday was pretty flat but turned out to be more difficult than we wanted. Today wasn’t easy and tomorrow is going to be a lot harder for sure. That said we're still looking forward to the rest of the race."

Team Sky had led the peloton onto the final climb as Vasil Kiryienka set the pace on the lower slopes. Later Boasson Hagen and Richie Porte had also taken turns and sports director Nicolas Portal praised the teamwork.

 “The guys did an amazing job, especially Kiri (Kiryenka) who was very impressive," he said. "Eddie and Richie also set a good pace on the climb. Ian and Geraint did well to battle through the stage after their crashes yesterday and both showed a lot of heart."

Despite Portal's apparent joy, it must have been somewhat of a concern to see two of the team's best climbers, Kanstantsin Siutsou and David Lopez, both lose contact with the peloton during today's stage. Tomorrow, the team even faces a harder test as the final stage in Corsica has the potential to produce another shake-up of the general classification.

 “Tomorrow should be another tough stage, probably harder than today,"Portal said. "The climbs aren’t long but there is very little flat terrain. As always we’ll take it day by day and see where we are.”
 

Starting at 12.30, you can follow the entire stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.