The Team Sky leader was isolated early on without team-mates on a ruthless parcours in the Pyrenees but rose to the occasion in the face of enormous forces to defend his race lead in style.

Froome saw off the collective strength of Team Movistar and Team Saxo-Tinkoff to finish in an elite group of favourites, salvaging a rough day for Team Sky to open out an advantage of one minute and 25 seconds over nearest rival Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) heading into the rest day.

After pulling on the yellow jersey Froome admitted: “I won’t lie that was a really hard day. One of the hardest days I’ve ever had on the bike,” the yellow jersey admitted on the Sky website.

“I did feel in control in that lead group. A lot of guys have got different things that they are racing for which meant there was reason for them to ride. So I think tactically it ended up being a day where everyone could actually just sit on the wheels and follow the respective leaders of those teams."

Although he was secluded for most of the day Froome added: “I think it’s quite normal given all the work my team-mates did for me yesterday that they were feeling it a bit this morning. They did an extremely big job yesterday to get me into the yellow jersey. They are human and they can’t keep doing that every day. Some days you can be there and some days you can’t. That’s bike racing.”