Team Sky leader Chris Froome pulled off a virtuoso display to first catch a dangerous breakaway on the concluding ascent to Les Diablerets and then surge clear alongside Slovenia’s Simon Spilak (Katusha) who had launched a dangerous attack which threatened Froome’s overall lead.

Subsequently Spilak went on to take the stage victory, with Froome crossing the line second at Spilak’s back wheel, one minutes and three seconds ahead of a chasing group containing Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard) and Movistar duo Alejandro Valverde and Rui Costa.

Thereby the Briton increased his lead over Spilak, who moved into second overall, by 47 seconds, with Costa, who sprinted to third on the stage, moving up to third overall, 1:21 back.

Once again Team Sky rode hard and selflessly to defend yellow, Vasil Kiryienka, David López and finally Richie Porte keeping the pace high on the crucial final ascent.

Afterwards Froome told the Sky website: “I don’t think ‘impressive’ is enough to describe how they have been all week. They have really done a super job keeping me in front and today was another demonstration of that.

“Everyone did a super job and, for me, it was just to follow Spilak over the last climb. Once we were over the top, I think both of us understood very quickly that my objective was the general classification and his objective was to go for the stage win, so we worked well together and took a good advantage coming into the final [km]."