Chris Froome leapt to fifth in the standings at the Criterium du Dauphine after taking third place on the first mountains test.

Froome benefitted from some phenomenal work by his team-mates on the two final climbs, and then let rip in the last 1.5km to fire himself into contention for the yellow and blue jersey.

The 2013 champion crossed the line 40 seconds down on Romain Bardet, who launched his winning attack near the top of the penultimate climb before hanging on for a hard-fought victory.

Tejay van Garderen was also celebrating, and his second-placed finish – four seconds ahead of Froome - saw him open up an 18-second lead over Benat Intxausti at the top of the general classification.

The stage was an exact replica of the route the peloton will face on the 17th stage of next month’s Tour de France and seven riders had led the way before the action ramped up on the Col d’Allos.

That was when Team Sky turned up the heat, and Ian Boswell produced a huge turn to whittle the peloton down and bring the breakaway back shortly before the top. No sooner had he done that though when Bardet made his decisive move.

The Frenchman opened up a slender gap over the summit, but hit the fifth and final climb over a minute ahead after a brave display of descending.

Boswell, Woet Poels and Nicolas Roche battled fiercely to reduce those losses on the last drag to Pra Loup, and the pace they set saw the likes of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) shelled from the bunch.

Froome then fired off the front with the flamme rouge in sight, and only van Garderen (BMC Racing) and Intxausti (Movistar) could muster a response.

Van Garderen managed to slip past Froome in the closing stages, and the American’s efforts were rewarded with the leader’s jersey. The day belonged to Bardet however, with the AG2R man wrapping up his first win of the season in impressive style.

“It was definitely an eventful stage,” Froome told reporters at the finish. “It’s a good feeling to be back in the mountains again and this is what we’ve trained for and this is what the racing is all about for us. I was third today, of course I would have preferred to go one or two better but I’m happy with the feelings.

“The team did a fantastic job today; they took it on, on the penultimate climb and made it really hard. Ian Boswell rode out of his skin to make the race as tricky as possible and try to set it up for me to make a move in the final.

“It’s too soon to say anything about the Tour de France. The legs are feeling good and I was happy to be up there but hearing on the radio that contenders like Valverde and Nibali were dropped, that was music to our ears. The Tour is still far away and we’re still focused on here, as this race is important in its own right.

“I started running out of steam in that last kilometre but up until then the legs felt good. It wasn’t a particularly steep climb but the signs are good, especially looking forward to the longer climbs to come.”