Today’s stage didn’t offer any opportunities for the GC favourites to challenge each other. Crosswinds could have caused the field to fall apart into echelons on the last 30 km along the coast, but Team Sky was attentive and kept Chris Froome safe when Team Saxo-Tinkoff hit the front.

“It was another day where there was a bit of nervousness with all the talk about crosswinds in the final but my guys did a superb job keeping me up front,” the yellow jersey commented. “All day the guys were just chipping away and doing what was needed without losing any time.”

Froome was thankful to one of his teammates in particular: “Ian Stannard is an absolute bear in those types of conditions and he kept me out of trouble. Ian is a big guy, there's a lot of slipstream behind him and I enjoy staying on his wheel. He really knows how to ride in the crosswinds and, being one of the Classics guys, he's really good at positioning in the peloton.”

The British team had expected the attempts to split the peloton, Froome continued: “We saw Saxo-Tinkoff come right on the front as soon as there was a bit of crosswinds in the final, and I’d have expected them to go on the offensive if the opportunity arose. That chance didn’t emerge, but it made us aware that this isn’t going to be an easy ride to Paris and that every day we have in yellow is an absolute honour.”

Froome is a big favourite for tomorrow’s 33 km test against the clock, but he was stressed that the stage win was of secondary importance to him: “I'm not really going for a stage win. If I can extend my lead in the general classification, or hold onto my lead, that would be 100 per cent fine by me. I'm not looking at my opponents for tomorrow's stage; I'm just going to go out there and try to do the best time trial that I can do on the day. Then we’ll sit down tomorrow evening, have a look at the results, and re-evaluate things from there. The course is fast and flat and hopefully a good one for me.”