Chris Froome all but secured victory in the 2015 Tour de France after a battling ride on stage 20 saw the race decided on Alpe d'Huez.

The Brit had the constant support of his Team Sky team-mates across a short but brutally tough penultimate stage and was able to limit his losses to crest the final mountain in fifth place.

With nearest rival Nairo Quintana attacking repeatedly on the famous Alpine climb, Froome was able to settle into a rhythm on the wheel of team-mates Wout Poels and Richie Porte to not only retain the yellow jersey, but carry an advantage of one minute and 12 seconds into Paris on Sunday.

Team Sky gave every last bit of energy for the cause as the Movistar team looked to throw everything at the race leader on what is effectively the final day of racing for the general classification.

Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Leopold König set an early tempo as the race departed Modane and as the peloton hit the climb of the Col de la Croix de Fer. Attacks soon came and Nicolas Roche and Porte dug deep to set a tempo as the race temporarily blew apart. Froome shut the gap over the top of the climb, adding points to what would eventually prove to be a winning total in the King of the Mountains competition.

Geraint Thomas, Poels, Porte and Roche all battled back on the descent to support Froome on the approach to the 13.8km fan-lined finale, keeping the pace high along the valley road.

Again Quintana attacked, finally pushing clear on Alpe d'Huez with his fourth acceleration to link up with team-mate Alejandro Valverde. Despite being put under intense pressure Team Sky controlled the situation, with Poels and Porte (who finished seventh and ninth over the line) setting a consistent tempo before Froome eventually pushed on to the finish.

Up ahead a race within a race played out as Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) held on to claim the stage win out of the breakaway, holding on by just 18 seconds over Quintana. A huge day puts Froome on the verge of a second Tour title after success in 2013, with Team Sky all set for a third victory in the world's biggest bike race after Bradley Wiggins's win in 2012.

After the stage Froome admitted that he had been pushed hard in the finale as he battled to make sure of his yellow jersey.

"It's unreal. I'm sure I haven't quite take it all on board yet. It's an unbelievable feeling to be sitting here still wearing this jersey," said the 30 year old.

"There were so many things going through my mind going up that last climb. There were moments where I thought, 'hold on a second I could be in danger here'. But then always having my team-mates with me and having Wout and Richie there all the way until the end. Especially after the job all the guys had done today. The job they've done has saved my yellow jersey. We were obviously trying to control Nairo Quintana. I thought of all the sacrifices and the weeks of training camps. Time away from my wife and my family. Everything starts going through your head and I was on my limit there. I was hurting going up that last climb. But I just had to find something else just to keep pushing and get through today.

"It was only 110km but it felt like it was 300! It was such a hard stage! It's unreal. Winning the Tour again gives me an unbelievable feeling. Each Tour is different in its own way.

“What can I say, it’s an amazing, amazing feeling to still be here in yellow this evening, we have to get to Paris tomorrow with no issues, but from the racing side of things, that’s done now. We faced all challenges over almost three weeks of racing. Massive thanks to teammates for the work they’ve put in over the last few weeks. I think of little points along the way, chipping away getting yellow and the final advantage I have to day, it’s them I have to thank for this position.

“To win the Tour once was a dream, to come back and do it a second time is more than I ever could imagine.”

“I won’t lie if I say that there were a few moments when I thought that this was going to be tough. We were getting time checks every few minutes and it was comforting to see that it wasn’t jumping up really quickly. It was manageable especially with the way that Richie and Wout Poels were pulling up the climb. I was on my limit I thought I was dying a thousand deaths. Having teammates make it easier and I was able to limit my losses.

“It’s hard to compare one Tour to another as both are incredibly special, I feel as if this year, a second time for us as a team we have been up against with so much going on in background, away from the race, which could have taken the focus away from what we needed to achieve in terms of racing, as a group, it brought us closer together as a team. I didn’t come to Semnoz on stage 20 in the 2013 Tour feeling like I would lose the yellow jersey, it’s a huge relief today because there were moments that I was in difficulty on the first climb already and the last climb.

“I just want to thanks the guys for putting up with the rubbish over the last few weeks and putting up with the task at hand. We are going to have a good reason to celebrate tomorrow night.

“I see Nairo being one of those guys to give me a hard time in the next few Tour de Frances. Of course he has age on his side, he’s five years younger than me. I don’t know how long we’ll have Alberto Contador, he says that he wants to continue for one more year. There will always be young riders coming up and I see Nairo being one.

“I think I’ve made it very clear that I had chosen that stage to make my move three weeks before. When I went to see La Pierre-Saint-Martin in the recon, I was with Nicolas Roche and Nicolas Portal and I said that I would attack here and I did exactly that in the race. Nairo Quintana said he wanted to attack in the Alps, and he did, my tactic was to try and hang on. I think it’s quite straightforward.

“I hoped that by the time I reached the Alps, I’d have an advantage I could defend and that’s how it worked out in the end and we can be pretty happy with that.

“What gets me out of bed in the morning, is I love riding my bike, pushing my body to limits, I love the freedom cycling gives you. As long as my body allows me, I’ll set the goal to do this at 35, 36 or 38 maybe, who knows? If I can carry on, I will definitely try.”

"Froome was controlled yesterday, but today I think he just rode it," Geraint Thomas said. We knew he had that advantage and it was just a matter of not blowing up and not getting too carried away. We knew Quintana would attack because he’s strong. But, yeah, it worked out perfect.

"Just not go into the red, not panic. Ride the power that you know you can. The main thing was not blowing up if he does gain time slowly. We could hear on the radio, you now, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, but the kilometres were ticking down pretty quickly as well, so perfect.

"He is super confident and he has that belief. He knows his body really well and he knows how fast to push himself. Everyone knew we had to get over that first climb, and everyone dug deep to have four of us, yeah, it was four wasn’t it, including Chris. It was perfect. We just rode to the bottom of the climb and then it was over to Wout and Richie. Richie really came up well today. He’s had a few ups and downs this Tour, but when it really mattered he was there. I think we can all be proud. We all stuck in and really gave each other everything."

“It was unbelievably hard," Porte said. "Chris was not at his best today but it's nice to see Thibaut win. It's a great day for French cycling as well. The last three weeks were very hard, we had to defend the jersey for 18 days. Movistar tried everything today but to finish this way is just fantastic. Chris is a good friend for me, I was fighting so hard. I'm proud to have been the last man to fight by his side.”

Team Sky Team Principal Dave Brailsford heaped praise on Froome and the entire team but admitted that his riders had been worked hard on the final day in the Alps.

"It was a bit close in the end. After everything he has endured and put up with in the last few weeks Chris has shown real mettle and what it's all about. I don't think many people get to see what we see every day - and he's shown it in this race. He's a deserved winner and a credit to Britain," he told ITV.

"I think we knew what was coming. We had a bit of a bad day yesterday as a team. Wout saved the day really yesterday and he deserves a lot of credit for that. But today the lads were really gee'd up for it and they weren't going to make a mistake. They weren't going to throw that away and I thought they rode superbly. Richie Porte, whose been really ill for the last few days - he bounced back there today put a fantastic shift. All the lads they've been brilliant for three weeks. It's nice to win it.

"What I've known about Chris is that he is the most unbelievable competitor. He's the most polite, nice guy off the bike, but on the bike he is such a resilient character. I don't think I've ever met anyone like him. He's perfect for the job, but he deserves more credit than he gets. He's a true champion."