Chris Froome came through the treacherous stage four cobbles unscathed at the Tour de France and remains in a fantastic position despite losing the yellow jersey.  

Froome didn’t put a foot wrong on the seven sections of pavé that splintered the peloton in the closing stages, and benefitted from some unbelievable support from his team-mates on the longest day of the race.

The 2013 Tour winner remained glued to Geraint Thomas’s wheel as he blazed a trail before him, and crossed the finish line just three seconds down after Tony Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) had escaped to victory 3.5 kilometres from home.

Although that result meant Martin opened up a 12-second lead on Froome at the top of the overall standings, Froome remains ahead of all his main rivals and is ideally perfectly placed to take the yellow jersey back once the race hits the mountains.

Froome cut a very satisfied figure when he was interviewed after the stage, and praised Martin on achieving his first-ever maillot jaune.

He said: “I wasn’t trying to show how strong I was on the cobbles today, it was about staying out of trouble. When it got over 200km it was more about who had the legs, and after the last section I had Geraint ahead of me so we thought ‘why not?’, and I had a little attack. My legs felt good but unfortunately it all came back together.

“Congratulations to Tony [Martin] for his late attack. He’s been really close to the yellow jersey for a few days now and he deserves this after all the hard work he’s put in.

“I’m not concerned about losing the yellow jersey. There’s a long way to go, and while Tony’s a great time triallist, he’s not going to be there in the mountains, so I’m happy to see the jersey go to him rather than any of the big overall rivals.

“This is the perfect situation for us and it will hopefully mean my guys can have a bit of a rest over the next few days now.”

As always, Froome also reserved special praise for his team-mates, and was relieved to have ticked another potentially difficult day off the list.

“I have to thank them,” he added. “They did a great job today, and even Richie Porte was getting stuck in on that first section of cobbles.

“We can all let off a big sigh of relief after today. It was a stressful stage and sketchy on the cobbles, and I know we’ll all be sleeping a lot better tonight.”

The 223.5km trek from Seraing saw four riders move clear from the gun, and although their advantage stretched over nine minutes at one point, Team Sky gradually chipped away at that lead with several riders taking huge turns on the front.

The escapees were just over a minute ahead as Richie Porte led the peloton over the first sector of cobbles, and their lead had evaporated entirely by the time they hit the next section of stones.

The pace continued to ramp up from thereon in, with Thomas and Nicolas Roche ensuring Froome was well protected as the peloton was gradually whittled down on the punishing parcours.

As the likes of Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) suffered disastrous days, Froome excelled and was only one of 35 riders left in contention on the fast approach to Cambrai.

Froome even launched an attack of his own before Martin made the move that counted and achieved his landmark win.