Chris Froome was eager to test himself against Alberto Contador in today's first big mountain stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné and the Brit put in repeated attacks. In the end, the Spaniard was unable to come around him and deny the Brit the stage win but the Tour de France champion admitted that his biggest Tour rival will be a great threat. 

Chris Froome dug deep to claim a second consecutive stage win at the Criterium du Dauphine and extended his race lead in spectacular style.

Team Sky shepherded the race leader onto the steep final Col du Beal climb before Froome completed the job, attacking multiple times on the tough slopes to clinch a rousing victory. Froome went toe to toe with Alberto Contador on the hors-categorie peak, pushing clear in the final metres to take the win and add bonus seconds to his race lead, pushing the advantage out to 12 seconds.

It was Froome’s initial acceleration with 5km to go which blew apart the lead group, with only Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) able to follow the initial burst before a select group of six riders formed on the way up the climb.

Froome, who also claimed the lead in the points jersey, measured his efforts as he shut down moves from Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), distancing Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) with a final burst heading under the flame rouge.

A battle of will and legs saw Froome just edge across the line ahead of the Spaniard, with Kelderman and Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) next home, four and 10 seconds down respectively.

The victory also brought about a victory on its race debut for the Pinarello, Jaguar and Team Sky partnership bike - the F8.

After the stage Froome heaped praise onto his team-mates after a tough and sweltering day in the saddle.

“It was a really, really tough day today but the team did a really big job," he confirmed. "It was hot out there, you could see a lot of the guys salting up, I think this is the first real hot day we’ve had this year in these kind of conditions, but the team did a really good job, so I’m really happy to be able to get the stage victory to be able to say thank you to them.”

“It’s shaping up to be a really exciting race, when Nieve pulled off I thought ‘ok’, this is the first time I’ve done a mountain top finish against my biggest rivals in a really long time now so let’s open things up and let’s see where everyone’s at and it seemed that Alberto came after me. He was able to hold my wheel, I wouldn’t say easily but I couldn’t shake him and it’s interesting to see a few other guys jumping around, Talansky, Kelderman, they put in a few good attacks there.

“I think in the final Alberto and I coming up to the line I think both of us were going as hard as we could. I like to think if he’d had any more he would have come around me but he’s definitely in really good condition.

“I gave everything today. In such a climb, it became a great battle with Alberto Contador. We rode flat out. It was really tough between the two of us. I've tried to attack him a couple of times but he was very strong. Everyone here is almost at the same level as at the Tour de France. Today it was our first duel with the two of us in form. I'm delighted to win in these circumstances.”