Chris Froome hadn't expected to come under attack in today's stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné and was surprised when Alberto Contador launched a surprise move on a descent. Having used his strong team to neutralize the attack, the Brit wondered whether the Spaniard's attack was caused by a lack or surplus of confidence.

Team Sky fought off a flurry of late attacks on the fifth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine to ensure Chris Froome’s lead remained firmly intact.

Vasil Kiryienka, Xabier Zandio and Danny Pate battled hard to keep a 17-man breakaway in check over the first five ascents, and then David Lopez, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte combined brilliantly to bring Alberto Contador back after he sprung a surprise move before the final climb of the day.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider surged clear on the descent of the Col de la Morte, but was reeled in 17.7km from home as he neared the summit of the Cote de Laffrey.

As the vastly-reduced peloton headed towards the finish in La Mure, Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) and Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) also chipped off the front, but Mikel Nieve and Froome led a determined pursuit in the last 4km to ensure the yellow jersey rolled home just three seconds behind that duo, and 17 seconds down on stage winner Simon Spilak.

Spilak had formed part of the initial 17-man move but dropped his rivals on the penultimate descent before solo-ing home for Katusha's second win in the space of two days.

Those results ensured Froome remains 12 seconds ahead of Contador at the top of the overall standings, although Kelderman now sits level on time with Contador as a result of the six bonus seconds he accrued at the line.

After the stage, Froome admitted it had been tougher than he’d anticipated, but was delighted with the way his team-mates had responded to keep him in the leader’s jersey.

He said: “Sometimes it’s the days that don’t look so hard on paper that turn out to be the really tough ones and today was non-stop. It took 85km for the breakaway to form and then Contador went up the road to put us under pressure. I still had four team-mates at that point though which meant I could stay calm in the knowledge they would pull him back.

"All of them did well and Richie Porte stepped up really well today. Personally I'm feeling pretty good on the bike. We also had to chase Kelderman at the end because anyone up there on GC is a rival to us. But it's going to be another race on Saturday in the big mountains.

“I’m hugely proud of the guys today, they did such a massive job and it gives us a lot of confidence moving forward.

“I’m feeling tired right now but I’m sure everyone will be tired after the day we’ve had. The team is coming together really well this week and they all stepped up again today.”

While Froome also admitted that Contador’s late attack had caught him off guard, he was nonplussed by the move and is prepared to dig deep on a tough final weekend in order to defend his jersey.

He added: “Either Alberto’s not so confident about the weekend, or he feels very confident and is able to attack anywhere. That’s what I respect about him; he does make the race entertaining and is prepared to take it up on the climbs and the descents.

“We didn’t expect him to attack, we were expecting him to save it for Saturday, and the climbs on that day will be a lot more telling. I didn’t have to do a lot today because of how my team rode, and that will serve me well for the weekend.

“I won’t be holding anything back there in the fear of going too deep before the Tour [de France]. Any big efforts this week are only going to help in preparation for the Tour, and the Dauphine is the perfect opportunity to test our legs and try some big moves.”